Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Signs and Causes of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
What is it?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental disorder triggered by seeing or experiencing a terrifying event.
Symptoms
- being startled easily
- feeling tense or on edge
- having a hard time sleeping
- angry outbursts
- staying out of places that remind you of that event
- feeling strong guilt, depression, or worry
- losing interest in activities you enjoyed in the past
- flashbacks
- bad dreams
- frightening thoughts
Treatments
Doctors will most likely describe medication such as antidepressants, which help control sadness, anger, worry, and feeling numb inside.
They will also recommend therapy. There are many types of therapy that can help you such as psychotherapy, which is talk therapy, exposure therapy, and cognitive therapy.
Other facts!
- you can develop at any age
- about 7 or 8 or every 100 people will have PSTD
- in the US 86% of women will have this compared to the 30% of males
- they train dogs to help veterans with PSTD
- the diesease effects the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus of the brain
The Brain
Where PSTD effects your brain
A Veteran
A veteran fighting in a dangerous war zone.
A Dog Helping a Veteran
They trained this dog to help veterans with PSTD