Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a normal reaction to an overwhelming situation.  When the mind is faced with a situation too intense to handle, it takes in the circumstances without resolving them.  The circumstances "get stuck" in the mind and the sufferer can't let go of the experience. Such overwhelming, traumatic events include witnessing death or serious injury, experiencing the threat of death or serious injury, or just learning of such an event.  You do not have to be the victim of the threat or injury to be traumatized.  All-too-frequent situations that are examples of such events are: the death of someone you know, serious accidents, natural disasters, personal assaults, war, rape, incest.

The symptoms experienced by individuals with PTSD vary from person to person but include some combination of:

Onset of symptoms can occur almost immediately after the traumatic event, or they can occur weeks-to-years later.
 

A number of treatments are available, falling into two broad categories:

Medication:  antidepressants, anti-anxiety agents, mood stabilizers
Psychotherapy:  insight-oriented therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (e.g. relaxation, desensitization, flooding), Eye
                 Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), hypnosis

Untreated, PTSD tends to undermine a person's life.  This can occur dramatically, because a person tolerates little of their current life experience or becomes suicidal, or gradually by keeping a person from getting close to others or taking emotional risks.  People often fear treatment because they fear having to talk about something that they'd rather avoid.  But some current treatments require very little risk, such as medications and EMDR.