Childhood Abuse Or Neglect And Genetically Such As Relative With Mental Health Problems

Because not every traumatised person develops PTSD, researchers are still trying to understand what causes, and increases, the risk of developing PTSD. So far, most of our knowledge of PTSD comes from war survivors, people who lived through concentration camps, and victims of combat from WWII, Korean and Vietnam wars (Bootzin & Ross 1988, p.176). Based on research to date it is believed that PTSD is caused by a combination of several factors including social, biological and psychological and each help contribute to our understanding of the disorder.

In today 's society, it has become prevalent that the amount of individuals suffering from mental illnesses is rapidly increasing. This paper will focus on one of the disorders associated with mental illness – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The introduction will define and describe the disorder, and the following paragraphs will discuss causes, symptoms, target populations, treatments, and theory. PTSD affects people of all ages in all walks of life. It has a debilitating effect on its victims, and studies are still being conducted to further explore its impact.

After a traumatic experience, it is typical to feel startled, restless, and disengaged. It can seem as if a person/patient can never get over what happened or feel typical again. However, by looking for treatment, connecting for help, and growing new adapting abilities, the patient can overcome PTSD and proceed onward with life. PTSD does not just come from combat experiences, this disorder can come from many things such as, serious motor vehicle crashes, natural disasters, robberies, hostage situations, and also rape, to name a few. “In the United States, physical assault is the most common stressor causing PTDS in women, while military combat is the most common PTSD stressor in men. People directly affected by the events of 9/11 or by hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi in September 2005 might develop PTSD, though fortunately most people do not” (Group, 2006). While PTSD falls greatly amongst the adult and older adult age groups, PTSD in children may trigger the onset of learning disabilities, self-mutilation or other destructive behaviors, sleep terrors, and a variety of conduct disorders. Children may also develop abnormally close attachments to their primary caretakers or other dependency behaviors in their attempts to cope with the traumatic experience (Jacqueline N. Martin, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on and

There are three primary categories of PTSD symptoms. They are hyper-arousal, re-experience and numbing. The symptom of hyper-arousal includes anger, irritability, sleeplessness, anxiety, and panic. This is the symptom that most people think of when they are exposed to PTSD sufferers. Re-experience is commonly known as flashbacks, but it can also include intrusive but seemingly real memories and nightmares. Numbing is a feeling of detachment and disconnection. The disconnection can be from feelings, loss of interest in life, and interactions with their personal circle or people in general. Withdrawal, depression and estrangement from family and friends are key tell-tell signs in defining characteristics of this symptom.

some signs or symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder are as follows efforts to avoid thoughts, avoids activities, poor memory, feeling detached, flash backs, difficulty with sleep, irritability, outbursts of anger, hypervigilance, difficulty concentrating and exaggerated startle response among other things.

Posttraumatic stress disorder is caused by "exposure to a traumatic stressor or bearing witness to such an event" (Peterson, Luethcke, Borah, Borah, & Young-McCaughan, 2011, p. 166). Patients cannot develop PTSD without this exposure. Risk factors for a client 's development of combat-related PTSD can be divided into three main categories: the trauma 's type and severity, the individual 's factors, such as age, socioeconomic status, and psychiatric and previous history, and external environmental factors (Peterson, et al.,

In the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) it gives certain criteria to be met in order for someone to be diagnosed with PTSD. For instance, an individual must have had an experience to where their own or another person’s well-being was in jeopardy. Also, the individual must have had a response of feelings of intense fear, helplessness or horror (1994). Losing their grip on reality they may not be able to separate the real from unreal and they might develop dissociate amnesia. Re-experiencing and hyperarousal are further criterions according to the DSM. All of these symptoms may lead to a negative impact on the individual’s life.

In its initial introduction, PTSD was identified as a catastrophic stressor that was caused by an even outside normal human experience such as war, torture, rape, the Holocaust, the atomic bombings and natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tornados. The initial DSM classification attempted to include such instances as divorce, failure, serious illness and rejection but ultimately did not include them as they were categorized as ordinary stressors and therefore did not meet the

Avoidance: A person may avoid a situation that could remind them of the event: Crowds, accidents, disasters, and severe

The model begins with the traumatic event which leads to the broken part of the individual who then experiences behavioral symptoms which are measured at time one and time two. Time one represents the stress reactions and time two is the manifestation of the disorder. The medical model is a single factor, main effect cause. A stressful event involves one experiencing or witnessing a serious injury, threatened death or threat to physical integrity. Another cause is changes in parts of the brain such as the amygdala and hippocampus. These causes lead to various emotional and behavioral symptoms such as disturbing thoughts, marital issues, unemployment, depressive symptomatology, diet & sleep problems, numbing, and distancing. The criteria for outcomes are direct effects, stress reactions and the dose-response relationship. A direct effect is a direct read-out of the traumatic stressor into the person’s ethological behavior between time one and two. The dose-response relationship is the dose of the trauma its relationship to the individual. The risks of the symptoms involve a robust immediate reaction and long term outcome. [Mechanism of the medical model is a continuing cause, which is the sufficiency claim.] Measuring PTSD involves three clusters of trauma which are re-experience, avoidance or hyperarousal of the traumatic condition. Victims would provide a self-report of the event. To help intervene with PTSD, there are secondary and tertiary treatments. A form of secondary treatment is a debrief of the person’s stress and exposure therapy and pharmaceutical drugs are tertiary.

PTSD used to be referred to as shell shock and battle fatigue for soldiers, but today it can affect people of all ages and all ethnic groups (Cohen 2016). Children that witness sexual abuse, adolescents that experience drive by shootings, and adults that go through natural disasters have the potential to be diagnosed with PTSD. Several recent studies have shown that trauma is fairly common in the United States. One study goes to show that over 50% of all people will experience a traumatic event some time in their lives. For women, this event is usually rape and sexual abuse. For men, it is most commonly combat exposure. Domestic violence is also a common precipitant of PTSD, but it is not as sufficiently recognized as a cause. Other causes that may lead to increased vulnerability are impairments in personal judgement, lack of supportive relationships, and previous traumatic experiences or underlying mental disorders. One common misconception is that PTSD is the immediate response to a traumatic experience. The majority of people that are exposed to a traumatic experience often develop insomnia for a short time but cope and recover fairly well. Less than 10% of people with symptoms showing PTSD go on to develop the actual disorder (Cohen

, peri- and post-trauma factors which influence the likelihood of PTSD. A history of prior

Symptoms of PTSD are categorized in four different types. The first one is reliving the traumatic event. This could involve flashbacks, nightmares, and intrusive thoughts. The second type is avoidance. They tend to avoid things that remind them of the traumatic event whether it be people, places, or even emotions. The third type is emotional numbing. They may detach themselves from loved ones, or become less interested in activities that interested them before. The final type is increased arousal. This type is common in returning veterans. They may experience increased anger and irritability and difficulty sleeping. Other symptoms could include feeling jumpy or easily startled. PTSD wasn’t recognized until 1980 as a mental disorder even though the symptoms have been observed for many years prior to this time.

Four categories of symptoms: intrusive memories, avoidance, negative changes in thinking and mood, or changes in emotional reactions. “Helping yourself,Reach out to people and others who have beat PTSD, dogs can be a big help to people with PTSD because of their playful nature.” Intrusive, upsetting memories of the event can be hard for people with PTSD. Flashbacks (acting or feeling like the event is happening again)Nightmares (either of the event or of other frightening things), feelings of intense distress when reminded of the trauma. Intense physical reactions to reminders of the event,avoiding activities, places, thoughts, or feelings that remind you of the trauma is are common and very hard to deal with. Inability to remember important aspects of the trauma, loss of interest in activities and life in general, feeling detached from others and emotionally numb,sense of a limited future (you don’t expect to live a normal lifespan, get married, have a career)("Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web.)

PTSD can be a debilitating disorder, and its symptoms can have a negative impact on a number of different areas in a person's life. In particular, PTSD can negatively affect a person's mental health, physical health, work, and relationships. The research is attempting to intensify cognitive, personality, and social protective factors and to decrease the risk factors to deflect fully-fledged PTSD after trauma.