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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Summary

Decent Essays

Maddi Cummings
Western Wyoming Community College
Abnormal Psychology 2340
Bret La Fond
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Summary
It’s not uncommon to feel fearful, especially when faced with a traumatic event. The feeling of fear triggers a sympathetic nervous system response leading to drastic changes throughout the entire body. Changes throughout the body when encountering fear are merely to protect a person, urging them to participate in a fight or to flee for their life. Throughout life, everyone will face some degree of trauma, but not everyone will experience prolonged psychological distress because of it. Persistent psychological distress after trauma is called posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD.
PTSD comes with serious symptoms, not …show more content…

Children younger than 6 have many different symptoms like severe separation anxiety, whimpering and complete immobility. Young children are not only affected by traumatic events

themselves, but are also greatly affected by the way a parent or caregiver reacts to a traumatic event. Consistent and stable support from this person is imperative.
The symptoms from above must be experienced for a month or more before diagnosis of
PTSD can be confirmed because some victims experience shortened distress, called acute stress disorder. Sexual assault, witnessing violence and combat are most commonly used as examples that lead to this disorder. Being educated on PTSD is important in order to recognize the symptoms and seek treatment before it’s too late. Reassurance that PTSD is a normal reaction to trauma is important for the victim so they can move past self-blame and properly deal with the traumatic situation.
Treatment practiced for PTSD today is evidence based and combines many forms of therapy. A mixture of cognitive and behavioral therapy is shown the help symptoms improve.
For example, exposure therapy is known for its high success rate and allows the victim

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