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Ptsd And Life After Trauma Essay

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PTSD and Life after Trauma Ashley Ebersole Advanced Psychopathology Midterm 16 October 2014 PTSD and Life after Trauma Posttraumatic stress disorder is a pervasive mental disorder which affects all aspects of life. Though it is often pictured in the public eye as a disorder of the armed services, it is a heterogeneous issue that can occur in people of all backgrounds, ages, and professions. PTSD is a wide set of maladaptive and distressing symptoms that can be triggered by witnessing a horrifying or traumatic event. PTSD has a high comorbidity rate with other serious disorders such as mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders (Galatzer-Levy, Nickerson, Litz, & Marmar, 2013). Worse still, there is a significant relationship between these disorders and an increased suicide risk, which can be a serious threat for individuals with PTSD (Krysinska & Lester, 2010). In the United States, PTSD has a life time prevalence rate of close to nine percent of the population, (American Psychological Association, 2013). Part of the reason that this disorder has such a wide-reaching and varied population of sufferers is because the nature of its trigger is so diverse. Trauma is not exclusive to combat experiences, and any event, either emotional or physical, that greatly disturbs an individual can lead to serious distress and dysfunction. Trauma could result from assault, rape, abuse, natural disasters, torture, being threatened, and many other types of events (Mayo

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