The Effects Of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can result from any form of trauma a person may experience throughout their life, such as war or combat, physical or sexual assault, natural disasters, mental abuse, ect. It is also something that effects more people than commonly thought, “7.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives”. If not treated, the symptoms of PTSD can follow an individual their entire life, this potentially includes “reliving” traumatic memories in addition to many other emotional issues. Although it may be helpful, PTSD treatment can be very difficult for an individual to participate in. In order for someone to work through a traumatic experience, it is necessary that the individual reflects on many

Morris states that PTSD is often thought of as being a syndrome of remembering things too well. He adds that “the ones who ‘forget,’ they suffer later” (Morris 35).

As Ehlers and Clark the authors of the article point out, one of the PTSD syndromes the patients share is the constant pessimistic and inferior attitude and the predicament of appreciation for positivity, yet they provide no method to solve sadness, fear, guilt and shame resulted from that attitude. However, one case provided in the article, that a bus driver recovered from PTSD after being noticed that the death of an old man was not predominately caused by him but by the old man’s suicidal attempt presents an idea that by adjusting the patient’s memory, the patient could be less sensitive to the trauma. Providing the patients with reasonable alternative memories which have the ability to relieve the patient’s stress and desensitize the incident

“ Emotionless, that’s how I feel. Devoid of everything held dear. Changes neither perception nor direction, no matter how far or near. I go back to the things I know in the vain hope that it will lift me, breath life into me, give me a rush, help me and fill me. Nevertheless, what is left? I am emotionless that is how I feel.”

There have been strong experimental foundations for the treatment of PTSD, involving a range of psychological approaches. The ‘Little Albert’ experiment carried out by Watson and Rayner, (1920),

A wide variety of symptoms may be signs that you are experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder. The following are some of the most common symptoms of PTSD that you or those around you may have noticed:

may cause a person to be more susceptible to invasive memories such as ADHD, damage to the prefrontal cortex, or depression. Moreover, even if episodic memory is impaired, “conditioning and perceptual fluency associated with the experience may remain”, (Anderson) for example, producing fear of something without deliberately recalling

78, 921. Seventy eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty one. This is the number of soldiers wounded or killed in action, received an amputation, or suffered from a Traumatic Brain Injury during Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom. What this number does not include are the 39,365 cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (more commonly known as PTSD). (Department 2009) Although we usually think of war injuries as being physical, one of the most common war injuries is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the effects can be devastating to a redeploying soldier who has come in contact with severely traumatic experiences.

At one time, memory researchers believed that human memory worked like a video recorder. All one had to do was to find the right tape, play it back, and relive the memories precisely as they were originally experienced. However, subsequent research showed that this model was very inaccurate. Rather, most memories are simply forgotten and cannot be recalled. Few people have real memories of events that occurred before their 3rd birthday. For those memories that are actually remembered, the mind stores only elements of the actual events and reconstruct full memories later when the memories are recalled. The act of recalling memories can change them so that at the time of the next recall, they are somewhat modified.

Psychological consequences of a traumatic events will be the target of this literature review. An event that causes an individual to feel as though their life is being threatened or is at risk of great harm can be a direct result of traumatic experience. Often these experiences correlate with the emotions of feeling helpless, and terrified, both in which can lead towards post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Sherin & Nemeroff, 2011). According to Breslau & Kessler (2001) approximately 80% of individuals have been exposed to at least one traumatic event in their lifetime (p. #); often traumatic events include divorce, natural disasters, violence of war, as well as domestic violence.

Some may say that these drugs are a method to resort to when nothing else works, yet, there is a simple question that one must propose when talking about this subject. This question is “why do researchers need to resort to drugs instead of finding new methods to cope.” Instead of creating a drug, charged with much controversy, why doesn't humanity find a new method, this would be a simpler, and less controversial method to dealing with PTSD, and other memory-related illnesses.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have isolated proteins in the brain's "fear center." If the proteins are removed, fearful memories can be removed. Although research is still in the early stages, this work could lead to a drug or medical procedure that could eliminate the painful memories that lead to PTSD.

Regardless of the career or social engagements, individuals are always prone to traumatic events that change the perception of the world. The impact of the traumatic event lasts for varied time periods depending on several factors such as the capacity of an individual to absorb stress. Although traumatic events are a great result of war or any life threatening actions, there are several factors that amount to a traumatic event. Post-traumatic stress disorder can be described as a psychological response in regard to the experience resulting from intense traumatic events and more so those events that threaten life. Post-traumatic stress disorder can affect individuals across diverse groups of age, gender, and culture. While the concept of post-traumatic

PTSD is a mental illness that affects many men and women leaving war. It usually occurs in someone who has experienced a shocking, scary or dangerous event; i.e. war. Most of the time PTSD is a recurring illness that involves having bad dreams, flashbacks, and cognitive and mood symptoms. This mental illness can have serious effect on ones’ personality for the rest of their life. People who suffer from PTSD typically have negative thoughts about the world around them and have a loss of interest in the enjoyable activities. Currently there are many treatments for PTSD like medications and psychotherapy. Treatment for PTSD differs depending on the person and the severity of their illness (NIMH).

There are so many things that define a human being: name, hair color, eye color, skin color. However, memory plays just as big of a role in giving a person his or her identity. Memory tells the likes and dislikes, friends and foes, and pleasant and traumatic experiences of a person. Sometimes, though, the memory can be misleading since the brain is able to repress memories of traumatic experiences. In the 1990s, there was a surge in the amount of curiosity scientists had about repressed memories (Zezima and Carey) because of the many court cases in which victims or witnesses of heinous crimes took the perpetrators to trial because of resurfaced memories (Loftus). The court cases were the catalysts for studies on repressed and resurfaced