After hearing the sound of fireworks, the barking of a dog, or even just the sight of a weapon, something in a persons mind with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will trigger. Horror will constantly torment the mind, no matter what or where the person is. This is part of what people diagnosed with PTSD go through on a daily basis. Unfortunately, little is known about why the human body induces this mental disorder, or why it takes so long to recover from. However, based off recent research, much has been discovered about the fundamentals of the mental illness. This essay discusses the symptoms, causes, and treatments of PTSD in order to give an understanding and perspective to readers on what it is like to live with PTSD.
Symptoms
Stress …show more content…
Often portrayed in movies, flashbacks and nightmares are PTSD episodes. These episodes are commonly depicted of reliving the traumatic event vividly. Flashbacks may be triggered by an object or situation, which can reanimate the traumatic event within the victim’s memory (American Psychology Association, 2013). Not only are nightmares symptoms of PTSD but nightmares are also a factor that causes another symptom—insomnia. According to Vandrey, Babson, Herrmann, and Bonn-Miller (2014), 70%-87% of people with PTSD experience insomnia, and up to 88% had presently experienced or actively experience nightmares. This shows that insomnia and nightmares are a core symptom seen throughout all PTSD …show more content…
The issue with PTSD is that, as certain conditioned responses are extinguished, some responses do not go through the extinction process—depending on the severity of the traumatic event—and cause victims to re-experience the trauma mentally for a prolonged time. As memory can be recalled through many contexts, the extinction process must affect all contexts in order to prevent the development of PTSD (VanElzakker, Dahlgren, David, Dubois, &
Symptoms
Stress …show more content…
Often portrayed in movies, flashbacks and nightmares are PTSD episodes. These episodes are commonly depicted of reliving the traumatic event vividly. Flashbacks may be triggered by an object or situation, which can reanimate the traumatic event within the victim’s memory (American Psychology Association, 2013). Not only are nightmares symptoms of PTSD but nightmares are also a factor that causes another symptom—insomnia. According to Vandrey, Babson, Herrmann, and Bonn-Miller (2014), 70%-87% of people with PTSD experience insomnia, and up to 88% had presently experienced or actively experience nightmares. This shows that insomnia and nightmares are a core symptom seen throughout all PTSD …show more content…
The issue with PTSD is that, as certain conditioned responses are extinguished, some responses do not go through the extinction process—depending on the severity of the traumatic event—and cause victims to re-experience the trauma mentally for a prolonged time. As memory can be recalled through many contexts, the extinction process must affect all contexts in order to prevent the development of PTSD (VanElzakker, Dahlgren, David, Dubois, &