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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder |
Overcoming Anxiety (Home) > Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Symptom, Causes and TreatmentThe concept of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is well known nowadays, after it was introduced into DSM-III in 1980. The problems US society had with its Vietnam veterans were a strong incentive for its development and recognition. However, many names and concepts have preceded it, and it is becoming ever more obvious that other well-known syndromes can also be the consequence of traumatic experience. The clinical manifestation of PTSD can occur a long time, even decades, after the initial traumatic experience. It may be triggered by associations (symbols of retraumatisation) and by other challenges to a state of psychosocial compensation that could only be attained by considerable mental effort. It is also striking how, for many years, some patients have been able to conceal their suffering from horrible nightmares from their immediate environment, e.g. their spouses. Psychotraumatic disturbances have their roots in a combination of three elements, which are the perception of threat, the inability to control such a threat and the consequent disruption of existential stability and expectancy. Although anxiety is supposedly an overwhelming sensation during such a threat, it is not always reported as such, afterwards; this may be related to peri-traumatic dissociation or numbing
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Stress