“PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions” –Susan Pease Banitt. PTSD is a condition that has very serious effects on those suffering from it, and is common enough that it touches everyone’s life in one way or another. PTSD is a disorder that people should know more about. It is important to know what exactly PTSD is, what the symptoms are, how knowledge about it has changed, how it is diagnosed, its impact on people involved in the Vietnam War, and how it is treated.
Posttraumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, is a condition which can be found in any person who has been involved in a traumatic situation such as a serious accident, a natural disaster, the death of someone near to him or her, assault, any life-threatening event, or most commonly heard of, war (Posttraumatic Stress
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One symptom is having flashbacks and also sometimes nightmares, which relive a certain trauma. Another is avoiding reminders of the trauma such as places, people, or certain activities (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)). People with PTSD also tend to lack interest in activities that they used to enjoy or spend less time with people he or she was once close to. Oftentimes, one will have a decrease in positive emotions and some people can be very irritable up to and including aggressive outbursts. Anxiety and insomnia are found in patients suffering from PTSD and many other disorders, but one symptom specific to PTSD is a strong feeling of paranoia. Lastly, some sufferers of this disorder participate in self-destructive or reckless behavior. This can be anything from careless driving to suicidal behavior (Friedman). Some symptoms specific to young children are forgetting how to talk, acting out the event he or she is afraid of while playing, or being oddly clingy to a parent or different adult (Post-Traumatic Stress