The final topic of discussion will revolve around an article published in “The Huffington Post” titled “The 5 Most Common Misconceptions About PTSD”. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is described by Saylor (2015) as “high levels of anxiety along with reexperiencing the trauma (flashbacks), and a strong desire to avoid any reminders of the event.” (Ch 12.2). The textbook gave some examples of causes, symptoms, risk factors, and some statistical data with regards to the approximate numbers of patients it affects. When the textbook described causes, it essentially said: the disorder could be triggered from any event in which the patient could perceive as emotionally disturbing or distressing (traumatic). For example, these causes could range …show more content…
The news article published by “The Huffington Post” was written about PTSD and was published (in my opinion) with the intent of providing clarity to an audience that is/was ignorant on the topic of PTSD, and to also debunk some off the “rumor mill” associated with the disorder. According to Pittman (2017), the main misconceptions were: “PTSD is simply stress after a trauma, PTSD is a veteran’s problem, PTSD isn’t real and people should just get over it, people with PTSD are unstable and dangerous, and a life with PTSD is all doom and gloom”. I found the title of the article to be subjective because the author wrote it from her perspective, being a PTSD sufferer (herself). I believe the title should have read “The 5 Most Common Misconceptions About PTSD, According to a PTSD …show more content…
I believe this misconception occurs because of mass media itself. In my observations, whenever I see articles written about PTSD, news programs, videos, and campaigns related to the disorder, I feel that correlations are always made to veterans; moreover, very rarely do I see the media refer to PTSD and how it relates to the “average” sufferer. According to Pittman (2017) the number of veterans with PTSD ranges between 275,000 to 500,000 people, which is a small percentage when compared to the reported 8,000,000 patients nationwide. Although Pittman wrote that PTSD is not only a veteran disorder, I found an academic article relating specifically to PTSD and veterans. The study I found was titled “The Effect of Enemy Combat Tactics on PTSD Prevalence Rates: A Comparison of Operation Iraqi Freedom Deployment Phases in a Sample of Male and Female Veterans”. The research by Green et al., 2016 attempted to analyze veterans with PTSD and make a determination on its prevalence rates, based on the type of tactics used by the enemy (conventional vs asymmetric