Term Paper: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Is a Serious

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a serious anxiety disorder that is likely to develop following exposure to an incident or event that contributes to psychological trauma. Notably, it's normal to have feelings of sadness, anxiety, panic, and disconnected after a traumatic experience. However, if these feelings do not fade and the individual feels trapped in an ongoing sense of danger and painful memories, he/she may be suffering from the post traumatic stress disorder. The likelihood of the development of this disease is associated with the fact that individual seems overwhelmed with the experience and unlikely to get over it and feel normal again. This illness is less frequent and more persistent since it's brought by psychological trauma. Nonetheless, an individual can overcome this condition and return to normalcy by seeking treatment, creating new ways of coping, and seeking for support.

Description of the Disorder:

As previously mentioned, post traumatic stress disorder is an emotional disease that is categorized as an anxiety illness that develops after a traumatic event or incident that is life-threatening, frightening, or highly unsafe (Dryden-Edwards & Stoppler, 2010). While the disease is likely to develop after exposure to any traumatic experience, many individuals attribute the illness with battle-scarred soldiers to an extent that military combat is regarded as the most common cause among men. In addition, the disorder can also occur in family members and friends of individuals who experienced the actual trauma. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder victims usually re-experience the traumatic incident in certain ways and have a tendency to avoid people, places, and things that remind them of the incident.

According to the description of PTSD by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR), the diagnostic standard of this illness includes experience of a major life-threatening incident or physical integrity. However, the description does not include a sequence of non-life-threatening traumatic incidents or micro traumas as causative factors (Seides, 2010, p.725). This is despite of indications by literature review that several non-life-threatening emotional traumas take place more often and tend to be more psychologically harmful than a single catastrophic incident. Therefore, DSM-IV-TR should consider adopting expanded criteria for the description and diagnosis of this disorder. Generally, DSM-IV-TR defines PTSD as an anxiety illness that develops from incidents considered as traumatic.

According to statistics regarding PTSD, nearly 8% of individuals in the population are likely to develop the disease during their lifetime. In addition the lifetime prevalence of the disorder in combat veterans and victims of rape usually ranges between 10% and 30% (Dryden-Edwards & Stoppler, 2010). The higher rates of PTSD prevalence occur among African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans,… [END OF PREVIEW]