PTSD

What is PTSD?

• Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition caused by a traumatic experience.
  

Symptoms of PTSD

• Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder include flashbacks, nightmares, feeling very anxious and difficulty sleeping.
• Someone with PTSD often relives the traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks, and may experience feelings of isolation, irritability and guilt.They may also have problems sleeping, such as insomnia, and find concentrating difficult.
• These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on the person's day-to-day life.
  

Tips for PTSD

• PTSD can be successfully treated, even when it develops many years after a traumatic event.Any treatment depends on the severity of symptoms and how soon they occur after the traumatic event.
• Any of the following treatment options may be recommended:watchful waiting – monitoring your symptoms to see whether they improve or get worse without treatmentant.
• idepressants – such as paroxetine or mirtazapine.
• psychological therapies – such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)You can refer yourself directly to a psychological therapies service.
  

Causes of PTSD

• Any situation that a person finds traumatic can cause PTSD.

  These can include:

  • serious road accidents
  • violent personal assaults, such as sexual assault, mugging or robbery
  • serious health problems
  • childbirth experiences
  • PTSD can develop immediately after someone experiences a disturbing event, or it can occur weeks, months or even years later.
  • PTSD is estimated to affect about 1 in every 3 people who have a traumatic experience, but it's not clear exactly why some people develop the condition and others do not.

A short video on PTSD

What is PTSD? | APA

YouTube · American Psychiatric Association

46.1K+ views · 1 year ago