Many factors are
involved in the wide range of response to threat. Not everyone
who experiences a traumatic event will develop Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD). Sometimes
these symptoms resolve within a few days or weeks of a
disturbing experience. That may relate to a variety of issues,
and could include genetic make-up, earlier trauma experiences, or
even somebody’s family dynamic. Traumatic early childhood
experiences and attachment problems are well known precursors
for someone’s ability to process trauma successfully. When
many symptoms persist for weeks or months, or when they are
extreme, that professional help may be indicated.
Traumatic experiences
shake the foundations of our beliefs about safety, and shatter
our assumptions of trust. This is so far away from what we would
expect to feel about certain experiences, that it provokes
reactions in us that feel strange and "crazy". Perhaps the most
helpful thing we can say here is that even though these
reactions are unusual and disturbing, they are typical and
expectable. These are mostly normal responses to abnormal
events.
PTSD Symptoms
Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD) is the most common diagnostic category
used to describe symptoms arising from emotionally traumatic
experience(s). This disorder presumes that the person
experienced a traumatic event involving actual or threatened
death or injury to themselves or others -- and where they felt
as fear, helplessness or horror. Three additional symptom clusters,
if they persist for more than a month after the traumatic event
and cause clinically significant distress or impairment, make up
the diagnostic criteria.
The three main
symptom clusters in PTSD are: Intrusions, such as flashbacks or
nightmares, where the traumatic event is re-experienced.
Avoidance, when the person tries to reduce exposure to people or
things that might bring on their intrusive symptoms. And
Hyper-arousal, meaning physiologic signs of increased arousal,
such as hyper vigilance or increased startle response. The
actual symptoms used in the United States are described in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM.
The most current version of the DSM is the Fourth Edition, Text
Revision (DSM-IV-TR), published in June 2000 by the American
Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV-TR;
2000).
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