WHAT IS POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been defined as a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. PTSD symptoms may include, but are not limited to, insomnia or sleep issues, irritability or anger issues, mood swings, poor concentration or inability to focus, phobia of places or people that remind the sufferer of the prior trauma, mental blackouts, and a re-experiencing or reliving of the trauma itself.
Many sufferers of PTSD develop symptoms after experiencing a dangerous event, suffering a shock or, going through a horrific experience. As a result, they feel under duress and at risk when there is no obvious or imminent danger in everyday situations that a non-sufferer would classify as “normal.”
As it turns out, PTSD is not a new disorder. The fact is, people have been diagnosed with suffering from some form of trauma as far back as the 1700s, if not earlier. It was during the 1700s that a doctor named Josef Leopold from Austria attempted to describe what he termed “nostalgia” in soldiers.
During the latter part of the 1800s, the famous writer, Charles Dickens was said to have witnessed a horrific train accident. From that point forward, he suffered from symptoms of anxiety and insomnia, which are associated with today’s PTSD symptoms.
However, the most closely related cases came to light during World War I when the term “shell shock” was used to describe soldiers who
suffered from various ailments associated with the horrors of war. Even further evidence came to light during World War II, when shell shock was replaced with the term “Combat Stress Reaction.” It wasn’t until the 1980s that the term or phrase “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” was used as part of the publication of the third volume of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.