Panache

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 6.8 percent of American Adults develop PTSD in their lifetime. These people are susceptible to prolonged conditions of PTSD. And most of this population contains women. It may run in the family and is accompanied by depression, substance use disorder, and anxiety disorders.

Definition of PTSD

PTSD is an acronym for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. According to an article published in Psychology Today, It is a mental health condition that develops in response to experiencing or witnessing a distressing event involving the threat of death or extreme bodily harm.

However, this definition does not clarify that PTSD contains mental harm as well. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, The symptoms of PTSD must last for more than one month following the traumatic event to meet the criteria for diagnosis.

For example, if you saw or experienced something that has affected your day-to-day life, your living, or your current mental state for more than a month, it can be categorized under Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Any traumatic event may cause certain disruptions to your body and mind. While your body heals, sometimes, your mind is still stuck in the time and cannot get over it. You may suffer from the trauma initially. But it must diminish as time passes by. However, if it doesn’t, you must consult a doctor.

Are you prone to PTSD?

We mentioned the statistics above, so you can know that most people are not prone to PTSD. However, some people are more affected by it than others. What are those factors that make them more prone to PTSD, let’s understand them:

Parenting style

Many people don’t understand that parenting style can deeply affect a child’s potential to stand tough during a traumatic event or not. And that becomes a dilemma for parents. They don’t know how hard it must be with a kid to make them strong enough to endure life and soft to be vulnerable and understanding of emotions.

Hard parenting with sensitive kids can make them more vulnerable to developing PTSD in life. If parenting somehow builds a weak foundation for anyone to not be able to sit through any trauma. There are more chances that they can break under extreme pressure, making them more vulnerable.

Also Read: 10 glaring signs you have intergenerational trauma.

Childhood Trauma

Any kid who has gone through some kind of childhood trauma becomes more vulnerable to PTSD. When talking about the symptoms, most people talk about anxiety or panic due to PTSD. However, it can range through multiple things.

For example, a London-based sexologist talks about sex-related PTSD among adult men. A few men face disgust in masturbating, sexual intimacy, or having sex during their adult lives. However, on further questioning, they often report having seen someone in an intimate activity when they were kids. This leads them to have registered the act as purely disgusting. With such PTSD in mind, they can’t have healthy sexual relations with their partners thus disrupting their love life.

Also Read: How to re-parent yourself to heal your inner child?

Family dynamics

People coming from broken families, dysfunctional families, or families with sexual, mental, or physical abuse are more prone to develop PTSD later in life.

Since they never received a healthy environment to make a healthier perspective towards life, any major trauma during adult life can make them prone to PTSD-related depression or anxiety.

Family’s mental health history

If there are any mental health conditions in the family, it makes a person prone to PTSD. Mostly, if any parents have PTSD-related issues, children are vulnerable to the condition. But if any family member has other conditions like depression, anxiety, or other mental health-related disorders, offsprings are more prone to PTSD, if any traumatic event occurs in their lives.

Professional Consequences

PTSD was first called “Shell shock” during World War I. As many soldiers experienced the after-effects of their experience at War. Hence, it was noted that certain professions are more prone to PTSD than others.

But the world has changed, according to American author, Robert Greene, working in a toxic work environment can disrupt your mental health, thus making you more prone to PTSD.

The world has become a war zone.

How does PTSD affect the human brain?

PTSD is not only a feeling. Scientists and doctors have seen significant changes in the brains after brain mapping of the ones who have the symptoms as compared to the ones who have healthy brains.

However, the diagnosis of PTSD cannot be done simply by brain mapping. It has to be done by a professional mental health practitioner. Certain changes go through the brain. Read on if you are interested in the science of it.

The brain has stress responders. They are set in the amygdala which is the back portion of your brain. This is the part that sets you on high alert, makes you conscious, and even regulates your fear and the response after that.

Normally, the amygdala does its job and when the threat is over, it cools down and becomes its normal self. It stops sending signals to the pre-frontal cortex that is involved in decision-making.

However, PTSD disrupts this process. It disrupts the stress circuitry, destroying the communication between several brain cells. At times, the brain is stuck at the same trauma and plays it on repeat. It remains hyperactive for most of the time. Thus, keeping you stressed and worried.

Also read: How does trauma impact you?

Signs of PTSD

However, the signs below could be because of multiple reasons. But PTSD is one of them. For a more accurate diagnosis, you can contact a therapist or a mental health practitioner. But if you have the signs below, there are chances that you might have PTSD.

Apathy or Detachment

Many people build a hard wall around them. Even if someone makes efforts to get to know them and heal them, they want to remain in these walls to not be able to come out.

This mostly happens with people who have suffered too much trauma in multiple situations. Since they realize people can hurt them, they become apathetic towards them leading them to isolation and loneliness.

Hypervigilance

Have you ever felt over-reactive to certain triggers? As if your body immediately gets into fight or flight mode when you hear a certain sound or see a particular object.

You may become alert to possible dangers and your brain is stuck in that loop not being able to relax after the trauma.

Trust Issues

People with PTSD rarely have a healthy social life. Since they have gone through certain traumatic events, every person or situation may feel like a danger to them. Therefore, they have trust issues and barely have any friends.

Often, trust issues lead them to detachment and apathy.

Escapism

Many people choose to escape from the trauma they have experienced in their lives. They would rather be dependent on alcohol, drugs, or other substances instead of trying to heal their trauma in a healthy and effective manner.

Hence, they choose escapism to deal with their PTSD. Since they are running away, they barely know that it is their trauma that is giving them nightmares.

Guilt or Shame

In the case of trauma due to sexual abuse, there are chances that guilt or shame might cloud the judgment of the people who are suffering from PTSD. As mentioned in the above example, this may destroy their intimate relationship or love life with their partners.

In this case, they might need someone who can condition their beliefs in the other way. A mental health practitioner would be the best-suited person to help them with the same.

Anxiety

Being hyperactive or anxious about certain things in life may be the most common symptom of PTSD. For example, people who have lost their loved ones early in life may feel anxious about making any attachments in their lives. Therefore, developing an anxious attachment style in the relationships.

Insomnia

As explained above, a PTSD-driven brain gets stuck to that memory or feelings of fear and pain. Therefore, playing it again and again, makes you aware of the possible danger.

Hence, people may experience nightmares because of it, therefore, leading to insomnia. Since they don’t want to experience the same feeling while asleep, they tend to not sleep at all.

Exaggerated Startled Response

Have you played the game of sudden surprise when your friend hides and “boo” you? You get startled and then you both laugh at your response. However, in the case of a PTSD-driven person, this response can be exaggerated. This might affect their blood pressure. They may start crying and become worried.

Or it may simply remind them of what happened when they experienced the trauma. If they show any exaggerated startled response, they have still been holding on to that painful memory. Thus, showing strong symptoms of PTSD.

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are the most common symptoms of PTSD. You may be reminded of that feeling due to external factors, or simply feel the pressure you may have never felt earlier. Therefore, it triggers you to have panic attacks.

However, only a medical practitioner can diagnose the real cause of PTSD, so consult one and get to the root of it.

Conclusion.

Many people remain undiagnosed of prolonged PTSD because they think that it is their fault to have felt the way they did. They think they are too weak, vulnerable, or toxic to have experienced such negative events in life.

But sometimes, the reasons for trauma are more complex than you can think of. And these threads need to be detangled to be cured and healed. Therefore, you need to consult a mental health practitioner.

They may take some time to diagnose the reasons correctly. But your healing journey would start effectively.