Re: PTSD Survivor

Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD)
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Often associated with war veterans, post-traumatic stress disorder can occur in anyone who has experienced a severe and unusual physical or mental trauma. People who have witnessed a mid-air collision or survived a life-threatening crime may develop this illness. The severity of the disorder increases if the trauma was unanticipated. For that reason, not all war veterans develop PTSD, despite prolonged and brutal combat. Soldiers expect a certain amount of violence. Rape victims, however, are unsuspecting of the attack on their lives.

People who suffer from PTSD re-experience the event that traumatized them through:

Nightmares, night terrors or flashbacks of the event. In rare cases, the person falls into a temporary dislocation from reality in which he or she relives the trauma. This can last for seconds or days.


"Psychic numbing," or emotional anesthesia. Victims have decreased interest in or involvement with people or activities they once enjoyed.


Excessive alertness and highly sharpened startle reaction. A car backfiring may cause people once subjected to gunfire to instinctively drop to the ground.


General anxiety, depression, inability to sleep, poor memory, difficulty concentrating or completing tasks, survivor's guilt.
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