Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 horrified Americans everywhere. Watching friends, family, and countrymen struggle to survive in a way that no one should have to endure. To this day, the events that occurred on September 11th live on in the memories of all that witnessed them. For some, however, the experience lived on. Those who had been in the towers when the planes struck began experiencing nightmares and flashbacks of that fateful day. These people were suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a syndrome that can be both mild enough to be barely noticeable and severe enough to cripple a person’s life. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that has the potential to occur after a person has been through a traumatic event. Traumatic events are occurrences that are terrible and frightening that a person sees or has happen to them. Other common traits of these events are the threat of lives being lost or a feeling of complete loss of control of the situation. Anyone that has gone through a traumatic experience can develop PTSD. Some examples of traumatic experiences are combat or military exposure, sexual or physical abuse as a child, terrorist attacks, serious accidents, and natural disasters. This means that, although PTSD is most commonly associated with veterans of war, Hurricane Katrina survivors, as well as the survivors of the September 11th attacks all share an equal chance for acquiring PTSD.

Why Posttraumatic Stress Disorder develops is somewhat unclear. Some factors that influence the chances of PTSD are the intensity of the trauma experienced, the extent of the loss that occurred, and how much help and support was received after the experience. There are fou...

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...y body and gave me a moderate concussion. The loud blast and the whole occurrence itself occasionally reoccur if certain influences take place such as the loud blast of a gun or if fireworks are discharged when I am not expecting it. Yet when this happens I do not react in a manner that is comparable to the severe symptoms of PTSD.

With treatment, the effects of PTSD can be diminished and all together eliminated. However, there is no one that is immune to PTSD. Everyone has the chance of going through a horrible traumatic experience, even when they least expect it. Those working at the World Trade Center the morning of September 11, 2001 probably expected it to be just another day at the office. For some, however, it was their last day in the office. For their friends and coworkers it is a day that continued to haunt them long after the dust had settled.