Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, what is it really? The initial reaction to this disorder would be stress that has been over exerted and caused a traumatic experience. Kay Jankowsi (2010) verbalized that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be traced back to ancient times. Documentation in the historical medical literature started with the Civil War, where PTSD-like disorder was known as “Da Costa’s Syndrome (Jankowsi 2010). Jankowsi (2010) proclaims that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events (gospelassemblyfree.com). Jankowsi (2010) correspondingly goes on to list military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, and violent personal assaults like rape to be reasons for PSTD (gospelassemblyfree.com). Unless one has endured any of these traumatic situations, they will never comprehend what it is like to deal with PTSD. Life is going to be difficult for people dealing with PTSD. They often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged (Jankowsi 2010). People dealing with PTSD are going to struggle with reality in everyday situations but, what about the people who has to deal with them, the family in general? How are they going to react? BJC Health Care’s reflection on post-traumatic stress disorder and families expressed that post-traumatic stress disorder changes how a trauma survivor feels and acts (bjc.org). Therefore, traumatic experiences that happen to one member of a family can affect everyone else in the family (bjc.org). How can one’s affliction with PTSD affect the family? Granted, PTSD is contracted through a tra... ... middle of paper ... ...aumatic moment would affect anybody. One could dispute that sleep is the most difficult part of dealing with PTSD. Anger is another symptom that family members suffer through. Jankowsi (2010) alleges that family members feel angry about the way the trauma affected their lives. They feel resentment toward the trauma survivor and deemed that the survivor should just forget about it and get on with life. Jankowsi (2010) also proclaims that family members feel anger when the trauma victim continues to dwell on the trauma. Wives are angry because their husbands can not keep a job, drinks too much, will no go to social events, avoids being intimate and refuses to take care of the children. Although family members dealing with PTSD victims are attempting to help, they of feel anger and irritable in response to the anger and irritability the trauma victim directs at them.