With everything else that has been going on recently within the month of June, I feel like the fact that it is PTSD awareness month has gone overlooked, so I really wanted to take this opportunity to talk about PTSD, what causes it, and what it actually is.
A lot of times, when people think of PTSD, they think of military personnel fighting overseas, who come home and find that they have difficulty reintegrating into society due to things they have seen or experiences they had while in combat. Statistics have shown that as many as 30% of Veterans (depending on which war they were fighting) show signs of PTSD within the first year of coming home from deployment, and of those, only about half of them seek treatment.
However, what you may not realize is that a Soldier, Airman, or Sailor may not even need to go overseas to experience the effects of PTSD. In fact, military personnel who have classified jobs and live at home with a spouse and children are very much likely to also develop PTSD as a result of combat that they are involved in, though they are only able to view it on a screen, and then having to go home to their families and pretend that life is normal. It is this forged normalcy that increases the likelihood that they may end up with PTSD because unlike their overseas counterparts, they don’t have anyone to vent to at the end of the day. No one in their family is allowed to know what it is they did all day. The overseas combatants, on the other hand, can talk to their companions in war. They were all there, they all saw the same things.
On top of all this, many people who have never even seen a war zone on screen, let alone up close, develop PTSD as a result of domestic or childhood abuse, sexual assault, witnessing violence or death, exposure to suicide, or one of a number of other reasons. However, it is thanks to Veterans who paved the way with their service to our country, that we have cultivated so much information on the nature of PTSD and can benefit from therapies offered in this country as a result.
So that begs the question, “What exactly is PTSD?”
Once thought to be a psychological condition where a soldier was essentially unable to face what they had experienced on the battlefield, we now have come to realize that PTSD is not so much a disorder as it is a traumatic psychological brain injury. As a result, some have considered the possibility that PTSI (or Post Traumatic Brain Injury) would be a more fitting name. Regardless of what doctors choose to call it, it impacts the brain in several ways which cause the traumatized person to have more difficulty establishing between past and current memories or regulating and processing emotions, especially fear. What’s more, scientists have discovered that this very much a natural response to a traumatic situation in which there is no perceived escape.
Fortunately, in the United States, we have several options for treatment of both combat and non-combat PTSD. Unfortunately, on the other hand, only half of people who have either type will ever seek that treatment. If you are a person with PTSD or have a loved one with PTSD that has not sought treatment, I encourage you to reach out. You can find a list of resources that can help you find the right treatment for you right here.
