By Lydia Pehlman

Yes, PTSD is marked by clear biological changes as well as psychological symptoms. PTSD is complicated by the fact that people with PTSD often may develop additional disorders such as depression, substance abuse, problems of memory and cognition, and other problems of physical and mental health.

Brain areas implicated in the stress response include the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Traumatic stress can be associated with lasting changes in these brain areas. Traumatic stress is associated with increased cortisol and norepinephrine responses to subsequent stressors.

An estimated 7.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives, with women (10.4%) twice as likely as men (5%) to develop PTSD. About 3.6 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 to 54 (5.2 million people) have PTSD during the course of a given year.

People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person’s daily life. In order to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person must have three different types of symptoms: re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance and numbing symptoms,

and arousal symptoms.

Cognitive therapy, in which you learn to change thoughts about the trauma that are not true or that cause you stress.

Exposure therapy, in which you talk about the traumatic event over and over, in a safe place, until you have less fear.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), in which you focus on distractions like hand movements and sounds while talking about the traumatic event.

As with most mental illnesses, no cure exists for PTSD, but the symptoms can be effectively managed to restore the affected individual to normal functioning. The best hope for treating PTSD is a combination of medication and therapy. By working with a healthcare professional, individuals with PTSD can resolve their triggering factors and learn new and effective ways of coping with the stress of the past trauma.

How Serious is your condition?

Answer: “Medium, about 50% disabled.”

How does it affect your everyday life?

Answer: “I don’t sleep well, therefore I’m almost always tired and I have to take a lot of medication. It is hard for me to work sometimes because people just don’t understand.”

Where/ are you scared?

Answer: “I am never scared, and that’s the problem. I am numb to death, I have no fear of it. I’m not scared of being blown up, or being shot at. I have no regard of death. I did have fear at one time, but when you are exposed to death on a daily, hourly, basis, your body becomes numb to it.”

Does your environment affect your conditions?

Answer: “Yes crowds, loud noises that I doset know where they are coming from. Driving was a trigger to my memories in Iraq. I thought something was going to blow up right next to me. I still constantly smell and taste iron, when the blood would heat up in Iraq you could smell and even taste the iorn form the blood.”

What improves your condition?

Answer: “Its important that I have time to myself. It is important that I sit where I can see everything laid out before me and no one is behind me. All genres of music and cat naps along with medication also help.”

http://www.worldbookonline.com/pl/referencecenter/article?id=ar441830&st=ptsd

http://www.ptsd.ne.gov/what-is-ptsd.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181836/

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/tc/post-traumatic-stress-disorder--treatment- overview

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/post-traumatic-stress- disorder/basics/symptoms/con-20022540

http://www.psychguides.com/guides/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-treatment- program-options/

Pehlman, Derrick. "PTSD Research Interview." Personal interview. 5 May 2015.