An informative thread on PTSD cus someone just told me it’s not real and I got mad. TW for discussions about trauma, sexual assault, war, bigotry. Also I’ll use reductive statistics (“men” vs “women”) despite the fact gender binary isn’t relevant, just the culture behind it.
1) PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a mental disorder developed after a traumatic event or a series of traumatic events during a certain period of time. Roughly 8 in 100 adults will experience PTSD at some point in their lives, and this percentage is increasing.
2) PTSD is 1 of the most underdiagnosed mental disorders in the world, and is still frequently overlooked by clinicians. Children are especially atrisk of having their symptoms ignored, particularly young girls, who internalize rather than manifest bc of cultural pressure.
3) PTSD isn’t just caused by 1 singular trauma, (ex. assault or a car accident) but also a series of long term periods of high intensity stress (ex. domestic violence; toxic home environments; discrimination by others in contexts of racism, bigotry; bullying)
4) These long term periods of trauma develop a kind of PTSD that sometimes goes unnoticed because of its self preserving nature. The person creates complex defense mechanisms (emotional/ physical) tht become part of who the person is. Slight changes can be extremely triggering.
5) PTSD symptoms can be difficult to differentiate from generalized anxiety/depression. What helps set PTSD apart is the existence of “triggers”. A trigger is a internal or external reaction to something the brain has linked to the trauma. But how does one develop PTSD?
6) During traumatic situations, the body switches to flight-fight mode. The brain turns on high alert to absorb as much information as it can, and neglects other functions like short term memory. This means trauma will be stored away and not processed immediately.
6.1) When the trauma isn’t processed immediately, the brain acts as if there’s still an imminent threat weeks, months and years after the event(s) occurred. Consciously or unconsciously, the person is constantly seeking out details that can pose a threat. These are triggers.
7) Ex: For a domestic abuse survivor, a trigger might be a raised voice or a particular facial expression, or even the sound of stomping on the wooden floor. These are examples of external triggers. They can also be internal, like thoughts (memories, flashbacks) emotions, pain.
8) Responses to triggers vary depending on how big a trigger it is and how closely the brain has associated it with the trauma. It’s not easy to self identify a trigger as PTSD patient, because symptoms are often overwhelming and impairing of the persons own self image.
8.1) This is why it’s important to analyze the recurrent situations when symptoms occurred with a mental health professional as they’re able to identify a common element that might be triggering.
9) Symptoms of PTSD include: intrusive thoughts of the trauma(s) in the form of memories, flashbacks or nightmares; emotional apathy and avoidance of triggering places, people or actions (isolation); difficulty sleeping, concentrating; and being easily angered or upset.
9.1) Other symptoms can relate to memory failures (inability to recall certain details of the trauma, or other consequential events) and a overwhelmingly negative view of oneself and the world (“im a bad person”, “the world is doomed”,”I can’t be trusted”, “I can’t trust anyone”)
10) Although women report a third less traumatic events than men, they are more likely to develop PTSD, and have a higher risk of prevalance (longer duration of the illness) as well. Women also experience their trauma earlier than men, mostly in the form of childhood abuse.
10.1) Women report trauma related to sexual assault domestic violence and neglect while men report trauma related to conflicts, war contexts n accidents. So, women are more likely to develop PTSD because they are more likely to experience sexual violence and neglect as children.
11) LGBTQ+ youth is another risk group. Hate crimes rose since 2013, especially against LGBTQ+ people of color. Coupled with societal and family rejection & internalized homophobia/transphobia makes them 3.9 more likely to develop PTSD than their cisgender, heterosexual peers.
12) How do you treat PTSD? PTSD can be devastating. It’s hard to create your own path and your own image when something you can’t control drags you down and shapes your entire world. But it doesn’t have to. Take it from me. With work, and especially with HELP, PTSD is manageable.
12.1) Some tools a person can use are therapy, either one-on-one or in a group, medication, or service animals. There are specific hotline availables to help you get information on PTSD and getting your process started. If not today, tomorrow. There’s no deadlines on seeking help
14) Here are some sources and/or interesting reads on PTSD:

https://www.mentalhelp.net/ptsd/hotline/ 

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/gmu-uli071619.php

https://www.psycom.net/PTSD-symptoms-women

https://www.google.pt/amp/s/www.teenvogue.com/story/how-trauma-affects-queer-and-trans-youth/amp
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