PTSD Research Paper

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About 8% of Americans, or 24.4 million people, are living with post traumatic stress disorder at any given time, according to PTSD United. That is nearly 10% of the population. Post traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that can result from experiencing a trauma. There are many ways that PTSD effects a person's life, and most can be categorized as being physical, mental/emotional, or affecting the lifestyle of the victim. The first thing to look at when attempting to understand PTSD is how it physically effects the body. Doctors Sethanne Howard and Mark W. Crandall explain how the brain holds onto the traumatic experience “the amygdala stays in the alert state so long that it gets ‘stuck’ there. It keeps the body from operating a healthy combination of the hot and cool systems. The neuron pathways in the amygdala lose their ‘elasticity’ or ability to recover” (Howard and Crandall, 14). They also explain what happens during a trauma, or when a victim perceives a trigger “The amygdala, busy with its continual questioning, determines that danger exists. The brain triggers the intricate fight-or-flight chemical dance to protect itself. ‘Do I run away, do I fight, do I shut down?’” (Howard and Crandall, …show more content…

Some severe cases of PTSD can cause a person to develop agoraphobia, or fear of leaving the home without assistance or an easy escape. The lack of sleep that the victims experience cause them to have even more difficulty focusing, controlling their emotions, and dealing with stress than they already have. Because panic attacks, anxiety attacks, and flashbacks are nearly uncontrollable and are so easily triggered, many people suffering with PTSD have difficulty functioning independently. As mentioned before, there are many, many symptoms of PTSD which make living a normal, independent life very difficult, sometimes even

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