Depression is a medical condition with emotional, behavioural/cognitive, and physical symptoms. It can have a dramatic impact on your health and well-being. Learn more about depression symptoms, how depression is diagnosed, and what treatment options are available.
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a new name for a very old condition. In the earlier 1900s, it was known as "shell shock" or "battle fatigue." Before then, it had no name. In PTSD, a witness or victim of a terrible event or tragedy is so haunted by memories of the event that personal health and personality is affected. Events likely to lead to PTSD are those that cause the victim to feel fear, horror, or helplessness. Many people start to have symptoms within three months of the trauma, but symptoms may occur later. PTSD often occurs together with other conditions such as depression, anxiety, or substance abuse.
Research suggests that approximately 6% to 9% of the Canadian population will be affected at one time in their life with PTSD. Women are twice as likely to be affected as men. The specific type of trauma is important in the gender distribution. For example, women exposed to a physical attack or threatened with a weapon are more likely to develop PTSD than men who are exposed to the same trauma. Rates of PTSD are similar in men and women after accidents, natural disasters, and unexpected death of loved ones.
Causes of PTSD
The kinds of events that can trigger PTSD were traditionally limited to the most violent and frightening situations, such as being involved in a plane crash, a shooting, or the collapse of a building after an earthquake or bomb. The main source of such trauma is war, and in North America the largest category of PTSD sufferers are war veterans. Much of what we know about this syndrome comes from studies involving former soldiers.
More recently, the definition has broadened. People who suffer rape or physical or sexual abuse may react in much the same way as those who have witnessed carnage or been threatened by violent death. Particular risk factors such as early age trauma, a history of childhood abuse, previous exposure to trauma, personality or psychiatric disorders, or a family history of psychosis, may make certain individuals more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD among children has become a major focus because they are particularly likely to develop the symptoms associated with this condition.
Symptoms and Complications of PTSD
The most noticeable signs in a person suffering from PTSD are introversion and joylessness. This condition is characterized by frequent, undesired memories which replay the triggering event. People with this syndrome are unable to take pleasure from things they might have enjoyed in the past. They avoid the company of others and become generally more passive than before. They wish to avoid anything that will trigger memories of the traumatic event. A person with PTSD might drift out of a conversation and appear distant and withdrawn. This is known among soldiers as a "thousand-yard stare." This is a sign that unpleasant memories have returned to haunt them.
Having trouble sleeping is almost inevitable in this syndrome. Nightmares are common, and even when someone with PTSD is not thinking about the event, sleep is often disturbed. A common symptom among veterans is nocturnal myoclonus, a sudden spasm of the whole body while sleeping or drifting off into sleep. It lasts for about a fraction of a second, but may occur several times in a single night. Often people with PTSD will sleep through such a spasm, but their partner may not. Children with PTSD may have many nightmares, yet those dreams may not contain anything that's obviously related to the original trauma.
Psychiatrists speak of 4 main symptoms that define PTSD – intrusion, avoidance, negative symptoms, and hyperarousal.Intrusion is the inability to keep memories of the event from returning. Avoidance is an attempt to avoid stimuli and triggers that may bring back those memories. Negative symptoms are ongoing negative feelings about oneself or others, and may include anger, guilt and shame, or a decreased ability to experience positive emotions. Hyperarousal is similar to jumpiness. It may include insomnia (trouble sleeping), a tendency to be easily startled, a constant feeling that danger or disaster is nearby, an inability to concentrate, extreme irritability, or even violent behaviour.
Depression is very likely to go hand in hand with PTSD, and in severe cases, suicide is a real danger. People with this syndrome, as with any psychiatric illness, are more likely than average to abuse alcohol or drugs. Psychiatrists see this as an attempt to self-medicate the condition, but naturally the drugs involved are very unlikely to improve the situation. People with PTSD are at an increased risk of suffering from depression, anxiety, or substance abuse.
