Post-traumatic stress disorder commonly referred to as PTSD, is a mental trauma that mostly affects people who have witnessed horrible events in their lifetime. Events such events as sexual harassment, sudden deaths, accidents, wars and harmful natural catastrophes have led to post-traumatic stress disorder over time. These events distort the biological mechanisms of a normally functioning human being. PTSD affects both children and adults and may become complicated with time.
Victims who have been diagnosed with PTSD are associated with lack of sleep, frightening dreams during sleep, and tend to avoid various things. It is also worth noting that there is a correlation between PTSD and violence, though this has been cited to be of minimal significance. This paper will discuss the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder to victims. It will also examine the existence of a correlation between post-traumatic stress disorder and violence.
Effects of post-traumatic stress disorder
Victims of post-traumatic stress disorders are likely to develop sleep disorders associated with high risk of mortality, weight gain, depression, and coronary heart diseases (Kobayashi, Cowdin, & Mellman, 2012). Kobayashi et al. (2012) note that sleep disorders are more prevalent for women than men. Adult women are more likely to record nightmares than their male counterparts. In general, PTSD leads to insomnia which has far reaching consequences to the wellbeing of an individual.
Avoidance is another effect of PTSD. Victims tend to debar themselves from talking about the abuses they have undergone. They show total unwillingness and always avoid such things that would trigger their emotions (Entringer et al., 2012). For this reason, they avoid such sounds, sights, scents, and people who can make them remember the respective past incidences. In some instances, these individuals will try much to distract themselves when they are with people talking about the ordeals.
The victims experience arousal problems. These people are alert most of the times. A small traumatic happening is enough to cause arousal and keep them on guard to danger signals. This may result in irritability, anger, lack of concentration, and sleep difficulties. Children suffering from PTSD are normally inattentive, and seem to be daydreaming most of the time. Arousal problems can sometimes make individuals develop aggression and hypersensitive personalities.
Another effect of PTSD is that of re-experiencing. Events connected to the respective horrible events trigger a sense to the victim as if they are happening again. A car accident victim may come across an accident, a terrorism survivor may hear a loud bang, and a sexually assaulted woman may see the news being shown on a TV screen and so on. These traumatic memories are so real that they make them feel as if the events are happening again.
Depression is another common phenomenon among PTSD victims. PTSD survivors have constantly suffered depression (Zaetta, Santonastaso,& Favaro, 2011). Research conducted by the University of Padua in Italy showed that six out of twenty-five survivors suffered from depression. Though it is a small number, it shows that there is a correlation between depression and PTSD. In fact, insomnia and other resultant effects of PTSD are critical as far as depression is concerned.
Correlation between diagnosis and violence
After the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, it is critical to pay attention to various contributors. Various things like disaster, violence, trauma, barbarism, and catastrophes are reflected upon in clarifying post-traumatic stress disorder clinically. It, therefore, calls for understanding of violence in order to establish correlation between it and PTSD.
Violence can be defined as an act of aggression when, for example, a perpetrator uses physical force against the opponent. It is intentional and has a probability of causing physical injury, death, deprivation, or psychological torture. Violence can also be sexual or a result of total or partial neglect or deprivation.
Thus, It is worth noting that events that lead to post-traumatic stress disorder are violent. These events have social, political, natural, economic origins that are beyond psychiatric scope boundaries (Braga, Fiks, Mari, & Mello, 2008). Defining violence in the context of post-traumatic stress disorder remains equally important.
A high number of violent prisoners have been diagnosed with PTSD. It is likely to be a result of abuse in childhood. Ex-prisoners are also affected by PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Violence, 2001, para. 2). It should be mentioned that sex offenders, who have suffered similar ordeals in the past, have a high likelihood of suffering PTSD as well. It is, therefore, apparent that violent acts lead to most cases of post-traumatic stress disorder.
In conclusion, post-traumatic stress disorders have far reaching consequences for survivors. Second, it is important to note that the word ‘violence’ might be abusive in definition, but in this context it will bring terminological clarity for better understanding of PTSD. Third, though it is complicated to make clear identification of violence, apparently there is a correlation between PTSD and violence. Finally, one should clearly understand that early diagnosing of PTSD will have positive effects on achieving good results in its treatment.
References
Braga, L.L., Fikis, J.P., Mari, J.J., & Mello, M.F. (2008). The importance of the concepts of disaster, catastrophe, violence, trauma and barbarism in defining posttraumatic stress disorder in clinical practice. BMC Psychiatry. Web.
Entringer, S., Epel, E.S., Lin, J., Buss, C., Blackburn, E.H., Simhan, H.N., Wadhwa, P.D. (2012). Prenatal programming of newborn and infant telomere length. European Journal of Psychotraumatology Supplement, 3(1): 1-37.
Kobayashi, I., Cowdin, N., & Mellman, T.A. (2012). One’s sex, sleep, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Biology of Sex Differences, 3(1), 29. Web.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Violence. (2011). Web.
Zaetta, C., Santonastaso, P., & Favaro, A. (2011). Long-term physical and psychological effects of the vajont disaster. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 2(1) 1-5. Web.