PTSD Damaging Identity
PTSD Damaging Identity Many people have heard about PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a mental health illness that roughly 8 million people experience in a given year. This is not only a serious illness surrounding the military. PTSD could be from any traumatic event. Ranging from sexual abuse to serious accidents to military combat. PTSD can change whom a person is after an event that leads to the illness. Not only can identity alter at times, but according to the article “Post Traumatic”, other conditions such as depression are also experienced with PTSD. There is also a form of fragmentation of identity, where someone takes on multiple identities due to PTSD. Disassociation, depression, and fragmentation will all take a toll on someone’s
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Depending on the type of event that had occurred whether the event had been witnessed or experienced, will determine the type of stress that may be experienced. One stress response that the author of “PTSD: National”, a website that provides valuable information about PTSD, mentioned was the severe dissociation. This is where someone feels unconnected to their body, has lost a sense of identity, or has taken on a new identity (PTSD: National). What this means is that people are experiencing actual losses of who they are or becoming someone they were not before. Not only is this a personal illness, but it also affects their families who end up having to adapt to this persons new identity. This is just one minor experience when someone is dealing with PTSD. There are three symptoms involved cause disassociation of identity in PTSD. The three symptoms are the re-experiencing symptom, avoidance and numbing symptom and symptoms of increased arousal (PTSD: National). With re-experiencing symptoms, a person relives the traumatic event through memories or other triggering methods (Post Traumatic). In the “Post Traumatic” article, the author states that, “avoidance and numbing symptoms are both ways for people to try to avoid the traumatic event, and the arousal symptom is always being on alert”. An example of what the author is attempting to get across is that people are always looking for ways to look over what happened and always being fearful of possibly walking into a room full of strangers not knowing what may
Depending on the type of event that had occurred whether the event had been witnessed or experienced, will determine the type of stress that may be experienced. One stress response that the author of “PTSD: National”, a website that provides valuable information about PTSD, mentioned was the severe dissociation. This is where someone feels unconnected to their body, has lost a sense of identity, or has taken on a new identity (PTSD: National). What this means is that people are experiencing actual losses of who they are or becoming someone they were not before. Not only is this a personal illness, but it also affects their families who end up having to adapt to this persons new identity. This is just one minor experience when someone is dealing with PTSD. There are three symptoms involved cause disassociation of identity in PTSD. The three symptoms are the re-experiencing symptom, avoidance and numbing symptom and symptoms of increased arousal (PTSD: National). With re-experiencing symptoms, a person relives the traumatic event through memories or other triggering methods (Post Traumatic). In the “Post Traumatic” article, the author states that, “avoidance and numbing symptoms are both ways for people to try to avoid the traumatic event, and the arousal symptom is always being on alert”. An example of what the author is attempting to get across is that people are always looking for ways to look over what happened and always being fearful of possibly walking into a room full of strangers not knowing what may