Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder. It can occur after you have gone through an extreme emotional trauma that involved the threat of injury or death.

PTSD is a mental health condition caused by experiencing an extremely traumatic or terrifying event. A person who develops PTSD may have been mentally or physically harmed, or may have had to witness harm being done to others around them.

For most people, its natural to feel frightened when they find themselves in a dangerous situation. Our bodies’ respond to this fear in one of two ways: either fight or flight. Basically, this means that we either run or defend ourselves when in danger. However, people who have developed post-traumatic stress disorder carry the same feelings of pain and fear with them even after the dangerous or traumatic event has occurred. These recurrent feelings lead people with PTSD to lose the instinct to protect themselves in dangerous situations.

This disorder garnered a great deal of publicity when numerous PTSD cases started to appear in battle-scarred soldiers returning home to the U.S. Though war is not the only event that causes the development of PTSD. Physical abuse, rape, natural disasters, and car accidents are just a few among many events that can cause a person to experience PTSD.

Reference:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml