Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PSTD)

PTSD is an anxiety disorder brought on by exposure to an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury that causes intense fear, helplessness or horror.

If you have been involved in an accident or been subjected to other severe mental trauma, you may experience serious and prolonged anxiety symptoms. These symptoms reoccur, or get worse every time something reminds you of the events you have been subjected to. One may even re-experience the trauma in the form of thoughts, pictures or in dreams.

The contemporary definition of PTSD is usually traced back to the World War 1 diagnosis of ‘shell shock’ which was, at first, thought to be due to the effects of newly invented heavy artillery.  A post-traumatic syndrome was not officially recognised until 1980.

Today PTSD can often be treated effectively with medicine and psychotherapy.

You can find more detailed information about PTSD by using links to other sections.