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A Look Into Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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A Look into Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Rachael S
09/15/2013

PTSD affects 7.7 million American adults, but it can occur at any age (NIMH, PTSD, Who is at risk). The sight of violence and death leaves lasting effects on people. How do you think those people cope with what they saw when the Twin Towers went down? How do people cope with such traumatic experiences? The events that lead to post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can impact one’s life, fortunately there are ways to treat it.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) develops after a terrifying ordeal that involved physical harm or the threat of physical harm (National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), post-traumatic stress disorder Para 2). It is the consequence of a deeply shocking, threatening, and disturbing experience such as military combat, a serious road accident, sexual or physical abuse, terrorist attack, or natural disasters are all possible causes of the onset of PTSD (MacDonald, 2008). PTSD became a formal diagnosis in 1980 (Lavin, Joanne, page 42). Think about when the Twin Towers went down because of terrorist attack, this had a huge impact on many lives. Many people died or injured that day, and the people that survived the terrorist attack, witnessed bodies burned up by the fire and heard screams of fear and pain. Hurricane Katrina took many lives as well. Katrina caused an abundance of damage like taking and injuring lives, demolishing homes and businesses, flooded the homes that weren’t demolished, and destroyed cars among other things. You can only imagine the fear that built up for those victims during the hurricane, and the after math of what it brought them as they see their neighborhoods have been destroyed, and the deaths that become of it. Veterans of war have witnessed or experienced violent injuries, or the deaths of fellow soldiers. The images that follow those

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