Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder that is triggered after experiencing or witnessing some traumatic incident such as a horrible accident, sudden death of a loved one, natural calamity, physical or sexual abuse, terrorist intervention, kidnapping, rape, serious injury, war, childhood neglect, assault, or any other life-threatening event.
The symptoms of PTSD include emotional numbness; avoidant behaviors such as avoiding the conversations, thoughts, or feelings about the traumatic event, avoiding all kinds of activities, places, or people that are related to the particular traumatic incident; and difficulties in clearly recalling the important part of the trauma. Signs of detachment, sleep disturbances, lack of interest in daily activities, poor concentration, irritability, anger outbursts, and anxiety are also present. The affected people also tend to experience somatic symptoms such as headache, sweating, digestive problems, heart-pounding, and rapid heartbeat after thinking about or recalling the traumatic event. They may have nightmares related to the traumatic experience, have disturbing flashbacks of the traumatic event as if the event was repeating itself all over again. The affected people may also neglect health care and personal self-care.