Abstract

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd):
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an
emotional illness that usually develops as a result
of a terribly frightening, life-threatening, or
otherwise highly unsafe experience. PTSD
sufferers re-experience the traumatic event or
events in some way, tend to avoid places, people,
or other things that remind them of the event
(avoidance), and are exquisitely sensitive to
normal life experiences (hyper arousal). Although
this condition has likely existed since human
beings have endured trauma, PTSD has only been
recognized as a formal diagnosis since 1980.
However, it was called by different names as early
as the American Civil War, when combat veterans
were referred to as suffering from "soldier's
heart." In World War I, symptoms that were
generally consistent with this syndrome were
referred to as "combat fatigue." Soldiers who
developed such symptoms in World War II were
said to be suffering from "gross stress reaction,"
and many troops in Vietnam who had symptoms
of what is now called PTSD were assessed as
having "post-Vietnam syndrome." PTSD has also
been called "battle fatigue" and "shell shock."