Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( Ptsd ) - 1692 Words

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition that causes anxiety and distress due to an extremely terrifying event. PTSD occurs in people who have experienced an event that is life-threatening, terrifying to include seeing someone they personally know or don’t know endure death (Kalat, 2013, p. 383). Recently the Veterans Affairs Administration (VA) has seen significant rises in diagnosing and treating PTSD sufferers in returning combat soldier from Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the National Center for PTSD out of 100 veterans 20 are likely to return with PTSD symptoms (Veterans Affairs Administration, 2010). This is out of the roughly two million soldiers that have fought in the Iraq and Afghanistan war. It is noteworthy that†¦show more content†¦PTSD has an array of sub symptoms but in battle fatigue soldiers there are four main symptoms. These are avoiding situations that remind an individual of the event, changes in emotions and beliefs, reliving the event time and time again, and being hyper vigilant at home or social places (Olatunji, Armstrong, Fan, Zhao, 2014, p. 51-53). Avoiding situations for a soldier manifests in several ways. They may have reluctant emotions to go to crowded places, or loud places, avoiding celebrations that honor previous wars and avoiding those who were with them during the event. Negative changes in beliefs and feelings also have several triggers and factors. There are changes in their beliefs in war, morals and overall negative outlook on life altogether. This change is also a symptom of depression and is a co morbid disorder to PTSD. According to recent research not only are combat veterans dealing with symptoms but are highly susceptible to alcohol related problems and increase aggression. 36% of returning veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq had alcohol related issues, along with PTSD symptoms and physical aggression (Stappenbeck, Hellmuth, Simpson, Jakupcak, 2014, p. 65-66). With soldiers returning from excessive combat tours research shows they turn to alcohol as a coping mechanism (Stappenbeck, Hellmuth, Simpson, Jakupcak, 2014, p. 66). With consuming large amounts of alcohol to cope,