Anyone Can Get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
How do you deal with a traumatic experience that has just occurred in your life?
It goes without saying that everyone will have a different method of coping – some will be healthy while others can be dangerously unhealthy mentally and emotionally speaking.
The most recent senseless act of violence that took place in Aurora, Colorado was mortifying – lives were lost while others suffered nearly fatal wounds. Beyond those physical wounds suffered by survivors of the shooting lie the lifelong wounds and the memories of this terror. The severe sense of anxiety that is associated with an event that involves the threat of death will almost certainly result in psychological trauma.
This is known as Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The first thing that people think of when they hear or read of a discussion about PTSD: War veterans – particularly, Vietnam veterans.
To put it bluntly, I believe that it is pure arrogance for someone to think that just because they haven’t served for their country that they are invulnerable to suffering from PTSD – not only is it arrogance, it’s obtuse.
It’s important to realize that this anxiety disorder is not limited in its reach. Anyone can suffer from this after enduring a life-threatening experience. Anyone can.
The public urgently needs to increase its awareness of PTSD, not just for the possibility that we too can suffer from this one day – also those around us whose seemingly unexplainable behavioral changes may in all actuality be from PTSD.
To help increase the awareness of our readers here on Technorati, I present to you Dr. Courtney Schuneman along with her professional opinions and some research that she has been kind enough to provide us with.
Dr. Schuneman earned her M.A. in Clinical Psychology with a focus on sexual, physical, and emotional abuse and neglect. Courtney completed her doctorate at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where her training emphasized the bio-psycho-social-spiritual and multicultural approaches in behavioral medicine. During her doctoral internship, she focused on treating patients suffering from co-morbid diagnoses of complex PTSD, mood disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders, addictions, and the seriously mentally ill. Her post-doctoral residency focused on providing treatment for chronic illness, pain management, PTSD, addictions, grief/loss, and end-of-life issues. Courtney worked at several other psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and behavioral health services before becoming part of the Sierra Tucson team.
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