Military to Civilian Fitness

This blog post is going to be a little more serious than the others. As the title references, it’s about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. According to PubMed Health, it’s “a type of anxiety disorder [that] can occur after you’ve seen or experienced a traumatic event that involved the threat of injury or death”. So what does this mean exactly? If you’re anything like me, it’s one thing to read a definition on paper, and another to hear some examples and understand it better. It refers to people struggling mentally after they’ve gone through something traumatic: witnessing a murder, being abused, or having your spouse die in your arms. All of these things are really difficult to deal with, and in some cases people just can’t handle it; instead they develop PTSD. It has nothing to do with how strong, tough, or smart a person is. It is just random- anyone can get it after going through one of these tough experiences. A lot of people serving in the Armed Forces suffer from this.

So what are the symptoms? There are a few different kinds, and just as everyone’s causes are different, so are their reactions. Some people may have flashbacks. They will be going about their day-to-day activities, and then they’ll suddenly stop, having a sort of “day dream”, or in this case, a nightmare. They will be reliving the experience over and over again. On a milder version of this symptom, a person may simply see things that remind them of the event and might overreact to it.

This brings us to our next symptom: Arousal. I don’t really like this term for this symptom, because it’s a little misleading. I think a better title would be something like “Agitation”. As the title refers to, one may have outbursts of anger. A few other symptoms in this category include being easily startled, troubled sleeping, and difficulty concentrating. You feel this sense of being extremely aware of what’s going on around you, and it’s a little overwhelming. This can lead to Panic Attacks, which are episodes of extreme emotion, a feeling of helplessness, hyperventilating, nausea, tremor, or a racing heart rate. It generally includes a combination of these symptoms. However this only occurs in sever cases of PTSD, and you should seek psychiatric help if you experience these.

Another classification of symptoms is Avoidance. A person might feel a numbness or detachment towards their life, and they don’t quite recall what happened. They might avoid certain things or places that remind them of the event because they don’t want to deal with it. They don’t want to think about the situation, so they don’t; they put it on the back-burner and continue to live their life like it never happened. This is especially difficult to deal with because they are bottling up their grief instead of dealing with their emotions.

So with all of this despair and misery, is there any hope? I am happy to say yes, there is. Just as with many mental disorders, the trick is to resolve the root or cause of the problem. This can be taken care of by attending a support group or getting counseling, and in some cases they prescribe medicine for it, like antidepressants and sleeping pills.

Overall, coming at peace with what happened is the best way of coping with these painful experiences. Knowing that it’s part of the past and that it’s over is a comfort to some. In my own life, one way that I’ve overcome traumatic situations is to look at it with an attitude of “what can I learn from this”. I’ve found that my experiences have helped me to be more compassionate to others. When somebody else is going through a rough time, I better understand what it is they want and need, and I am able to help them. I’ve also found that I’m more understanding of others. Everyone is different, and everyone goes through hard times. You’ve all heard the phrase “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, and I believe that to be true especially with character development. PTSD is a difficult thing to live with, and I hope that my little nuggets of wisdom will help you be happier.