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Post Trautmatic Stress Disorder

© Colleen Sullivan

When U.S. President Lyndon B Johnson ordered an air attack on Vietnam Jack had just passed his fifteenth birthday. Three years later he entered the service and was deployed in the sweltering jungles of Viet Nam, part of a special task force of fifty six men. The conditions all around Jack were horrible, he saw and heard things he had never thought possible in his wildest imagination. It was hot, filthy and constantly fraught with danger. As Jack saw his buddies dying at his side he learned to kill, or be killed, something that went against his nature and all he had ever been taught. Jack was traumatized by the events of the war.

Sandra was a 23 year old student, married to Paul her childhood sweetheart. In four months their first child would be born. Both Sandra and Paul were ecstatic and looking forward to sharing their love with a son or daughter. One night, after a late class, just as Sandra was opening her car door to head home Sandra was attacked from behind and dragged kicking and screaming into the nearby bushes where she was brutally beaten, raped and left for dead. Sandra had been through the worst trauma of her life.

Todd was eleven years old on the day he would never forget. It was a normal school day. He'd argued with his mom about eating breakfast because his friends were waiting to walk to school with him. This happened every morning, a natural course of events and Todd was secure in the normalcy of his existence. When they were released for lunched and rushed en masse through the wide school doors it was to a barrage of bullets fired by five students with semi-automatic rifles. Todd's best friend dropped beside him...dead, along with many other children Todd knew well. Todd was traumatized.

Jack, Sandra and Todd all experienced extreme trauma and it is trauma that can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTST as it is commonly known and will be referred to as in this article.)

PTSD is an intense, persistent, and extremely distressing response to an event that threatened a life or safety. It can occur at any age and it is estimated that 30% of individuals who have experienced trauma go on to develop PTSD. PTSD was first designated a psychiatric disorder in 1980 following the Vietnam war although the symptoms had been recognized in soldiers as early as World War 1.

The copyright of the article Post Trautmatic Stress Disorder in Bipolar Disorder is owned by Colleen Sullivan. Permission to republish Post Trautmatic Stress Disorder in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.