Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a psychological reaction to an intensely stressful trauma. A trauma is a wound. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder results from exposure to an overwhelming trauma, such as rape, war, or abuse. The American Psychiatric Association formally defined Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 1980 after the Vietnam experience. Even though it is a categorized anxiety disorder, it in reality is a very normal reaction to extremely abnormal events or situations. Shell shock. Combat Stress. These are familiar synonyms for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Stockholm Syndrome, brought into popular consciousness by the kidnapping victim Patty Hearst, who, much to the confusion of people later identified with her captors and committed criminal acts with them. The kinds of events that precipitate Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are typically so extraordinary that any human being would feel immense psychological distress. For example, witnessing domestic violence as a child, experiencing incest, or fighting in a war are stressors for which PTSD is a predictable and understandable outcome.
PTSD can be stigmatizing, as many mental disorders are, as our hyperkinetic society tends toward minimizing the perceived messiness of "too much" emotionality. Pathologizing what is the inevitable emotional fallout due to trauma, and therefore PTSD as a whole is especially damaging to those experiencing it. As human beings we experience horrors immeasurable, yet we are expected to "suck it up", "get over it", "stop dwelling", and basically deny any emotions that create discomfort in us, in others, or in society. The danger is that parents suffering from PTSD may not receive appropriate treatment, compassion and empathic support for fear of judgment, lack of support, being perceived as weak, spiritually inferior, character deficient, or just plain crazy. The true tragedy is that who suffers most because of this are children. This perpetuates the passing of a traumatic cycle of suffering to the next generation. The solutions include creating understanding through education and awareness. Empowerment through knowledge will help depathologize the experience of complex emotions. This will create an atmosphere of emotional support and healing as individuals and collectively as a society.
