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In
"The Primates' Stress Club,"
Robert Sapolsky explains
to Alan the evolutionary roots of psychological stress, while
Jay Kaplan in "Angry
at Heart,"shows the dire effects it can have on the
body. The more extreme the stress, the more extreme its impact.
One
manifestation of extreme stress is Post -Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD), a somewhat enigmatic disorder of memory and
mood. Though people have long recognized the impact extreme
stress can have on a person, it is only recently that research
has shed light on PTSD, how it works, and how it can be treated.
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What
is PTSD
Its
name is cold and clinical, but its symptoms can be terrifying,
calamitous and visceral. First observed in War World I, PTSD
was given the more evocative moniker "shell shock." British
military medics thought it was a neurological disorder caused
by the physical force of explosions. When Viet Nam veterans
came home traumatized, psychologists classified the damage
as psychic scarring. But by the end of the twentieth century,
science would come full circle, determining that psychological
ordeals are in fact related to physical changes in the brain.
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Often
referred to as "shell shock,"many soldiers
who see battle are afflicted with PTSD.
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As
defined by the DSM-the standard diagnostic and treatment manual
for mental health professionals-PTSD requires that a person
experience an event outside the realm of what might be considered
"normal" human suffering. That is, people who are diagnosed
with PTSD must have experienced violence or a natural disaster,
not a messy divorce or unexpected lay off.
PTSD
can affect different people in different ways. Movies often
depict the nightmares or flashbacks common to PTSD sufferers-moments
where the person relives the trauma, often unaware of his
or her actual surroundings and circumstances. But not all
PTSD sufferers experience flashbacks. Other common symptoms
of PTSD are generalized anxiety, emotional numbness, irritability,
depression and/or substance abuse. Though most people with
PTSD avoid thinking about the event that triggered it, others
dwell on it.
Symptoms
of PTSD can appear immediately after the trauma, or they can
surface months or years later. How and why it affects people
differently is one of the enduring mysteries surrounding PTSD.
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