PTSD. What is it?

I occasionally reference Jake’s PTSD here on my blog but I’ve never done a post on what PTSD actually is. I know that a lot of people have a vague understanding of it, I did before Jake and I met, but since then, I’ve learned a lot and I thought I’d share that with you today.

PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It’s an anxiety disorder that occurs after a traumatic event. Often times after your life was in danger. Soldiers aren’t the only ones that suffer from this (think rape victims, victims of other violent crimes) but more and more soldiers are coming home and presenting with the symptoms.

According to the Department of Veterans Affairs website, there are 4 types of PTSD symptoms.  Most other sites claim 3 types of symptoms.

1.              Re-living the event: memories of your trauma can come back at anytime.

Ex. Fireworks remind Jake of gunfire in Iraq. After the first 4^th of July he experienced this he now wears earplugs on the 4^th of July/New Years Eve. We don’t celebrate either of those outside of our home.

2.              Avoiding situations that remind you of the event.

Ex. Jake never watches war movies. Ever. Never ever ever. No Inglorious Basterds for him.

3.              Feeling Numb: difficulty expressing feelings.

Ex. I don’t really have an example but Jake does have a hard time expressing his feelings at times. Not always, but it happens.

4.              Feeling Keyed Up (Hyperarousal): Always being on guard.

Ex. When we go out we always sit at a table where Jake can have his back to the wall so he can see the other patrons and nobody can come up behind him. If a table like that isn’t available, we’ll wait.

As you can see, Jake has all 4 types of symptoms. This is typical as to be diagnosed with PTSD you generally have to have multiple symptoms from each category. These aren’t the only symptoms of PTSD though.

According to HelpGuide.org other common symptoms are:

Anger and Irritability

Guilt, Shame and Self-Blame

Substance Abuse

Feelings of Mistrust and Betrayal

Depression and Hopelessness

Suicidal Thoughts

Feelings of Being Alienated and Alone

Physical Aches and Pain

One of Jake’s symptoms is debilitating headaches. You know how when you get a migraine it ruins your whole day? Imagine that every single day but with varying degrees of pain. Some days it’s bearable, others you just can’t do much of anything. Well, when you have enough "can’t do much of anything" headaches every week you become unemployable. He has tried every medication combination under the sun and nothing helps. Or if something does help initially, it usually leaves him with a rebound headache that was worse than the original.

A lot of people with PTSD also suffer from nightmares. Were you aware that there is a medication to help a person forget their nightmares? There is, he takes it. It works fairly well too.

He suffers from a wide range of other symptoms as well, some of which I've mentioned previously. 

Two-thirds of people will eventually get better but one-third will not. I really hope that Jake is one of those that will get better but his doctors say his case of PTSD is very severe. In the meantime, we'll continue going to a million medical appointments at the VA and do our best to adapt to a life with PTSD.