During the lockdown, there was a 25 push up challenge aimed at raising awareness for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When I was challenged by a friend from university on my Instagram @pendulum_fitness I thought I would do something different so I decided every day, along with my 25 push-ups, I would also post a fact I had researched about PTSD to further increase awareness and understanding of the condition. I didn’t realize the frequency of the occurrence of this condition as I had previously associated it mainly with war veterans. From the research I have done I have come to realize that this condition is very prominent in all populations and has the potential to affect everybody. With this list of facts on the condition, I hope to bring some clarity to what PTSD is, how it affects people, and some of the signs and symptoms to look out for, and what can affect it.
1. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder which may develop post-exposure to an extremely threatening or horrific event or series of traumas (1).
Trauma is defined by Foa, Keane, Friedman, and Cohen (2020) as exposure to actual, or the threat of, death, serious injury, or sexual violence.
2. The trauma with the highest likelihood to lead to PTSD is rape (13.1%) and sexual assault (15.1%) (1)
42.7% of PTSD cases stem from acts of sexual violence by an intimate partner. The most common trauma which leads to PTSD is the unexpected death of a loved one. This may be due to the volume of people who have experienced the loss of a loved one compared to how many people have been victims of the trauma caused by sexual assault (3)
3. 85% of people who develop PTSD have the onset of their symptoms within the first most post the traumatic event, or after the series of traumatic events finishes (1).
The of the 15% symptoms onset months, if not years post-trauma (1) People with PTSD may not associate their symptoms with the trauma if significant time as passed
4. People who live in more urban areas are more likely to develop PTSD (1).
This may be due to more crime occurring in these areas and lower amounts of education and more life stressors, whether they be financial, social, or environmental.
5. The trauma of being a refugee may lead to PTSD (1).
This may be due to the experiences which people succumb to fleeing a war-ridden country.
6. People who have experienced violent trauma are more likely to experience violent trauma or intimate partner sexual violence in the future.
This may be due to living environment, for example, living with a violent partner; being a refugee, fleeing a war-torn part of the world; or living in more urban areas where more violence and crime occurs.
7. People who experience 4 or more traumatic events are more likely to develop PTSD than people who experience 3 or less.
On average each person in the world will experience 3.2 traumatic events in their lifetime (2)
8. Lower levels of education put people at higher risk of developing PTSD (1,2).
This may be due to many factors such as poor social support at home, abuse, financial struggle or a variety of other factors
9. Being exposed or a witness to a traumatic event may cause PTSD (1).
Putting people who work in emergency services, fire, police, and ambulance workers, journalist and members of the armed forces at risk, even post service.
10. Women are 2-3 times more likely to suffer from PTSD than men (1).
This may be since women may experience PTSD due to traumatic childbirth, a trauma which men do not experience. Men may, however, experience more severe symptoms of PTSD.
11. 4.4% of people living in the UK will be diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime. (2)
There may be more people who suffer from this disorder who just have not been diagnosed.
12. PTSD is the second/third most common mental health disorder after mixed anxiety and depression and general anxiety disorder (GAD) (2).
Its is important to remember that these conditions do not appear in isolation as many people with PTSD will also suffer from anxiety and depression. Their anxiety and depression may be linked to the trauma causing the PTSD but it also may have a separate cause.
13. 78% of people diagnosed with PTSD will be diagnosed with another mental disorder in their lifetime (2).
This may be due to people with other mental health disorders being more susceptible to PTSD. This may also be because people with mental health disorders a may also be in environments which put people at higher risk of experiencing trauma with circumstances which increase the risk to PTSD.
14. Over half of the people who are diagnosed with PTSD meet the diagnostic criteria for depression (2).
This may be due to the PTSD symptoms overlapping with symptoms of other mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression.
15. If there are disorders present which is secondary to PTSD, treatment for PTSD may improve symptoms of other disorders to the point where they no longer meet the diagnostic criteria (1).
If the secondary disorder, for example, depression, is not interfering with the PTSD treatment and is not an immediate threat to the suffers health, then dealing with the deep-rooted issues causing the PTSD a lot of times resolves issues which developed from branches of the PTSD.
16. A 2016 study reviewed by (2) found that there was an average of 4.5 years between people seeking treatment and receiving it.
Due to this long wait for treatment for the second most common mental health disorder, it is no wonder that other mental health disorders occur post PTSD diagnosis and substance use becomes an issue for many people.
17. 40% of people diagnosed with PTSD are later diagnosed with substance use disorder (1).
This may be due to the length of time between diagnosis and receiving proper treatment for the disorder. Self-medication may be the only option for people on a long waiting list for treatment, which may then turn into an addiction with negative psychological and physical effects.
18. People who perceive themselves to have little social support or have more life stressors, for example, financial difficulties are more likely to develop PTSD and have more severe symptoms (2).
This may be linked to more PTSD sufferers living in urban areas. It may be difficult to come to terms with your trauma or even focus on getting past it if you have more immediate life stresses and problems which need addressing.
19. In 2/3 of sufferers’ symptoms reduce without treatment with a significant drop off in severity of symptoms 1 year after the end of the trauma, but in the other 1/3 symptoms do not change without treatment (1,2).
This may be good news for many people as the severity of symptoms will reduce over time but it is necessary to remember the research only says reduce, meaning you will still experience symptoms if you do not treat the cause. Also, the other 1/3 of people need to seek treatment as soon as they can to gain aid in reducing and getting rid of their symptoms
20. There is a correlation between PTSD and cardiovascular disease (2).
You’re more likely to die from a heart attack if you suffer from PTSD. Also, the more severe your PTSD symptoms, the higher your blood pressure is likely to be. (2) this may have something to do with many PTSD sufferers also suffering from conditions such as anxiety which stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, therefore increasing heart rate and cortisol production.
21. The American psychiatric association and the world health organization have slightly different criteria for diagnosing PTSD which changes every few years (2).
This means you cannot fit the criteria provided by WHO but fit the one provided by the American psychiatric association, meaning 2 different doctors can provide 2 different diagnoses’. This also means that you may not meet the diagnostic criteria one year, but you may meet it the next year without any change in symptoms. Vise-versa, you may meet the criteria one year but no longer meet it the next.
22. Treatment for PTSD is often centred around talking about the traumatic event in 1to1 therapy sessions and group sessions (1).
There are a few ways to achieve this. It is possible to go through the NHS, you could talk to a therapist privately, you could have an online therapist, and you could do group therapy sessions. Although the NHS is a free option, it may also have the longest waiting list for treatment. In comparison going private, you will most likely be able to talk to someone immediately, but it would come at a financial cost which may be steep. Online therapy is a newer option which is more cost-effective and may be better for you if you don’t feel comfortable talking face to face. Group sessions will also be more cost-effective than 1to1 sessions and may even be free, depending on where they are run and who by.
23. Depending on the severity, Depression, substance abuse and other conditions sometimes need to be managed and treated before PTSD (1).
As these conditions may inhibit the sufferer’s ability to make effective use of their treatment and me put them and others in harm’s way (1)
24. Symptoms of PTSD may lead to job loss and suicide (1).
To reiterate the previous point, if the sufferer is a risk of losing their employment, which will likely worsen their symptoms due to increased financial uncertainty, or suicide is a real risk, then this needs to be treated before the actual PTSD as this is the sufferers biggest threat to their quality of life.
25. The time between the end of the trauma and the start of the treatment does not affect the effectiveness of the treatment (1).
Having time between trauma and seeking help shouldn’t deter anyone from seeking treatment as it is just as effective years later as it would have been weeks. Also being on a waiting list for treatment is not going to mean the treatment you receive is no longer going to work.
I hope this information will help anyone going through PTSD or any other mental health disorder. It is important to remember that you are not alone, and many others are going through similar experiences. If you’ve found this informative or helpful, please share this with someone else you think will appreciate it or it will help. Let us all make the effort to talk more about our mental health.
References
1) National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (UK. (2005). Post-traumatic stress disorder: The management of PTSD in adults and children in primary and secondary care. Gaskell.
2) Foa, E. B., Keane, T. M., Friedman, M. J., & Cohen, J. A. (2020). Effective treatments for PTSD. Guilford Publications.
3) Kessler, R. C., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Benjet, C., Bromet, E. J., Cardoso, G., ... & Florescu, S. (2017). Trauma and PTSD in the WHO world mental health surveys. European journal of psychotraumatology, 8(sup5), 1353383.