Are There Different Types of PTSD?
The answer to that question is as varied as those asking it.
Specifically speaking there is one type of post traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD). It is an anxiety disorder follows a traumatic event.
However, new studies are being released on a continual basis that
suggests there are two other types of PTSD, which are becoming
recognized.
Those two other forms are called secondary PTSD and cumulative PTSD.
What are they all and what do they mean? The first and primary form of
PTSD has been discussed in length in this series. Secondary PTSD is a
condition that arises from continued exposure (such as living with
someone afflicted with PTSD) to the disorder. People who live in a home
with a PTSD sufferer eventually may exhibit some of the signs and
symptoms themselves. They find themselves living in a stressful and
rather unpredictable environment, they are usually on edge, waiting for
the next flashback, blow-up, temper flare or other emotional instability
of the sufferer to come to the surface.
Living in a home with a person who is seriously disabled by PTSD is a
difficult scenario at best and at its worst can become life threatening.
An example of that is: A combat veteran has severe flashbacks, whereby
he disconnects with reality and is reliving a threat against his life.
As a result, he grabs his wife or significant other by the throat in
order to protect his own life. Had the veteran been in his “right mind”
he never would have treated his wife or anyone else in such a manner,
but in flashback mode, he is not “here” is, he is mentally somewhere
else and therefore now a danger to those around him. This is
unfortunately not an isolated or inconceivable notion. It happens
everyday, around the world.
When a person lives in this type of environment, the signs and symptoms
of PTSD are considered secondary. You may not have actually witnessed
the traumatic event, but you are living with the results of it everyday.
The third type, known as cumulative PTSD is what happens after years and
years of suffering abuse, or living through a series of traumatic events
that eventually take a physical and emotional toll on you. Growing up in
a physically or emotionally abusive home, living for a number of years
with an alcoholic or drug addict, and other types of life long stress
can ultimately cause cumulative PTSD. This has not yet been recognized
fully by the medical associations but is becoming widely discussed and
debated among psychologists and psychiatrists’ world-wide.
Regardless of which “type” of PTSD a person suffers from, the untreated
disorder will only get worse. There is a great deal of help available,
both online and in various health care facilities, please talk to
someone and get the help you need. |
