ABSTRACT

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a `reactive' disorder. In other words, it develops as a response to experiencing (one or many) traumatic events that are both frightening and overwhelming. Anyone can suffer from PTSD. The likelihood of someone developing the disorder in a particular set of circumstances depends upon many factors. However, the basic elements are that the person experienced something that seriously threatened their life or their physical wellbeing in some way. Their reaction, understandably, is expected to have involved extreme feelings of fear and helplessness. Of course, the event could have been a one-off incident or something that happened many times. People can also suffer from PTSD after witnessing dreadful things happening to other people. PTSD can be mild, moderate or severe.