Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Term Paper Example

Persistent avoidance and emotional numbing; persistent symptoms of increased arousal not present prior to the event; duration of symptoms last for more than one month; significant impairment (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The criteria to determine if a person has PTSD includes (APA, 2000) exposure to a traumatic event. For the event to be considered traumatic, and therefore capable of causing PTSD, it must involve a severe negative emotional response and a depletion of integrity or an event that involves the threat of injury or death; persistent re-experiencing of the event, such as experiencing flashbacks of the event, and the ability to continually re-experience the event or display a negative psychological response to anything that might remind them of the event; persistent avoidance and emotional numbing, where the victim avoids anything at all related to the event, including feelings or thoughts that they associate with the event.

They avoid people, places or other stimuli involved in the event; however, they can also be unable to recall some of the more important information of the event. They begin to shut down their emotions, especially if they were experienced during the event. Furthermore, there is a persistent of symptoms of increased arousal not present prior to the event, during which the victim begins to experience things that they did not prior to the event, such as sleeplessness, issues controlling their anger, having difficulty concentrating, and hypervigilance, which is the victim’s ability to be overly sensitive to danger or potentially harmful situations; The duration of symptoms lasts for more than one month, where the victim experiences the typical symptoms of PTSD and they do not subside after a month, they are usually diagnosed with PTSD; and significant impairment, during which the victim can experience impairment and deterioration of major aspects of life, such as social relationships and intimate relationships, as well as occupation or family life.