Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder — what’s that?

It’s a series of stress- and anxiety-related physical and psychological problems suffered by people who have been in severely stressful situations, especially chronic, ongoing ones. That would apply to groups like combat soldiers, prisoners of war, Bush’s “illegal combatants,” and victims of child abuse, especially more severe abuse.

As many of the groups above fall under liberal political issues important to me, and the last group includes me and this is National Child Abuse Prevention Month, I want to familiarize people with this issue more.

But, rather than just quote from psychology studies, or reinvent the wheel too much, I refer you to PTSDandME, a blog written by a fellow sufferer.

This also leads to the old question of “why some, not others.” Short answer — I don’t know. Longer answer? Length of exposure to trauma seems to be one factor. In child abuse, how early it started is another. And, there’s what we bring to the table in genetically-oriented personality traits. A pre-existing susceptibility to depression or difficulty with anxiety seems to be part of the mix. A deficiency in the neurotransmitter cortisol also stands indicted.