Post Traumatic Stress Analysis

Reading about stress this week was interesting. One of the quotes from the book I like was “all negative events need not be stressful, and not all positive events are not automatically free from stress” (Gurung, 2014, p. 102). This statement is a good reminder that stress can be different for different people in different situations. I think this is important to remember that people perceive stressful situations differently, and generally there is not a right or wrong way. So what is stress? Gurung explains that a stressor is anything that causes a stress response –i.e. increased heart rate and breathing etc.,, if a situation does not cause a physiological stress response then it is just an event (p. 103). In earlier times stressors were predominately physical –wild animals, enemy attacks etc., while these certainly still exists today, most of our stressors in modern day America are psychological. (p. 105) Stress is a response to a perceived danger. It comes from the sympathetic nervous system (SNS), part of the autonomic nervous system. One of the most well know theories of stress response is the flight or fight theory. When a stressor presents itself the body prepares for action by increasing blood pressure, blood flow to large muscles, blood glucose concentration, muscular strength mental activity and

Most of my friends adult life was spent silently suffering from PTSD related symptoms such as self esteem and emotional problems that led to a very hard time in relationships and engaging in risk taking behaviors that then led to a cycle of self loathing. There were also many headaches, and unexplained body pains that came and went over the years. It took years to find the root problem to all the symptoms and many attempts at therapy. One of the biggest obstacles was the fact that my friend is a