Causes Of
PTSD
What Can Cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can develop after a person experiences or witnesses a traumatic event. Our very own research suggests that up to 91.6% of Scottish Emergency Service workers have encountered an incident that they personally experienced as traumatic.
While most Emergency Service workers may experience short-term distress, 49.6% experienced poor mental health for longer than 4 weeks post incident, which can indicate PTSD.
How Does PTSD
Develop ?
PTSD occurs when the brain struggles to properly process and store memories from a traumatic event. During such events, the body goes into survival mode, prioritising immediate responses like the fight-or-flight reflex over functions such as digestion and memory processing.
When your brain later tries to process the event, it may find that the memory hasn't been properly stored. This can cause the brain to misinterpret the traumatic event as ongoing rather than a past experience, leading to distressing flashbacks where the sensations (sights, sounds, smells) are relived as though they are happening in real-time.
This difficulty in distinguishing the event as a memory is at the heart of PTSD symptoms. The ongoing distress alters the brain’s functioning, contributing to the disorder.
Why Do Some People Develop PTSD While Others Don’t?
While there has been significant research, it’s still unclear why some individuals develop PTSD after a traumatic event while others do not. We do know that PTSD can affect anyone, but some factors increase the risk. These risk factors fall into three categories: pre-trauma, peri-trauma, and post-trauma.
Pre-trauma factors: age, gender, ethnicity, education, prior mental health issues, coping mechanisms, and genetics.
Peri-trauma factors: the severity and duration of the trauma, physical injury, and the fear experienced during the event.
Post-trauma factors: access to resources, financial stress, social support, and post-trauma health complications.