PTSD

While I haven't experienced any trauma in my life powerful enough to have given me the ailment of post traumatic stress disorder, I feel that it's important to try my best to relate to and feel for those afflicted with the condition. From what I know, post traumatic stress disorder occurs in individuals who experience events of extreme terror, death, shock, or pain. It's unique because it's not an ailment that one can be born with, rather it is derived from external experiences that an individual endures. I'm well aware that it's fairly common for soldiers or other individuals in the various branches of the military who have experienced combat to develop PTSD due to the pain and possibly death that they were either forced to go through indirectly, or experience first hand in one way or another. We need to try our best to empathize with those suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. We need to recognize that they have a condition that we can't fully understand and can be triggered by any number of things. I met an individual with PTSD and he told me that his biggest trigger is seeing or hearing helicopters because they bring him back to the times when he saw his fellow servicemen being carried away in the medivac helicopters. I also know that fireworks are a very common trigger because it reminds afflicted individuals of being under fire. Once we know what the individuals trigger is, we need to do the best that we can to avoid bringing that trigger into their presence. PTSD is unfortunate and awareness needs to be spread much more than it currently is.