For a lot of people, mental health can be uncomfortable to talk about, but the truth is, a lot of people suffer from various mental health conditions. But a lot of people either go undiagnosed, or they have deeper conditions that are not fully diagnosed.  This can include PTSD. 

There are certain fears of this diagnosis, especially with what it might do, and in some cases, people will ignore the symptoms that are there, and it’s important to understand that coping with such, especially untreated, may not help. Some people think that the symptoms won’t go away, but with PTSD, they usually don’t, and if you’re not going to get help for it, it does put you at risk for self-harm, addiction, disordered eating, abuse of alcohol and drugs, and also diseases that happen chronically. 

What PTSD Is 

Some studies say that for every hundred people that experience some trauma, about a quarter of them will have PTSD, so about one in every four survivors get this. 

There is no reason why some are predisposed to this, but someone  with PTSD can have this happen when they get through a severe, or even moderately severe trauma that’s there. Basically, the memory is there, fully imprinted within your prefrontal cortex in the limbic system. The experience also creates a memory within your amygdala. 

This is the part of the brain that’s involved with learning and events, and when PTSD occurs, it causes a lot of adrenaline to push forward, and your brain basically hyper-remembers everything that’s there, and you start to remember all of the things that occurred. 

This is utilized as  a protective mechanism to prevent future injuries too. 

In cases of extreme trauma, you fully replay this, and your brain gets a memory of this. Those with PTSD do relieve the experience with all of the senses there, which is why this is not good for living daily. 

Some of the ways you can experience this include: 

• Terrorism 
• Violence 
• Combat 
• Physical and sexual assault 
• Health crises 
• Natural disasters 
• The death of someone 

Can It Go away? 

This is something that can be difficult to understand. Lots of times, the feelings end up laying quite dormant, and lots of times, people think they’ve healed. But then it crops up. 

There are studies that have shown that it does not go away, and for some people, they can go years without feeling these sensations again, and lots of times, the root trauma is there, waiting to appear at any time. 

It can impact your health too. It can break down your health, and chronic health stress such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and metabolic disorders are rooted into PTSD. 

Plus, it impacts how you can form relationships with others. You push people away, and it can ruin marriages, relationships with your family, and even relationships with your friends. 

When to Seek Help 

If you find that it’s not going away, you should then go and seek help. 

Medical cannabis is becoming a new way to treat PTSD, with some people reporting that the amygdala activity does decrease, and it holds back the flashbacks and memory that come with this, and some veterans have found solace in treating their PTSD with this. 

In another study, it found that medical cannabis is great for reducing anxiety, as it can help with making it easier to cope with this. 

As we start to learn more about this, there might be other treatments which can aid with helping to cope with this condition.