Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Who Doesn't Have It?

As I continue to grow in my personal growth recovery journey I find that there are more people out there in the world that have undiagnosed PTSD than ever. Of course, I must take into consideration the emerging troops from Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries in which war and violence are a standard in life. Our military and their families are being inundated with diagnosis of PTSD but the military and the rest of the world just aren't ready for it. It's still an enigma that no one is quite sure of. People in general, have heard about PTSD, most likely have been exposed to trauma, violence, a natural disaster or other crisis that could manifest itself into symptoms of PTSD and they don't even realize it.

I realize it more and more every day. I've been diagnosed with it for over six years and I've learned most everything that you can learn about PTSD except for unpublished information. There's a vast public out there who won't commit to having the mental illness because of the stigma and that public holds a huge key to understanding both the illness and the reasons it seems to develop in certain individuals. We live in a violent world now. PTSD is bound to happen to more and more people and until people begin to learn about it - it will continue to go untreated. This could make for an even more dangerous world.

I most likely developed my post traumatic stress disorder, depression and eating disorder as a child. Back then mental illness was so stigmatized yet that people wouldn't even say the word, "depression" out loud, it was always whispered. No one knew much about post traumatic stress disorder and it was thought to be experienced by those exposed to combat only.

If you study the numbers of children exposed to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and other natural disasters alone - you would see the potential for how many children might develop PTSD symptoms, acute stress symptoms and may begin to struggle with mental illness every year.

If you add to those children the number of children exposed to domestic violence, street violence, drug addiction and alcoholism you can add another vast population to the prior and it seems impossible so many kids could be affected by mental illness, especially PTSD. Add to those children all the children in the world who have experienced a severe car accident, the death of a close relative or who have been exposed to excessive bullying or abuse - and the figures become staggering.

There are other predictors of developing post traumatic stress disorder. How many children in the world are exposed to the sound of guns, machine guns, bombs, and other experiences included in combat, war or conflict? They all have a very high predictability of developing PTSD.

It's amazing that all of those children have parents that may have been exposed to the very same things and all of those people as individuals have the very high possibility of developing post traumatic stress as well. The probability is that high and there are few people who know anything about it. The information is easy to find - Google it. Post traumatic stress disorder - please consider that even a prisoner of war has a very high likelihood of developing PTSD - and you never know - this could become an instance of a president of the United States experiencing some symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder.

Learn about it so perhaps you can stay clear of developing it sometime in your future.