Anxiety and stress are symptoms of PTSD in human beings and are caused by so many factors with traumatic experience being on top of the list. Stress accompanied by anxiety can be very catastrophic and may lead to hardship in coping with the situation especially when the experiences are upsetting and painful. When a person experiences the painful and upsetting conditions for stretched periods to the point that they cannot complete daily responsibilities, then they are candidates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD can be defined as a psychological condition where an individual may encounter hallucinations, persistent flashbacks, or disturbing thoughts related to their upsetting occurrence. People with PTSD may indulge in harmful behavior such as disordered eating habits to deal with the experience.
Clinical Definition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
This mental condition may be caused by a myriad of environmental or social circumstances such as serious road accidents, upsetting birth, or elongated exposure to sexual exploitation. Other causes include military combat, terrorist attacks, horrifying assaults (mugging or robbery), being a witness or victim to violence, substance use disorder, painful childhood experiences, mental disorders, and being held hostage among others ( Williamson, et al., 2017) . Physicians cannot accurately peg the cause of the disorder to any agent but believe PTSD could be an inherited mental health risk. They further believe the manner in which the brain adjusts hormones and chemicals in response to stress, or a person’s inherited temperament could also lead to the condition.
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Signs and symptoms of the disorder could be witnessed within 30 days of the disturbing experience although most often the signs do not manifest until many years later. Victims of the condition could experience difficulty in dealing with career or private life situations. Just like there are so many reasons as to why a person may suffer from the condition so are the symptoms ( Trahan, Carges, Stanley, & Evans-Hudnall, 2016) . First, the sick person may experience intrusive memories such as having flashbacks as if reliving the haunting experience or having physical reactions when they meet with situations that remind them of the disturbing event. Furthermore, the person may exhibit habits of avoiding talk, thoughts, places, people or activities that awaken the trauma.
Secondly, the victim may experience arousal symptoms such as aggressiveness, being prepared for danger always, drinking or smoking too much overwhelming feeling of guilt or shame, or even trouble in sleeping or concentrating. Lastly, the symptoms might manifest themselves in kids in the form of the children re-enacting the whole or part of the experience and having terrible nightmares ( Roy, Michaud, Green-Demers, & Forest, 2017) . When any of these signs are persistent in a person for more than a month, then the person needs to seek a physician or a psychologist’s advice. Similarly, if a person experiences feelings of committing suicide, then such a person should seek professional assistance immediately. The earlier a person finds treatment the better that person is placed at avoiding worse conditions.
Five levels of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
1. Normal stress response
Most of the victims at this stage are healthy adults who experience mild symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. These adults experience such symptoms as feeling secluded from relationships, emotional numbness, tension in the body, extremely severe memories, feelings of unreality, and distress.
2. Acute stress disorder (ASD)
Anxiety disorder better known as acute stress disorder takes place only weeks after the occurrence of a disturbing experience. In this level of PTSD, the sick person may avoid activities, conversations, feelings, places, thoughts, objects, or even people related to the disturbing experiences they went through as these stimuli keep reminding them of the event ( Ressler, et al., 2011) . Moreover, they exhibit symptoms of distress, increased arousal, reliving traumatic experiences, and dissociative amnesia where they can’t recall vital things of the event.
3. Uncomplicated PTSD
Uncomplicated Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder consists of constant reliving of the disturbing experience, symptoms of numbing emotions, increased arousal, and continuous avoidance of stimuli related to the upsetting event.
4. Comorbid PTSD
At this level, the victim undergoes two chronic conditions simultaneously while also experiencing other psychiatric conditions too. Other related mental conditions that a sick person may experience at this stage include despair, excessive smoking or alcohol consumption, anxiety, and panic syndromes. As much as panic syndrome is the most curable, it is also the most overwhelming of the symptoms ( Ressler, et al., 2011) . At times they resemble severe conditions such as dire coronary conditions and the fear that grips the sick person is disabling one. These panic syndromes or disorders must not be confused with panic attacks which are a symptom of the former.
5. Complex PTSD
Diseases of the extreme stress also known as the complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder common in persons who have lived in extended periods of disturbing events most probably during their childhood. Victims under this level of PTSD are generally anti-social and show signs of alcohol or drug abuse, extreme emotional problems such as aggression, panic, or depression, and self-destructive habits. At this stage, the treatment of the condition is complicated and takes a quite long time to heal than other levels of the PTSD ( Ressler, et al., 2011) . The therapy is slower and demands a highly structured and sensitive treatment mode that should be delivered by professionals.
II. Cognitive Effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
A. Mental behavior
1. Psychological aggression
Psychological aggression in the field of psychology has been defined as the habit that could lead to both mental and physical injury, in this case, to the victim or other persons and objects around the victim. This aggression has been cited as one of the significant symptoms of PTSD yet this symptom does not manifest itself in all the victims. Take for instance children who are suffering from the PTSD condition are mostly withdrawn and exhibit signs of increased arousal (Adamantidis, et al., 2007). Furthermore, a majority of war veterans do not show any signs of physical aggression even if they were exposed to war for prolonged periods.
2. Emotional responses
Most victims of PTSD always strive to avoid emotions to prevent situations where they are reminded of the upsetting experiences that are bringing them the discomfort. Feelings that the PTSD people try to escape from include fear, shame, guilt, or sadness. This emotional avoidance strategy is mostly employed through the excessive use of alcohol or engagement in substance abuse ( Hopwood, & Schutte, 2017) . Some of the people with PTSD indulge in self-destructive behavior such as overeating. As much as these tactics provide a refuge in the short term, but in the long term the behaviors are unhealthy and may lead to the emotions becoming stronger in the future.
B. Physical behavior
1. Aggression
Anger is associated with the arousal symptoms of PTSD, and if not managed in time could affect the adverse relationships of the victim and the people surrounding them. It should be noted that anger is just, but one of the signs of PTSD and is not present in all the victims. The few people who exhibit this symptom show it intensely to the point that it looks like they are out of control ( Lindqvist, D., et al., 2017) . In cases where it is not manageable, the victims tend to cause harm either to themselves, people or objects around them. For those who try to hide their anger by suppressing it or hiding it from others, the condition could lead to them adopting self-destructive habits.
2. Isolation/avoidance
Avoidance or isolation in PTSD is the situation where the victims dissociate themselves from activities, people, places, songs, and other circumstances that could expose them to body-level grief. Similar to those experiencing emotional avoidance, these people tend to engage in self-destructive habits and some even practice escapism where they had behind the mask of drugs and substance abuse. A practical example is when a young girl is raped in a dry cleaning shop on her way home from work ( Hoskins, et al., 2015) . This girl may avoid using all cleaning products, and in case she gets a wafting smell of a cleaning product she may experience a panic attack. With time, she may pick up an avoidance behavior by drinking alcohol and later avoid dry cleaning shops because they remind her of the site where she was assaulted.
III. Eating habits and patterns with PTSD
A. Diet
As discussed earlier, many people with PTSD practice avoidance. That is to say; they avoid people, places, or even events to name but a few. Due to the pressure mounted on their selves to suppress the anger in them or just for the simple reason of avoiding certain things that evoke memories of the traumatic event, these people at times practice self-destructive behavior such as overeating ( Williamson, et al., 2017) . Overeating is a poor practice of unhealthy diet and has its demerits such as obesity and consequent health-related disorders as exemplified by coronary heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and high blood pressure. Hence, excessive eating should be moderated to avoid further endangering of the lives of these victims.
A balanced diet has in recent times been identified as one of the treatments for PTSD. Since most people with mental health disorders are believed to have a diet that is not optimal, and PTSD is a mental disorder, it is, therefore, logical that victims of this condition have a poor diet. Furthermore, anxiety and depression are two conditions also associated with poor dietary patterns ( Lindqvist, D., et al., 2017) . Hence, a well-balanced diet will go a long way into rehabilitating these two conditions and indirectly alleviate PTSD since these two are prime symptoms of the situation. All though researchers have identified no specific dietary regime as the best for the treatment of this condition, but also dieticians are working on solving the same issue soon.
IV. Sleep/Insomnia patterns
A. Hours of sleep
It has been documented heavily on the relationship between lack of sleep and PTSD. One of the hyperarousal symptoms of PTSD is sighted as restlessness and lack of sleep. Victims find it hard to sleep or to stay asleep with some of them being more scared of the nightmares than sleep itself ( Matsakis, 2014) . Since when they sleep, they will relive their harrowing experience through nightmares the victims prefer to stay awake.
The causative reason for lack of sleep in PTSD conditions has not been positively identified even though hyper-arousal is associated with the state. People with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are always on guard and very tense at times ( Matsakis, 2014) . Due to this hyper-arousal condition, these people fail to sleep properly, and they will remain sensitive to whatever is taking place around them even when they sleep. Furthermore, people with PTSD have been associated with sleep apnea and loss of control. Loss of control is mainly due to the victims having the feeling that when they sleep, they will lose control of themselves.
B. Rem sleep
Rem sleep is a condition where the people with PTSD undergo a type of rest where they sleep at intervals and have rapid eye movements, and faster breathing and heartbeat. Different studies carried on war veterans show that most people with PTSD also experienced this sleep disorder ( Shou, H., et al., 2017) . Therefore, Rem sleep is brought about by hyper-arousal hence denying the victim the opportunity to have a rest.
V. Conclusion and Opinion of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Therefore it goes without saying that people with PTSD have some challenges ranging from anger management, hyper-arousal, sleep disorders, poor eating habits, emotional avoidance, and so many others. The earlier the victim visits a physician or psychiatrist for help, the better of the victim stands to treatment even though there is no guaranteed treatment attached to the state. Persons who have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can adopt a healthy diet which is associated with the cure of the condition. Even though there is no specific diet tagged with the treatment of PTSD, but a balanced diet is also known to alleviate anxiety and depression, symptoms related to PTSD.
References
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