Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Research

The reason in which I decided to research into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is that my main character will be suffering from it. Although the main feature of the film isn't about this, I felt that it was an important enough part of her character that it deserved to be researched and done properly. Therefore I did not want to start filming or make assumptions on how people would act without even going into any research. 

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (or a shorter term PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that is caused due to stressful, frightening or distressing events which have happened within someones past. Events that can lead to a disorder such as this are: 

• Road Accidents.
• Violent, sudden personal assaults such as sexual abuse, mugging or a robbery.
• Consistant sexual abuse, violence or severe neglect.
• Witnessing murders / deaths.
• Military combat.
• Being held hostage.
• Witnessing terrorist attacks such as 911.
• Natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis.

It can be developed immediately after an experiencing an event of such as the above or it can occur weeks, months or years after the event. It develops in about 1 out of 3 people who experience severe trauma which can not be explained why some people experience it and some people can go without it.

People with PTSD their brain has parts involved in emotional processing appear different in brain scans. One part of the brain is responsible for the memory and emotions that us as humans consume which is known as hippocampus. People with PTSD their hippocampus appears smaller in size. It is thought to be that the changes in this part of the brain can be related to fear and anxiety, memory problems and flashbacks. If the hippocampus malfunctions i may prevent flashbacks and nightmares from being properly processed, therefore the anxiety they begin to generate does not reduce over any time period. Treatment of PTSD results in processing their memories so that over time the flashbacks and nightmares will eventually and gradually disappear.