Understanding The Causes And Risk Factors For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Long-Lasting Trauma

As stated, PTSD can be diagnosed after exposure to a single traumatic event, but some individuals experience ongoing trauma in their day-to-day lives. They might live in a household with domestic violence, witness community violence, experience minority stress, or live in an area affected by war or natural disasters. Those who experience ongoing traumatic events are significantly more likely to experience symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that might include alterations to their brain structure. Complex trauma syndrome isn't a diagnosis under the DSM-V, but some mental health practitioners talk about it differently than PTSD. Another name for the disorder is complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or C-PTSD. Although this also isn't included in the DSM-V, it specifies that an affected individual experiences PTSD-related symptoms following several ongoing traumas rather than a single event. The symptoms of long-lasting trauma can present differently from post-traumatic stress disorder in some ways. Most commonly, individuals may get 'stuck' in unhealthy patterns of behavior.