While you might often hear about
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in reference to military veterans,. But anyone who has experienced or witnessed an extremely stressful, scary, shocking, event or series of events that threaten their perceived safety or life, or that of people around them can develop the mental health condition.
Trauma that causes PTSD can take many forms. It could be caused by a car accident, a sexual assault, ongoing abuse, or an explosion, for example. A health professional can diagnose PTSD if symptoms including flashbacks, social
anxiety, avoidance, and changes in bodily or emotional responses persist for a month or more and negatively affect a person’s everyday life.
The experience of trauma is extremely common. Seventy percent of American adults, or nearly 240 million people, will experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. About 8 in every 100 women and 4 out of every 100 men in the United States will have PTSD at some point in their lives. And in any given year, about 13 million people are reported to have PTSD in the United States.
Considering how common the condition is, you might be surprised that PTSD remains fairly misunderstood. Here are five common myths people believe about PTSD — and why they aren’t true.
The belief that PTSD affects only
military veterans who’ve experienced war-related trauma is understandable. After all, it was just in 1980 — five years after the Vietnam War ended — that the American Psychiatric Association added PTSD to its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), then in its third edition.
Of course, the symptoms associated with the condition had always existed for people who suffered after a traumatic event, but veterans were the highest-profile people in the first cohort to be given a
diagnosis of PTSD.
This misconception can be harmful. A person who has experienced trauma and is showing symptoms of PTSD may not be compelled to seek a diagnosis because he or she hasn’t been in the military and doesn’t associate PTSD with other forms of trauma, says Tara Emrani, PhD, a psychologist based in New York City.
In reality, PTSD can affect people who have been through a sexual assault, people who have experienced accidents and terrorist attacks, and people who have suffered from
domestic abuse or lived with a chronic illness, among many other situations.
Also contrary to popular belief, a person doesn’t have to face a trauma that overwhelms their ability to cope with extreme stress to
develop PTSD. For instance, learning that a loved one experienced trauma could lead to PTSD.
2. PTSD Is a Chronic Condition That Can’t Be Treated Effectively
There are a number of
treatments available for people who are dealing with the effects of a traumatic event or ongoing trauma. Here’s an overview of some of the options.
- Addressing the traumatic situation If possible, when PTSD is due to a living situation, chronic illness, or another reason that the trauma is ongoing, treatment will try to address the situation, in addition to the symptoms of PTSD.
- Psychotherapy Psychotherapy is also known as “talk therapy.” This involves speaking with a mental health professional, and it could take place one-on-one with a psychiatrist or psychologist or in a group setting. You might use relaxation and anger-management skills to deal with examining your reaction to the trauma. Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is one type of therapy that’s commonly used for PTSD.
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy EMDR involves focusing on a trauma memory while using bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, lights, or vibrating tools, among others) to reprocess the memory and decrease its impact on your emotions and physical sensations.
- Exposure therapy This type of psychotherapy involves facing and managing your fears. This means that a therapist could expose you to your triggers (things that remind you of your trauma) by using mental imagery of the trauma or having you visit the site of a traumatic event.
- Cognitive processing therapy This is another type of psychotherapy that aims to help you make sense of bad memories associated with your trauma. You may feel guilt or shame about your trauma, and a therapist would help you challenge and change these beliefs.
- Medications Antidepressants are the most common medications used to help PTSD. These medications could help lessen your feelings of sadness, anger, and anxiety. They might be prescribed in addition to your psychotherapy sessions. Ask your healthcare provider which medications might make the most sense for managing your symptoms.
In addition to the treatments above, there are emerging treatments for PTSD that include psychotherapies and medications, sometimes in combination. While research has not definitively established their effectiveness for the condition yet, some preliminary study results are promising. These include:
- Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
- Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT)
- Present-centered therapy (PCT)
- Written exposure therapy (WET)
- Transcutaneous magnetic stimulation (TMS)
- Neurofeedback
- Intravenous ketamine (Ketalar) infusions
- Esketamine (Spravato) nasal spray
- MDMA
- Psilocybin (the psychoactive chemical in certain mushrooms)
- Prazosin (Minipress)
- Clonidine (Catapres)
- Propranolol (Inderal LA, Inderal XL, Innopran XL)
- Buspirone
- Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP)
- 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, aka ecstasy or molly) assisted therapy (MDMA-AT)
3. Everyone Who Has PTSD Is Prone to Violent Behavior
While it can be associated with PTSD, violence is not a common symptom of the condition.
“One of the biggest myths out there is that a person with PTSD is a ticking time bomb waiting to explode,” says Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, MD, a psychiatrist at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. “There is this sense that all people who have PTSD are unstable. Now, it is true that people with PTSD are likely to be irritable, but PTSD has a wide range of symptoms and this idea that everyone who has PTSD is going to explode is a mischaracterization.”
Rather, people affected by PTSD tend to exhibit avoidance symptoms, leading them to be socially withdrawn and prone to being scared of encountering anything that could potentially trigger memories of their traumas. Someone with PTSD may also experience the nervous system states of freeze, in which they may be emotionally detached or even physically immobilized, or fawn, in which they may focus on pleasing a person who feels threatening.
Research has found that while the risk of violence is slightly higher among those with PTSD — 7 percent versus 3 percent in the general population, according to one study — it is strongly connected to drinking alcohol.
4. If Trauma Happened Long Ago, You’re Automatically ‘Over It’
PTSD can be triggered years after a person experiences trauma. Symptoms usually show up within three months of a traumatic event, but you could develop the condition years, even decades, later.
That can be especially true when it comes to trauma experienced at a young age. “Someone could experience a childhood trauma and never process it until much later,” Dr. Emrani says. “It could be something they never talked about and then something happens during their adulthood to trigger that memory and it could start exacerbating symptoms of PTSD. This is often seen in people who experienced childhood physical or sexual abuse. They might have suppressed memories of this trauma and then are triggered later on when they are adults.”
5. Coping With PTSD Is a Sign of Weakness
Emrani says that one myth that particularly upsets her is the idea that people who have PTSD are “weak.”
“A lot of times people might say, ‘Oh, that person who has PTSD is weak, they’re easily susceptible to trauma.’ I just want to debunk that right now,” she says. “It is not a weakness and it isn’t something that people ‘should just get over,’ as they might be told by misinformed people. In fact, I would say it’s the opposite; it’s rather courageous when people come forward to seek treatment and help and are open to discussing and exploring their trauma.”
PTSD is a serious, chronic mental health condition, and it isn’t something to take as a joke. No matter the source of trauma, it can take years or decades to get over the lasting effects of the experience or experiences. The symptoms may be chronic, or they may even wax and wane over time.
“If your leg is broken, you go to the doctor and get a cast, and eventually have to ease back into running,” Emrani says. “No one says, ‘Go run’ immediately. PTSD is like that. If you are suffering from trauma of some kind, it takes a long time to work through that. It is nothing close to a weakness or something anyone should feel guilty about.”
