Monica Zielinski – Special to the Southern News
The feeling of helplessness led to a spiral of depression—two traumatic events caused high anxiety, lack of sleep, nightmares, and flashbacks. Michael Petras, an SCSU psychology major, said he was diagnosed with PTSD—Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—after suffering from child abuse, and more recently, losing a child himself.
The SCSU Psych Alliance and SCSU Veterans Club hosted an event called “PTSD—Life After Trauma,” where Petras spoke on a panel among three other students who are affected by the disorder.
“I feel like it’s essential,” said Petras, “to speak about it just so other people know and understand what PTSD is and that people can be successful with a disorder as long as they get the help that they need.”
Psychology major and veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Jeremy Merrel, hosted the event and said he remembers learning about PTSD in class, but thinking it only affects certain
people.
“I always thought PTSD meant you were in the military and that was the only way you can get it,” said Merrel. “It wasn’t until I was educated more about it that I understood that the ‘T’ in PTSD was trauma and any trauma could really cause it.”
The purpose of the event, Merrel said, was to help eliminate the stigma and let some of the audience members know that there are role models that are being successful in their education and they’re not letting their disorder hold them back.
“If someone in the audience is dealing with something,” said Merrel, “They don’t need to hold it back; they don’t need to be ashamed of it.”
Professor William Sherman, Ph.D., of the SCSU Psychology Department, gave a presentation explaining what PTSD is and what kind of treatment is available.
Sherman said according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, there are a number of factors that come into play.
“There needs to have been some exposure to a traumatic life event,” said Sherman. “That exposure can be an actual incident, or it can be a threatened incident, and it generally involves some combination of death, serious injury or sexual violence.”
People suffering from the disorder may experience a whole collection of behaviors, according to Sherman, including irritable behavior, angry outbursts, engaging in reckless behavior, hyper vigilance, scanning and looking around, being jittery, exaggerated and startled responses, and sleep difficulties, but probably the most frightening of all the symptoms of PTSD, Sherman said, involves flashbacks.
“A flashback is when the individual re-experiences the event as if it is literally happening now, in the present tense,” said Sherman. “The person is out of the reality of their present situation and is re-experiencing this.”
Among therapy, Sherman described a number of treatments available for people diagnosed with PTSD, but simply taking medication cannot solve the problem.
“Almost nobody,” said Sherman, “believes that for any psychological disorder, medication alone should be the treatment. We would generally find that at some point in the future, if you stop taking the medication, symptomatology may return.”
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America website, 7.7 million Americans age 18 and older have PTSD.
Merrel said there are plenty of students in this school who have disorders and seeing that the panelists are not letting it hold them back, they will see that they don’t need to either.
“I always joke around that everyone has some kind of disorder, just most people haven’t been diagnosed yet,” said Merrel. “Being diagnosed with PTSD is the first step to getting help.”
