Fear is a natural feeling when you feel that you are in danger. It is also natural to feel sorrow for yourself or others weeks or months after an accident. But there does come a point when it is time to seek help. These feelings turned unnatural have happened to millions of people for a variety of reasons.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an illness acquired after living through or seeing a dangerous event. These different events can be anything from war to a natural disaster to a bad car crash. PTSD affects the people around you and your own life. PTSD constantly makes you feel on edge and stressed. Anyone can get PTSD. It can occur at any age. These striking events do not just have to occur to the person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder but it can happen to someone else that the person saw. Symptoms of PTSD include suffering from bad dreams, having flashbacks, scary thoughts you can’t control, feeling on edge, fighting with loved ones, constant angry outbreaks, thoughts of hurting yourself, and feeling alone.

Luckily, PTSD can get better. This can be done by seeking help and talking to a doctor or mental health professional. PTSD can be treated within two to three months.

Now, what I was actually curious about is what is the anatomy behind posttraumatic stress disorder. I learned in psychology in high school that talking to someone helps relieve stress, which causes chemical reactions in the brain so, what is going on with PTSD? In an article by psychologytoday.com, the three main regions struck by PTSD is the amygdala, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and the hippocampus.

The amygdala is the region of the brain primarily used for emotions, especially fear. Brain imaging studies show high activity in the amygdala when the subject feels anxiety or stress. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is what makes the person with PTSD lack decision making and emotional processing, with not being able to have full access to this the person is unable to control their emotions and this can cause angry outbreaks. The hippocampus is involved with memories.

I was able to find a very good example of all three of these parts working together to try to calm down a person with posttraumatic stress disorder. Imagine that someone sees a tiger. This information is sent to the amygdala, which sends a “fight or flight” signal to the other parts. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is the part that tries to calm the person down and imply smart decision-making. Finally, the hippocampus tells the person that they know what zoo’s are. They know that the tiger is in a cage and therefore cannot escape the cage. The hippocampus is able to tell the individual that they are not in harms way and are safe.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/a/amygdala.htm

http://psychcentral.com/lib/what-causes-ptsd/000162

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mouse-man/200901/the-anatomy-post-traumatic-stress-disorder