ffect if a person is in fact experiencing the symptoms listed. All of these symptoms must persist for at least one monthAn example from the textbook Psychology introduces a 33-year-old nurse named Mary who suffered severe trauma in the weeks following an attack in her apartment by an intruder who raped her at knife point (Criterion one). In the weeks after the attack Mary suffered from an immense fear of being alone in her apartment (the second criterion), and preoccupied with attack, she feared it could happen again. Her worry developed in to an obsession with protection and she installed numerous locks on all her windows and doors, eventually Mary became so overly preoccupied with the attack that she could no longer go out socially or even return to work (Criterion three and five). She became repelled by the idea of sex. Her associated behaviors encompass criterion four.In the seven years since the Gulf War, three percent of United States Soldiers have so far been diagnosed as having Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome. Those with greatest exposure to combat are the most likely sufferers, which lends to the idea that the more severe a traumatic event are more difficult it is to overcome. Additionally it develops predominantly in soldiers who were categorized as having the least "stress resistant personalities" coupled with low levels of social support. Essential to recovery of any stressful event is the knowledge that the sufferer is not alone or unique in the grief and that others care about his or her recovery. Those soldiers who returned from war with no one to share their experiences with are likely to re experience warfare in the form of nightmares and flashbacks. After witnessing the deaths of both enemies and comrades those without social support are likely to internalize their pain which have a good chance of escaping out of the body in the symptoms listed (Bernstein)."Acute" PTSD occurs within six months of the traumatic ...
