Following a traumatic event, the personal injury lawyer in Burlington knows that victims may develop serious symptoms like anger, fear, guilty, flashbacks, or nightmares, which may be attributed to all being part of one disorder – post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD for short, can be severe enough to affect every single part of a person’s life, and can leave people with symptoms that last for years past the traumatic event and the physical injuries that may have resulted from it. It is tough getting back to normal life after such an episode.

Who runs risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder?

People can develop PTSD at any age, though women seem to be at double the risk of developing it in comparison to men. Among every group of hundred people, between seven and eight will deal with PTSD throughout their life. Additionally, people who work as emergency respondents, i.e. police officers, firefighters, or paramedics, also run a much higher risk of developing PTSD as opposed to people working in other professions.

As the name would suggest, post-traumatic stress disorder usually develops in the aftermath of a traumatic event, such as falling victim to assault, a terrorist attack, a motor vehicle collision, or the loss of a loved one. However, serious illness, great emotional stress, severe financial struggles, or even divorce can also be a trigger. Furthermore, PTSD is also inheritable from biological parent to their child, and a PTSD sufferer could also transfer symptoms, onto the trauma worker who is responsible for them. As per law, there are damages that can be claimed when the defendant is responsible for the long-term trauma in the victim.

How can I recognize the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in a person?

While symptoms may develop right after the traumatic event has taken place, it can also happen with delay and build up over time. Usually, the symptoms will begin to become noticeable throughout the initial three months following the event, but there are, of course, exceptions. In some cases, symptoms do not begin to show until years have passed. In others, too many traumatic events occurred in a person’s life to pinpoint a singular event that could have triggered the disorder.

It should also be noted that there is no singular set of symptoms that you can expect to pop up in all PTSD sufferers, but there are some that are quite common and should be looked out for, such as:

• flashbacks to the traumatic event
• insomnia and nightmares
• numbed emotions
• angry outbursts and increased irritability
• gnawing guilt
• decrease in life enjoyment
• strict avoidance of everything related to the trauma