Pandemics and PTSD.

Surviving this coronavirus pandemic doesn’t mean enduring just the physical battle, but a psychological one, too.

Many people associate posttraumatic stress disorder with something like war, but it is a chronic psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have witnessed or experienced a traumatic event like sexual harassment, a serious accident, terrorist attack or a natural disaster. In this case, the coronavirus pandemic is the traumatic event that will leave it’s mark on people’s mind and in some cases cause posttraumatic stress disorder. Health care workers providing frontline services are at greater risk for developing long-term psychological issues. People who have lost their loved ones and income sources due to the disease are also at risk. The globe will see the effects of this pandemic on mental health long after the pandemic is over. People who struggle with other mental health conditions like, depression or anxiety are more at risk.

The first group that comes to mind are the people working at the front line. These are the health care workers, police, paramedics, fire fighters who show up to work everyday to fight the spread of coronavirus COVID-19. The health care workers who are dealing with the disease intimately may be experiencing high levels of anxiety and depression, which will eventually lead to posttraumatic stress disorder.

For the rest of us, we may be experiencing low levels of mental trauma related to having disease, uncertainty about the future, unemployment, going broke,education and other worries. All the stress may lead to mental breakdowns or panic attacks. Trauma is an emotional wound leading to a psychological injury or an event that causes great distress.

Symptoms of PTSD start showing within a month of a traumatic event, but sometimes symptoms may not appear until years after the occurrence of the event. There are a number of symptoms that people can experience after a traumatic event, including: nightmares, upsetting thoughts, flashbacks, stress, irritability, trouble sleeping, and destructive thoughts. They may also feel hyper-vigilant or have trouble concentrating. Avoiding any thoughts about the incident, people and places who remind the individual of the incident is a coping mechanism. To be diagnosed with PTSD, an individual would have a certain number of all these symptoms over a long period of time. But even if you’re not diagnosed with PTSD, people can experience these symptoms after a traumatic event. It is a disorder that people live with for years or can be resolved within months.