Pre-Traumatic Stress and Post-traumatic stress disorder

 

EDITOR: OLUSEYI ELIZABETH ODUDIMU

Pre-Traumatic Stress is anticipatory apprehension regarding the future event and reactions to fear of intrinsic worth in the future, it usually arises with related symptoms with post-traumatic stress disorder such as anguish, fear, unhappiness, helplessness, persistent troubled mind, unsettling interfering thoughts of hopelessness, sleep difficulty and nightmares and keeping away from a stressful event, evocative circumstances or actions that could trigger depressive symptoms. 

PTSD is a diagnosis that may be given if an individual develops anxiety problems after going through something they found traumatic and can cause flashbacks or nightmares which can feel like an individual is re-living all the fear and the anxiety they experienced during the actual event. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a health complication in many Nigerian youths; it is the cause of the predominance of stressors, suicidal rate, lack of satisfactory performances in school, demonstrations of all kinds of attitudes, as well as exposure to drugs or alcohol abuse. Unfortunately, it is not obvious to many Nigerian parents that their children suffered from pre or post-traumatic stress disorder, which leads to the labelling of those children with different names and challenges the community’s well-being and also deprived many promising young people of the prospects to firm life likelihood to make arrangements for their future, the capability to be industrious and impact society positively. 

Causes of Pre or PTSD in Nigeria society

Every traumatic condition such as serious road accidents, Boko haram war, unemployment, violence, public assaults, sexual assault, mugging or robbery, abuse and traumatic birth can cause PTSD, which usually happens in Nigeria daily.  PTSD can develop immediately after someone experiences a disturbing event or surfaces weeks, months, or even years later.  PTSD is estimated to affect about 2 in every 3 people in Nigeria because of consistent exposure to traumatic experiences, but it’s not clear exactly why a few individuals have more chances of developing it and some don’t, which make it obvious that some people are more resistant and resilient.  

Diagnostic method

You need clinicians and psychiatrists to diagnose PRE/ PTSD and they usually pay much attention to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders to identify the specific symptoms. These symptoms are often severe and persistent enough to have a significant impact on a person’s day-to-day life. However, parents need to learn how to treat children with pre or post-traumatic stress disorder with efficient consideration, extreme kindness, intelligence, and generous soul to make them innovative, brave and resourceful to be able to shape the future. Nigerian youth need to be innovative, brave and resourceful to be able to shape the future and this requires an increase in psychological well-being by encouraging them to use positive emotions as resilient to conquer negative emotional experiences and awareness of PTSD risk factors, the symptoms and introduction of early intercession. We should help them manage every stressful event, can be familiar with their weaknesses and develop a coping strategy to maintain a high-quality status of well-being, and competency to be dynamic and profitable to the community.

Certain ways to prevent PTSD

· Affirmative welfare can subsequently help prevent PTSD in the Nigerian community.

· Anticipate and prevent the symptoms from progressing and continuously care for your general health

· Early age is the recreation developmental period to standard physical health throughout the lifespan, allocation of Preventive intervention programmes Encourage yourself to seek psychological help and support networks which can stand as an effective technique.

When to seek medical advice 

It’s normal to experience upsetting and confusing thoughts after a traumatic event, but most people improve naturally over a few weeks. You should visit your GP if you are still having problems about 4 weeks after the traumatic experience, or if the symptoms are particularly persistent. You should also remember that significant mental well-being can principally interact with or facilitate actions to overcome and wave negative thoughts, and feelings.

 Effects of positive emotions 

Investigation shows that emotions can arouse stress and ego-resilience is a predictor that can stand as self-defence for most people who uses ego to resist impulses under stress. Another research also proved the effect of high trait resilience as a better way to build happiness and also ascertain positive emotion and the ability to control their feelings. Physical health plays an additional role in gaining positive emotions from a stressor to overcome life-threatening actions. the entire studies constructively signify various  factors such as age range, race and marital status, well-being, resilient, personality type, parent mental status, personal characteristics, and psychological factors determine the progression of mental illness and help-seeking behaviours, however, the establishment of a certain programme such enjoyable activities, effective conversation intervention, self-defence procedure and school educative event can aid in overcoming negativities and can help improve 

Self-confidence, especially in a female as susceptive gender compares to a male that is considered a more resilient gender. Although, the provision of an adequate coping mechanism to tackle burdensome situations causing stressors and consequently developing aggressive and rule-breaking behaviour. Even though women are presumed to be more susceptible to mental illness, but they discussed their concerns and usually sought help, as well as helping men gain psychological recovery.    However, the introduction of helpful strategies to maintain resilient and positive emotions to overcome life threats can help to discover and prevent mental illness symptoms. 

Treatments

• Antidepressants such as paroxetine or mirtazapine such as paroxetine or mirtazapine 
• Therapy such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) or eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR); you can refer yourself directly to a psychological therapies service.

Self-medication is not advisable; ensure you consult your doctor.