 Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that is triggered as a result of some serious trauma. The Diagnostic Statistic Manual version 5 states that post-traumatic stress disorder is characterized by the re-experiencing of an extremely traumatic event accompanied by symptoms of increased arousal and by avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma. In layman's terms, this means that some people tend to re-experience the feelings of distress and horror from after having gone through some extreme negative event. This can be very disruptive to the person's life and cause a high level of dysfunction. In the most extreme cases, people have resorted to suicide in a desperate attempt to obtain relief. The classic example of PTSD is that of the returned war veteran has experienced severe trauma in the battlefield and keeps having flashbacks to being back in the battlefield. This is a serious trauma. If you suspect you or a loved one may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, I suggest you to talk to us or to another fully qualified mental health professional fast. In the meantime, make sure you provide appropriate first aid. On the positive side, note that while it is normal for people to have a reaction to a traumatic event, most people recover naturally with time, never get to experience PTSD and go on to lead trouble-free lives. Yet, in some individuals, these experiences do turn into trauma and could be diagnosed as having PTSD. There are good and valid reasons as to why this happens and the good news is that there are effective treatments that can help you recover. Please, if you suspect you or a loved one may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, I suggest you get help fast. If you would like to further your training, you might want to consider running the mental health essentials course in your workplace where we deal with disorders in greater detail and we show you how to apply a first aid response to mental health emergencies at work. This video is being released each week so when you subscribe, you'll get a notification letting you know when a new one has just been published. So make sure to hit that subscribe button and don't miss out on this vital information for yourself, your colleagues and your loved ones.