Every June, the United States recognizes National Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Month. However, this debilitating emotional and psychological disorder remains largely misunderstood (or not understood at all) by the general public. If you think you might suffer from PTSD, you’ll want to learn about this condition, including the possibility that you might deserve financial compensation for its impact on your quality of life.
What Is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic anxiety syndrome created by an extraordinarily stressful past event. Combat veterans often experience PTSD after facing death or witnessing mass destruction. However, anyone can develop PTSD after a terrifying, shocking, or life-threatening experience. PTSD may cause intense bouts of anxiety and other symptoms (see below). These bouts may resolve themselves over a matter of months, or they may not even begin until years after the traumatic incident, turning into a constant or recurring issue.
A History of the Disorder and Its Recognition
PTSD has plagued people for as long as there have been traumatic events to experience, even if medical science had no such term in its vocabulary to describe it for most of that time. Doctors described traumatized World War I soldiers as having shell shock, while World War II soldiers received diagnoses of combat fatigue. In 1952, the medical community referred to it as Gross Stress Reaction. Only after the condition affected massive numbers of Vietnam War veterans did doctors start calling it post-traumatic stress disorder.
Awareness of PTSD continued to rise until 2011, when Congress officially recognized June 27th as PTSD Awareness Day. June gained recognition as the disorder’s national month in 2014.
PTSD’s Triggers, Symptoms, and Effects
Up to 3.5 percent of the adult American population may suffer from PTSD, partly because so many traumatic events can create and trigger the condition. Gunfire, a sexual assault, witnessing a murder, terrorism, or the threat of imminent death can all leave psychological marks that later take the form of PTSD. For example, if you got caught in life-threatening crossfire during military service, an innocent car engine backfire years later could trigger the same intense fear that you felt at that moment.
Don’t assume that you couldn’t possibly have PTSD simply because nothing especially horrific ever happened to you. You can develop PTSD from a traumatic event even if you didn’t experience that event first hand. For instance, a police officer forced to review case after case of gruesome murder could develop PTSD revolving around the details of those cases. Even media exposure to a suitably traumatic incident appears to create PTSD in some individuals. One study found that 18.7 of children and 10.7 percent of parents who watched the September 11, 2011 terrorist attack on television showed at least some signs of PTSD, while 5.4 percent of children and 1.2 percent of parents developed full-blown PTSD after such media exposure.
PTSD can produce a wide range of symptoms. If you suffer from this disorder, you may have trouble sleeping; even if you can fall asleep, you may awaken frequently due to terrifying nightmares in which you relive the initial trauma time and time again. During your waking hours, you may have trouble concentrating, feel unaccountably nervous, experience bursts of anger, or get startled out of your skin by the tiniest things. This hypersensitivity to the world around you may cause you to withdraw from your workplace, social environments, or even your loved ones. Many sufferers from PTSD find it extremely hard to launch or sustain new relationships with people thanks to their symptoms and their need to insulate themselves against potential triggers.
Legal Options for PTSD Sufferers
If you have suffered losses because of your PTSD, you may have a legal right to bring a personal injury lawsuit against the party that caused your condition. Your lawsuit may request both tangible losses (such as lost wages from being unable to work or medical expenses) and intangible losses (such as pain and suffering or alienation from family members).
You’ll need skilled legal counsel to navigate the tricky waters of a PTSD-based personal injury lawsuit. You must show that the injury occurred, that the defendant caused it, and that you suffered losses as a result. While these basic points are necessary for any personal injury case, the public’s lack of knowledge about PTSD complicates things. Your attorney will most likely call expert witnesses to help explain the condition to a jury and testify that you have the hallmark signs of it.
Not every kind of PTSD lawsuit involves financial compensation directly. For instance, U.S. Army veterans who received dishonorable discharges have sued the Army to get those discharges upgraded. According to their class-action lawsuit, the Army failed to recognize that PTSD triggered the behavior that got them discharged.
Bennett Injury Law can help you or someone you love receive much-needed compensation for personal injury cases that involve PTSD. Contact our office for a consultation.
