Anyone can suffer from ptsd to give it it’s full name This is called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, this can happen after an event often one that makes you feel threaten.

Some cases where this occurs are after road accidents, robbery mugging, being taken and held hostage, terriost attack or being in a bomb threat, natural or manmade disasters being diagnosed with a life threatening illness and being involved in a combat zone.

This is just a suggestion there are of course other times and causes where people feel threatened.

Post traumatic stress may take several months to hit you or it may hit you almost straight away. the severity also is individually different.

You may suffer from flash backs or avoidance you may feel on guard all the time just waiting for it to happen again or something equally as bad.

You may also suffer from muscle aches and pains diarrhoea irregular heartbeats headaches feelings of panic and fear depression drinking too much alcohol using drugs (including painkillers).

It’s reckoned that about one per cent of the general population is likely to be affected by PTSD at some point. That is a lot of people.

People who remain conscious through the experience may be more vulnerable to PTSD because of the horrific memories flashed on the mind over and over from triggers of a sound or smell.

Survivors often feel extremely guilty, as though they were responsible for the event, or could have done more to save themselves or others especially if people have died.

You can’t change what happened, but that time does make it easier to cope this is the old cliche that time heal everything but for some people it does not. Some people are emotionally stronger than others, some people are able to open up talk about their fears and possibly get a handle on them. Not everyone can do this so several people at the same traumatic event will deal with it very differently.

For some people it will stop them from functioning in the same way as they did before they may be unable to be in large crowds be extremely tense to the extent that they will turn to drugs or alcohol bottling up their feelings. They may be unable to go to certain places this may cause great strain on work colleagues or family members who may become frustrated.