There are some people who may experience an extremely traumatic experience in their lifetime. This experience could be a number of occurrences, including but not limited to, road traffic accidents, rape, murders, plane crashes and any number of frightening experiences. The person may have been directly involved or only a witness, but regardless they will be affected by it. Any event that involves actual or threatened death of bodily harm will cause a severe reaction in the witness or victim.

The problem with being involved in such a traumatic event is that the person will feel intense fear and helplessness, and it is this helplessness and fear for their life that will plague them. For the condition to be termed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder the effects will have to continue for longer than six months after the actual event.

The problem begins when the body reacts to the event while it is happening. Because of the heralding of imminent change in the individual's identity their body will activate its primitive survival response. This survival response will force the person to find any way to protect themselves, such as fighting back or hiding away. This protective instinct will remain in place until the body is absolutely certain the danger has passed, and that the person will not be exposed to the same danger again.

Once the traumatic event is over, the body focuses on protecting itself against the same thing happening again. The body's internal bodyguard seems to become wary of the person becoming too complacent or relaxed, and instead focuses too much on ensuring that they do not expose themselves to that risk again. This could present itself in a victim who was involved in a car accident. Even months after the accident, if they are traveling in a car that is going very slowly, they will become paranoid and panic about the car going too fast. They are infinitely terrified that they will be in another car accident. This is just their body's response to protecting them from being exposed to the same kind of danger again. This will make the victim not even want to travel by car! It is almost as if the body is not allowing for any slip-ups and is keeping the victim on constant alert.

The problem with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is that it can cause panic attacks. The person is constantly running over the traumatic event in their mind. They will feel the same emotions they felt at the time of the incident. A panic attack will occur when they feel they are in the same potentially dangerous situation. To the sufferer the emotions they experience will lead them to believe they are honestly going to die or experience severe bodily harm.

The alarm that sounds in the sufferers head will only cease once they truly believe they are out of danger. Eventually a day will come when they feel they are finally safe, and realistically the chances of them experiencing the same incident again are really slim. Sometimes peace will even come when the person comes to terms with the fact that death is an inevitable part of life we have no control over.