More than eight million American adults each year experience post-traumatic stress disorder. The intent of PTSD Awareness Month is to reduce stigma and get proper treatment for those affected.
- PTSD can develop after exposure to a frightening event or ordeal in which severe physical harm occurred or was threatened.
- PTSD’s symptoms can include episodes of intense fear, flashbacks, sleep problems, hypervigilance, elevated heart rate, breathing difficulties and a seeming loss of control.
- Effective treatments include cognitive-behavioral therapy, which helps people establish healthier thought patterns and behavioral responses; exposure therapy, which helps people safely face and cope with frightening memories; and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR).
June is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Awareness Month. Throughout the month, we will be highlighting the importance of speaking openly about mental health. Seventy percent of adults in the U.S. have experienced some type of traumatic event at least once in their lives, with up to 20 percent of these go on to develop PTSD.
With your help, we can bring awareness to the prevalence of PTSD and other mental health conditions in our communities. It’s our job to help end the stigma surrounding addictions and mental health by sharing resources and starting conversations. Throughout the month of June, we encourage family, friends, and loved ones to learn more about PTSD mental health. Here are some important facts you should know:
- 8 percent of Americans −24.4 million people−have PTSD at any given time.
- About 7 or 8 out of every 100 people (about 6% of the population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives.
- About 8 of every 100 women (or 8%) develop PTSD sometime in their lives compared with about 4 of every 100 men (or 4%).
- About 12 million adults in the U.S. have PTSD during a given year. This is only a small portion of those who have gone through a trauma.
- Past year prevalence of PTSD among adults was higher for females (5.2%) than for males (1.8%).
- Among U.S. Army infantry soldiers returning from Iraq, 43.9 percent of those who reported a TBI with loss of consciousness also reported symptoms of PTSD.
- 20 percent of people who experience a traumatic event will develop PTSD.
Visit MagellanHealthcare.com/about/bh-resources/mymh or call your program for confidential mental health resources.