PTSD Informative Speech

Living With PTSD
Morgan Goad
Did you know that about 1 out of 11 people will be diagnosed with PTSD at some point
in their lives? Everyone should care about PTSD because many people have it, and they don’t
even know it due to the fact that many people think it’s only for veterans who have been through
war. I'm able to inform you guys on this topic because I was diagnosed with PTSD about a year
and a half ago. In this speech I will inform you about many different aspects of PTSD. I will be
discussing the many symptoms of PTSD, healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms for people
who have PTSD, and different ways that you may get diagnosed with PTSD. First, I will be
discussing the many different symptoms that you may have if you have PTSD.
If you have PTSD, there are many different symptoms that you may develop. One of the
biggest symptoms of PTSD, that many people know about, is the flashbacks. People with PTSD
will have flashbacks in many different ways. For example, they could have them when they’re
just going about their day-to-day life. Other people will have their flashbacks in their nightmares
or dreams, and others may have to be triggered in order for a flashback to happen. What a
flashback is, is the person with PTSD will have a memory of the traumatic event, but it will
essentially take over their entire mind and body and without training, it is extremely hard to
make the flashback stop. Short term memory is a symptom of PTSD as well, which is extremely
difficult on high school and college students. A man named Bremner and some other scientists
“examined memory in adult survivors of childhood physical and sexual abuse and found deficits
in verbal short-term recall.” For college students, this can be a horrible thing; it may be
something as simple as forgetting what chapters to read in the textbook or forgetting to print out
a piece of paper for the homework assignment. At first, it’s no big deal, but when they keep
forgetting repeatedly, then it can quickly become a problem. Another big symptom of PTSD is
social isolation, or social detachment. I know that when I was diagnosed with PTSD, I wanted to
pull away from everyone around me because I felt like there was something wrong with me. I
felt that everyone would look at me differently because of my diagnosis, and I know many others
feel the same way. People may also pull away due to the traumatic event that they went through.
Other symptoms of PTSD can include other mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, eating
disorders, and suicidal thoughts or actions. Mental illnesses unfortunately tend to go hand in
hand with each other, and that’s how they grab ahold of you. Now that I’ve went through some
of the common symptoms of PTSD, I will discuss different coping mechanisms for PTSD.
Of course, all mental illnesses and disabilities have different coping mechanisms and
strategies that go along with them. First, we’ll go over some healthy coping mechanisms. The
first thing that will help someone that deals with PTSD is learning what their triggers are, or in
other words, what causes their flashbacks or even just bad thoughts. If they can learn what their
triggers are, then they can try to either avoid those triggers or be able to spot them when they
happen. Another good coping mechanism that anyone with a mental illness should do is therapy
and counseling. Trauma demands to be processed, and when it gets ignored, the person’s mental
health will decrease more than it already has. Therapy and counseling will help people process
and come to terms with their trauma and will be able to prescribe you medication if it’s needed.
Some other common coping mechanisms include yoga, meditation, journaling, listening to
music, other athletic activities, and in some cases, people will get a service dog in order to help
them cope. Unhealthy coping mechanisms are unfortunately very common as well. Some
common unhealthy coping mechanisms may include substance abuse, different types of self-
harm, hyper sexualism, withdrawing from friends and family, binge eating or purposely starving
yourself, and even suicide attempts. Now that I’ve went over many different healthy and
unhealthy coping mechanisms, let’s move on to different ways that people can develop PTSD.
There are many different ways that high school and college students can develop PTSD.
Unfortunately, one of the most common reasons for people to develop PTSD is due to abuse.
About 50% of young adults who have PTSD developed it due to some sort of abuse, whether it
be sexual, physical, or even mental abuse. About 30% of those who have PTSD from abuse is
due to experiencing sexual violence. There was a study done on college students that studied
how many of them developed PTSD while on campus. In a study that was done by Vrana and
Lauterbach, they collected 234 males and 206 females, all college students. The study revealed
that “one-third of the participants had experienced four or more potentially traumatic events...
and 9% reported seven or more events” while they were on campus. Many of these traumatic
events focused on sexual violence, physical abuse, and being in extremely toxic relationships.
Some other reasons that people may develop PTSD include being in some sort of accident, or
witnessing an accident happen. Some people develop PTSD due to sever bullying and
harassment. Other reasons include serious health problems, childbirth, or losing a child. In
conclusion, there are many different ways someone could develop PTSD outside of being in the
military.
In this speech, I informed you about many different aspects of PTSD. I discussed the
different symptoms of PTSD, coping mechanisms, and even different ways that people can
develop PTSD outside of being in the military. Every 1 out of 11 people will be diagnosed with
and suffer from PTSD in their lifetime, and it’s extremely likely that you already know someone
that has it. So, treat everyone with kindness, because you never know what someone may be
going through.
Citations:
a. Cusack, Shannon E., et al. “Prevalence and Predictors of PTSD among a College
Sample.” Journal of American College Health, vol. 67, no. 2, Feb. 2019, pp. 123–
131. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/07448481.2018.1462824.
b. Koits, Russell L., et al. “Trauma-Cueing and Short-Term Memory in College
Students with PTSD.” Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, vol. 19, no. 2,
Dec. 2004, pp. 29–48. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1300/J035v19n02_04.
c. Smith, M., Robinson, L., Segal, R., & Segal, J. (2020, November). Post-traumatic
stress disorder (ptsd). Retrieved February 21, 2021, from
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/ptsd-symptoms-self-help-
treatment.htm

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Living With PTSD

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