While often associated with veterans – especially those who served in Vietnam, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can actually affect women at a higher rate than men. After trauma, women are twice as likely as men to develop PTSD with approximately 10 percent of women facing PTSD compared to just 4 percent of men.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said that some PTSD symptoms are more common in women than men.
“Women are more likely to be jumpy, to have more trouble feeling emotions, and to avoid things that remind them of the trauma than men. Men are more likely to feel angry and to have trouble controlling their anger then women. Women may take longer to recover from PTSD and are four times more likely than men to have long-lasting PTSD.”
Women with PTSD also are more likely to feel depressed and anxious, while men with PTSD are more likely to have problems with alcohol or drugs. Both women and men who experience PTSD may develop physical health problems.
And according to the American Psychiatric Association, women with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have a greater number of medical conditions such as arthritis, lower back pain, obesity, and hypertension, and worse health status overall than women with only depression or with neither disorder.
Incidents that may lead to trauma and possible PTSD include sexual assault, neglect or abuse in childhood, domestic violence or the sudden death of a loved one.
Here’s a few reasons that women are more susceptible to PTSD:
* Women are more likely to experience sexual assault.
* Sexual assault is more likely to cause PTSD than many
* other events.
* Women may be more likely to blame themselves for
* trauma experiences than men.
Some reasons women may be at higher risk include a past mental health issue, experienced severe or life-threatening trauma, were sexually assaulted, were injured during the vent, had a severe reaction at the time of the event, experienced subsequent stressful afterwards or did not have a good social support group.
http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_women_lay.html