Simularities between depression and post-traumatic stress disorder

PTSD and depression have similar symptoms and, particularly in veterans, often go hand in hand. Common symptoms are

(For PSTD) symptoms include recurrent recollections or dreams about war, flashbacks that cause you to relive various traumas, and avoidance of any reminders of combat. The condition can also result in emotional numbing (diminished responsiveness to the world around you), intense distress when confronted with reminders of battle, and hyperarousal, a feeling of frequently being on edge and on the alert for new threats.

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Depressed veterans often feel worthless and profoundly sad, but other typical symptoms include poor concentration, lack of interest in social activities, feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, changes in appetite, difficulty sleeping, or oversleeping, unusual irritability, apathy and listlessness, and suicidal thoughts or attempts.

PTSD and Ecstasy

Research is underway to treat PTSD with the outlawed drug Ecstasy.

Although the research is being conducted in South Carolina, and has FDA approval, the researchers are mostly Swiss and Norwegians. Research into medicinal uses of outlawed recreational drugs without a patent owned by a big drug company just isn't popular in the United States.

Maybe the work will bear fruit. But I think it's doubtful that the VA will be giving vets with PTSD ecstasy anytime soon.

PTSD

Because you never know when one of those crazy vets might go crazy and start shootting people.

Jill Manges guesses that if she’d suffered an epileptic seizure that day in class, she’d still be enrolled at Eastern Illinois University. But Manges, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, instead suffered a flashback during French history that led her to shout and sob uncontrollably.

“I can’t deny the fact that what happened was disruptive,” says Manges, who was sentenced to a year-long suspension by the university judicial board last month for violating two sections of the student conduct code barring the disruption of university functions and the academic environment in particular