Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: When Trauma Refuses to Let Go

What Is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental health condition that may develop after someone has experienced or witnessed a life-threatening event. These can include war, natural disasters, sexual assault, childhood abuse, car accidents, or domestic violence. While it's normal to feel shaken after trauma, PTSD occurs when those feelings don’t fade and instead grow stronger with time.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (2022), PTSD affects about 6% of the U.S. population at some point in their lives, with women being more than twice as likely as men to develop the condition. The condition is marked by intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to the trauma that last long after the event has ended.

Key Features of PTSD

• More Common in Females
  
  

• Triggered by Traumatic Events
  
  

• Symptoms Can Be Long-Term and Debilitating
  
  

• Often Misunderstood or Confused with Weakness or Guilt
  
  

Symptoms of PTSD

PTSD symptoms are typically grouped into four categories:

1. Intrusive Thoughts: Recurring memories, flashbacks, and nightmares that make the person feel as if the trauma is happening again.
   
   

2. Avoidance: Avoiding places, people, or thoughts that remind them of the traumatic event.
   
   

3. Negative Changes in Mood and Thinking: Feelings of detachment, distorted feelings like guilt or shame, and difficulty maintaining close relationships.
   
   

4. Hyperarousal: Being easily startled, feeling constantly on edge, and having angry outbursts or sleep problems.
   
   

People with PTSD often feel as though they’re stuck in a loop, constantly reliving a moment they wish they could forget.

What Causes PTSD?

PTSD doesn’t occur because someone is weak—it develops when a traumatic event overwhelms the brain’s ability to process it.

Main Causes Include:

• Direct exposure to trauma (war, abuse, accidents, etc.)
  
  

• Indirect trauma (e.g., learning about a loved one’s violent death)
  
  

• Lack of emotional or social support afterward
  
  

• Pre-existing mental health conditions or a history of trauma
  
  

Genetic vulnerability may also play a role in why some people develop PTSD while others do not, even after experiencing similar events (American Psychological Association, 2020).

Societal and Cultural Dimensions

PTSD doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Survivors may be blamed or silenced. Veterans returning from war zones, abuse survivors within religious or conservative communities, or victims of domestic violence may find it difficult to speak out. In some cultures, trauma is spiritualized or dismissed, adding layers of guilt and fear.

According to the World Health Organization (2019), stigma, inadequate mental health services, and cultural denial can worsen symptoms and delay treatment. In many societies, PTSD is mistakenly attributed to "evil spirits" or seen as a moral failing rather than a mental wound.

HAQ’s Embrace

At the Home of Abrahamic Quiver, we do not treat PTSD like a puzzle to be solved with tests or labels. We understand that trauma lingers in both the mind and the soul. Our spiritual healers welcome survivors without judgment or analysis. We don’t ask you to relive your pain or explain it—we simply walk beside you as you face it.

For some, PTSD feels like a curse. At HAQ, we believe it is a scar—evidence that you survived. Through rituals rooted in the Abrahamic traditions and spiritual interventions beyond the scope of modern clinics, we help carry what you should never have had to bear alone.

Because healing doesn’t always come from medication. Sometimes, it comes from being seen, being heard, and being held—in the quiet strength of faith.

References

• National Institute of Mental Health. (2022). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd
  
  

• American Psychological Association. (2020). PTSD and Trauma. https://www.apa.org/topics/ptsd
  
  

• World Health Organization. (2019). Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-Being in Conflict Settings.

“The War Never Ended—It Just Followed Me Home”

A fictional reflection from a 36-year-old male combat veteran living with PTSD

I came back in one piece—but not whole.

People clapped for us at the airport. My mom cried when she saw me. But the thing is... the version of me she hugged wasn’t the same man she said goodbye to. I slept in my childhood bedroom again, but every creak in the floor sounded like gunfire. Every firework in July sent me straight to the ground, covering my head.

No one understood. Not even me.

I’d wake up drenched in sweat, fists clenched, thinking I was back in that burning village, hearing the screams again. My dreams were a battlefield. My days weren’t any better. I avoided watching the news, skipped out on family BBQs. I couldn’t explain to my little nephew why I flinched when he slammed the door. He started walking on tiptoe around me, like I was something fragile. Or dangerous.

It wasn’t just fear—it was guilt. Survivor’s guilt. Why did I come back when others didn’t? I kept reliving every order I gave, every time I hesitated, every second that cost someone else their life. It played in my head like a reel with no off switch.

I tried therapy. I tried pills. They numbed the edges but left the center hollow. Friends started pulling away. They didn’t know what to say, and honestly, neither did I. I wasn’t violent. I wasn’t unstable. But I wasn’t present. I was lost somewhere between what I’d seen and what I’d become.

One night, I found myself standing in the kitchen, staring at a knife on the counter. Not because I wanted to end things—but because I couldn’t feel anything. That scared me more than all the noise in my head. Numbness is its own kind of terror.

HAQ’s Embrace

At Home of Abrahamic Quiver, we don’t diagnose your silence or shame it. We understand that sometimes, the spirit sustains injuries the body cannot explain. You don’t need a label to receive compassion. You don’t need a list of symptoms to be heard.

We offer spiritual healing to those tormented by things this world refuses to see. Through prayer, sacred rites, and the ancient tools of faith, we help you unburden what was never meant to be carried alone. We do not ask where it hurts—we already know it lives deep.

If PTSD is a shadow that follows you, we will walk beside you until light finds you again.

Because here, you are not a veteran of war. You are a warrior of the soul. And at HAQ, warriors are never left behind.