Adjustment Disorder vs PTSD – Difference and Comparison

What is Adjustment Disorder?

AD called situational stress is relatively normal because it’s a condition for a short time or problem that occurs when any person has an abnormal reaction to a particular situation. It can be positive, or negative too. A normal person can recover from it after some months or years, but it’s a temporary problem.

The symptoms of a problem depend on the situation of a person, and some common symptoms are anxiety feeling or sadness most of the time. It can also cause some physically related symptoms, like pain in the head, stomach and some other areas. The eyes can also feel pain because of stressful tears.

A person can also start using some toxic things like drugs. The problem of adjustment disorder can stay for some months, but habits like drug addition can stay for a long time, and that is why awareness in this situation is an important thing. Closed ones can play an important role in this situation.

Adjustment disorder can affect any age group of people, and it has the same effects on mn and women because it’s a thing related to emotions, not from the body. It can change the nature of a person, and their way of dealing with any situation of life.

What is PTSD?

Many people face something traumatic once in their life, and some people also face this many times. People who know how to deal with it will become better with time, but some people still face their traumas around them. When people face horrible experiences and they get afraid of that for their whole life and that becomes a PTSD problem.

People who are suffering from PTSD can face things, like flashbacks of trauma, horrible nightmares. People can also lose their interest in everything, and become the saddest person. It can affect the whole life of a person. Some people can deal with it in a few days or months, but some people stay with their fear for a long time.

The brain hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis can’t regulate stress hormones properly, contributing to PTSD symptoms and causing intense waves of stress, fear and depression. PTSD can also affect other parts of the body, like the stomach with the brain.

People who face trauma alone with no support have more chances of getting developed trauma. People can get addicted to some bad things, and those things work as a life destroyed in their life. A doctor can help in fighting this situation if the patient wants to fight with their fear.

Difference Between Adjustment Disorder and PTSD

  1. Adjustment disorder is common because of any unemployment, or any serious issue of life. On the other side PTSD take place because of any serious event, like having a sexual abuse.
  2. Patients with adjustment disorder can become normal after some time, and with the help of some people. Patients with PTSD have to face the fear for a long time to destroy it from the brain.
  3. Symptoms of adjustment disorder are not serious as symptoms of PTSD. PTSD symptoms can be getting the mental illness or getting an attack of trauma in any situation.
  4. Every person has some stressful things in their life, and that is why adjustment disorder is common PTSD is also get found in many people, but not more than adjustment disorder.
  5.  If any person is stressed because of a serious relationship problem, it’s adjustment disorder. If someone is having the trauma of any terrifying incident, then it’s PTSD.

Comparison Between Adjustment Disorder and PTSD

Parameters of Comparison Adjustment Disorder PTSD
DefinitionIt happens when someone is stressed because of any stress even and not able to recover.It happens when someone faces any horrible situation and is not able to recover from it
Time fir recoveryAD patient can take some months to recoverPTSD patients can take some months or a year
Mostly foundedIt get found in most of the peopleIt gets found less in people comparison to Ad
DangerousLess dangerousMore dangerous
ExampleSuffering from unemployment thingsGet attacked by robbers

References

  1. https://link.springer.com/article/10.2165/11311000-000000000-00000
  2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21834189/