One traumatic experience can launch everything from recurring nightmares to uncontrollable violent actions.

Following pop star Lady Gaga‘s open letter last week confessing her struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, a disease caused by a past sexual assault, The Mentor editorial board concurred about the overlooked severeness of PTSD in society as well as the needed varied treatment of the disease.

Media and popular culture tend to heavily romanticize PTSD. Its image runs parallel to tragedies caused by war and of soldiers in combat. The reality is much different.

PTSD can be caused by any high-stress situation such as suicidal thoughts or sexual assault. The effects can also range from severe physical stress to flashbacks and many lesser effects. People whose PTSD comes from car crashes or abuse should not be ignored or looked over. Their pain and uncomfort is just as valid.   

With the effects of the disease come the treatment and handling of the terrors that lay inside the head of the affected. Generalization of how to treat this as a whole or in categories contradicts the nature of the condition. Treatment should be pursuing individualistic care. It should offer and provide independently according to the problems of each patient and of the potency and cause of the problem.

Drugs like MDMA or ecstasy are also being tested to treat mental illnesses. With their help and the experimentation of other treatments, tools could exist to ease therapy on patients.

While Lady Gaga and countless others now diagnosed with PTSD struggle with the dark presence of the illness, there are many who don’t know that they have it. The truth is many suffering from mental illnesses like PTSD go undiagnosed or self-diagnose — an action which can lead to a limbo between tragedy and revelation.

Young people, the new victims of PTSD, are the ones who suffer. School psychologists and other specialists are critical for students who either can’t pay for medical attention as well as students who don’t seek professional help. They should be in reach for young people who for whatever reason can go undiagnosed. As adults and easy-to-reach in-school psychologists help out more students, less young people can go undiagnosed, erasing the threat of a lasting hidden problem.

The reasonable thing to do is to focus more on mental illnesses, and treat them as different and varying in cause and severeness. This is needed for people like Lady Gaga who fight with it everyday, and for those newly infected by the condition.