Acute stress disorder or acute stress reaction is a psychological condition that occurs in response to an extremely traumatic stressor. This usually last a minimum of 2 days to a maximum of 4 weeks and must occur within 4 weeks of the trauma. If symptoms are present for longer than 4 weeks the diagnosis is changed to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Symptoms experienced are similar to PTSD and include numbness or detachment and decreased or absent emotional responsiveness. Derealization, depersonalization and inability to recall the traumatic event.
When Col. John Jacob Astor IV went down on the Titanic, at age 48, he left behind a pregnant widow, Madeleine Force Astor, who was 19 years old; a daughter, Alice who was ten, and his son Vincent who was just turning 21.
The Titanic sunk on April 14, 1912 while sailing to New York after striking an iceberg. Out of the 2,223 people on the ship during the trip, only 708 people survived. Many of the people who survived the tragedy were children, women and first and second class guests. The estimated number of deaths from the first class, second class and third class were 130, 166 and 536 respectively.