What Is PTSD?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD can leave you feeling stuck with a constant sense of danger and painful memories. But with new coping skills, you can feel safe again and move on from trauma.

What is PTSD?:      After a traumatic experience, it’s normal to feel frightened, sad, anxious, and disconnected. But if the upset doesn’t fade, you may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD can develop following any event that makes you fear for your safety. Most people associate PTSD with rape or battle-scarred soldiers—and military combat is the most common cause in men. But any event, or series of events, that overwhelms you with feelings of hopelessness and helplessness and leaves you emotionally shattered, can trigger PTSD—especially if the event feels unpredictable and uncontrollable. PTSD can affect people who personally experience the traumatic event, those who witness the event, or those who pick up the pieces afterwards, such as emergency workers and law enforcement officers. PTSD can also result from surgery performed on children too young to fully understand what’s happening to them. Whatever the cause for your PTSD, with treatment and support, you can learn to manage your symptoms, reduce painful memories, and move past the trauma.

PTSD vs. a normal response to traumatic events:   Following a traumatic event, almost everyone experiences at least some of the symptoms of PTSD. When your sense of safety and trust are shattered, it’s normal to feel unbalanced, disconnected, or numb. It’s very common to have bad dreams, feel fearful, and find it difficult to stop thinking about what happened. These are normal reactions to abnormal events. For most people, however, these symptoms are short-lived. They may last for several days or even weeks, but they gradually lift. But if you have post-traumatic stress disorder, the symptoms don’t decrease. You don’t feel a little better each day. In fact, you may start to feel worse.

A normal response to trauma becomes PTSD when you get stuck:     After a traumatic experience, the mind and the body are in shock. But as you make sense of what happened and process your emotions, you start to come out of it. With PTSD, however, you remain in psychological shock. Your memory of what happened and your feelings about it are disconnected. In order to move on, it’s important to face and feel your memories and emotions.

Signs and symptoms of PTSD:   PTSD develops differently from person to person because everyone’s nervous system and tolerance for stress is a little different. While you’re most likely to develop symptoms of PTSD in the hours or days following a traumatic event, it can sometimes take weeks, months, or even years before they appear. Sometimes symptoms appear seemingly out of the blue. At other times, they are triggered by something that reminds you of the original traumatic event, such as a noise, an image, certain words, or a smell.

While everyone experiences PTSD differently, there are four main types of symptoms.

Re-experiencing the traumatic event through intrusive memories, flashbacks, nightmares, or intense mental or physical reactions when reminded of the trauma.

Avoidance and numbing, such as avoiding anything that reminds you of the trauma, being unable to remember aspects of the ordeal, a loss of interest in activities and life in general, feeling emotionally numb and detached from others and a sense of a limited future.

Hyperarousal, including sleep problems, irritability, hypervigilance (on constant “red alert”), feeling jumpy or easily startled, angry outbursts, and aggressive, self-destructive, or reckless behavior.

Negative thought and mood changes like feeling alienated and alone, difficulty concentrating or remembering, depression and hopelessness, feeling mistrust and betrayal, and feeling guilt, shame, or self-blame.

PTSD symptoms in children:     In children – especially very young children – the symptoms of PTSD can differ from those of adults and may include:

Fear of being separated from their parent

Losing previously-acquired skills (such as toilet training)

Sleep problems and nightmares

Somber, compulsive play in which themes or aspects of the trauma are repeated

New phobias and anxieties that seem unrelated to the trauma (such as fear of monsters)

Acting out the trauma through play, stories, or drawings

Aches and pains with no apparent cause

Irritability and aggression

Do you have PTSD?:     If you answer yes to three or more of the questions below, you may have PTSD and it’s worthwhile to visit a qualified mental health professional.

Have you witnessed or experienced a traumatic, life- threatening event?

Did this experience make you feel intensely afraid, horrified, or helpless?

Do you have trouble getting the event out of your mind?

Do you startle more easily and feel more irritable or angry than you did before the event?

Do you go out of your way to avoid activities, people, or thoughts that remind you of the event?

Do you have more trouble falling asleep or concentrating than you did before the event?

Have your symptoms lasted for more than a month?

Is your distress making it hard for you to work or function normally?

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/ptsd-symptoms-self-help-treatment.htm