Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental illness triggered by a frightening situation, whether you experienced or witnessed it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, severe distress, and uncontrollable thoughts about the situation.
Many people who go through traumatic situations may have temporary difficulty adjusting and coping, but with time and self-care, they usually improve. You may have post-traumatic stress disorder if symptoms worsen, last for months or years, and interfere with your daily activities.
The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder fall into four categories. Specific symptoms can vary in severity.
- Intrusive memories: intrusive thoughts such as repeated involuntary flashbacks, distressing dreams, or flashbacks of the traumatic event. Flashbacks can be so vivid that people feel they are reliving or seeing the traumatic experience before their eyes.
- Avoidance: Avoiding reminders of the traumatic event may include avoiding people, places, activities, objects, and situations that may trigger distressing memories. People may avoid remembering or thinking about the traumatic event. They may resist talking about what happened or how they feel about it.
- Alterations in cognition and mood: inability to remember important aspects of the traumatic event, negative thoughts and feelings leading to ongoing, distorted beliefs about self or others (e.g., “I am bad,” “no one can be trusted”); distorted thoughts about the cause or consequences of the event leading to mistakenly blaming oneself or others; continued fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame; much less interest in activities one used to enjoy; feeling detached or distant from others; or being unable to experience positive emotions (a void of happiness or contentment).
- Disturbances in arousal and reactivity: arousal and reactive symptoms may include being irritable and having angry outbursts; behaving in a reckless or self-destructive manner; being overly attentive to surroundings in a suspicious manner; being easily startled; or having trouble concentrating or sleeping.
Many people exposed to a traumatic event experience symptoms similar to those described above in the days following the event. However, for a person to be diagnosed with this condition, the symptoms must last for more than one month and cause significant distress or problems in the person’s daily functioning. Many people develop symptoms within three months of the trauma, but symptoms can appear later and often persist for months and sometimes years.
Effective treatment after PTSD symptoms can be essential to reducing symptoms and improving functioning.
