What are the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder?

Common symptoms of PTSD include:Recurring, intrusive, and distressing memories of the event. Avoiding situations that remind you of the event. Becoming emotionally numb and withdrawing. Difficulty sleeping and concentrating, and fearing for your personal safety.

According to Yahoo! Health...Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be terrifying and even disabling. They can begin right after the trauma. However, PTSD cannot be diagnosed unless symptoms last at least 1 month, cause significant distress, or interfere with work or home life. Sometimes symptoms occur years later. They may include:Reliving the event. You may reexperience the traumatic event through frightening memories, such as "flashbacks" that may cause you to temporarily lose your sense of reality (psychosis) or nightmares. Reliving the event may cause intense fear, helplessness, and horror similar to the feelings you had when the event took place. This distress may cause symptoms of extreme anxiety or a panic attack. Avoiding reminders of the event. You may try to avoid situations that trigger memories of the traumatic event. You may avoid going near the place where the trauma occurred or seeing TV programs or news reports about the event. You may avoid other sights, sounds, smells, or people that are reminders of the traumatic event. You may also forget, or be unable to talk about, important parts of the event. Becoming numb. PTSD may make it difficult for you to be in touch with your feelings or express emotions toward other people. For example, you may: Feel emotionally "numb" and may isolate yourself from others. Not be interested in activities you once enjoyed. Think that you will have a shortened life span or will not reach personal goals such as having a career or family. Feeling emotionally tense. You may feel constantly alert after the traumatic event. This is known as increased emotional arousal, and it can cause: Difficulty sleeping. Outbursts of anger or irritability. Difficulty concentrating. Constantly fearing for your safety. Becoming overly startled when someone surprises you. Feelings of intense guilt, especially if you survived when others died. Other symptomsPTSD symptoms also may include:Physical pain with no apparent cause (called somatic complaints). Feelings of shame, despair, or hopelessness. Difficulty controlling emotions. Relationship problems or withdrawal from relationships. Impulsive or self-destructive behavior. Changed beliefs or changed personality. These symptoms can also occur if you have another disorder such as depression or anxiety along with PTSD.































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The official diagnosis needs to meet the following requriements, as indicated by each symptom cluster--which I've identified by letter--(according to the DSM-IV-TR and the ICD-10):A. exposure to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:1. you experience, witness or was confronted with an event or events that involve actual or threatened death or seriuos injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of the self.2. your response involves intense fear, helplessness or horror. (Children may express this via disorganized or agitated behavior).B. The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in one or more of the following ways:1. recurrent, intrusive and distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions.2. recurrent distressing dreams of the evetn3. acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (i.e., a sense of reliving the event, which can be through illusions, hallucinations, and/or dissociative flashback episodes).4. intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the event.5. physiological reacitivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.C. Persistent avoidence of stimuli associated with the traumatic event and numbing of general responsiveness, as indicated by three or more of the following:1. efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma.2. efforts to avoid activities, places, people that arouse recollections of the trauma.3. inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma.4. markedly diminished interest or participation in activities the individual used to engage in.5. feeling of detachment or estrangement from others.6. restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings).7. sense of a foreshortened future.D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal, as indicated by 2 or more:1. difficulty falling or staying asleep2. irritability or outburst of anger3. difficulty concentrating4. hypervigilance5. exaggerated startle responseE. These disturbances must occur for more than 1 monthF. These disturbances cause significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioningNOTE:As a psychologist, I see a lot of PTSD or symptoms similar to PTSD. It can be tricky to accurately diagnose, even for trained professionals. As a consequence, it tends to be over diagnosed. If you think you have this problem you should see a psychologist (perferrably one with a Ph.D. or Psy.D.). The other thing to recognize is that much of the research on this topic suggests that these symptoms will remit after 3 to 6 months, especially if you have a supportive social network who you are comfortable talking to and can openly discuss your feelings about the trauma.