PTSD Healing: Symptom Overview

OK, let’s set the record straight. The more widely known it becomes and the higher profile it has the more those 4 letters P, T, S, D get tossed around and misapplied. I read around online a lot. I often come across blog posts and articles where people are saying things like, “I have PTSD from taking this class,” or, “By the time I quit this job I’m going to have PTSD.” There’s a big difference between not liking your boss and surviving a car wreck.

Before PTSD becomes so ubiquitous everyone forgets that it actually applies to people who have survived extraordinary life-threatening and overwhelming circumstances, let’s lay out the ground rules: You do not have PTSD if you just feel agitated about your course load. You do not have PTSD if your career is in a shambles or you’re experiencing stress in the face of some great existential angst.

The following list of symptoms (provided by Sidran Institute) is the official list of what PTSD looks like. If you recognize yourself in this list, or if you recognize the reflection of someone you love, it’s time to get some professional help, learn what you need to know about your situation, and begin mapping out a strategy to find relief.

The journey to healing begins with recognizing the problem. Here it is, plain and simple:

In the immediate aftermath of trauma – say, the first month or so – many people suffer from Acute Stress, which includes the following symptoms:

Anxiety
Behavioral disturbances
Dissociation
Hyperarousal
Avoidance of memories related to the trauma
Flashbacks
Nightmares

All of these symptoms are part of the normal steps of how trauma survivors process the recent event. However, if these symptoms persist for more than one month (and begin to functionally impair and significantly upset the survivor), then the diagnosis is changed to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. According to the DSM-IV Classification this means the subject meets the following six criteria:


A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

1. the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others.

2. the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

B. The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

1. recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions

2. recurrent distressing dreams of the event

3. acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur on awakening or when intoxicated)

4. intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event

5. physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), 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, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma

3. inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma

4. markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities

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 (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by

1. two (or more) of the following:

2. difficulty falling or staying asleep

3. irritability or outbursts of anger

4. difficulty concentrating

5. hypervigilance

6. exaggerated startle response

E. Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in Criteria B, C, and D) is more than 1 month.

F. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Got it? Good. Now go spread the word. PTSD is a serious emotional response to an incredibly traumatic event. The more we work together to learn what PTSD is and how it presents – the more we educate ourselves – the more quickly all PTSD experiencers will be diagnosed and set on the healing path.

(Photo: jennytrucano)