What do you think? That is what is most important. Try it on for size. If you can get help for PTSD, go there. I have PTSD, and I have got so much help from this site. Go online and find out what the symptoms are. You will eventually find out what you need.

(might be triggering to some as i use examples)

ptsd, in a basic, very physical sense, is that your brain will behave as if it is being traumatized when there is no actual trauma. so when you have someone holding a gun to your head say, if they're robbing you or some such. and before they let you go, maybe they do something like beat you or assault you.

your brain automatically starts flooding with adrenaline and cortisol in order to prepare your fight-or-flight response which is a biological evolutionary construct designed to keep you alive, it activates your self-preservation instinct. it is what would make you give over your wallet or even do demeaning things in order to ensure you get out alive. following their demands, not putting up a fight - those are "freeze" responses and they are the most common if you can't get a proper escape. if you choose a "fight" response, which would be actively fighting your attacker, that means maybe you try knocking the gun out of his hand if you feel like it is necessary.

so you may cope with that during the trauma by actively dissociating (separating) your emotions and feelings from the actual event, causing a numbing of feeling for a while, while your brain processes it. for the next six or so months you might present with nightmares, anxiety, flashbacks, panic, numbness or hopelessness. usually those symptoms go away as your brain processes its trauma, and you can look at those memories in the future without harm.

in posttraumatic stress disorder, the outcome is very different. that "post-stress" reaction does not go away. it becomes a permanent disorder. you may walk down the street and see guns hanging in a gunshop, and immediately start to panic or feel like you are back when it is happening to you emotionally, you may avoid going outside or have intrusive thoughts about your trauma. and, when that happens, your cortisol and adrenaline levels start to go up in your brain just as if you were being traumatized all over again.

so in a nutshell that is what ptsd is.

@Merit: Oooohhhhh!!!!!! This makes so much sense!! This explains that horrible, dreadful, terrifying feeling I get whenever I am near someone who is drinking or doing drugs. 9 times out of 10 I become terrified for my life, I have panic attacks, I feel as though I'm going to die, whenever I am near someone who has drugs or alcohol.

Wow. I've never understood why those 2 things made me so upset. Also people who are drinking/under the influence make me extremely upset.

when I was in college my roommates would often have people over partying and drinking and I would always become so frightened and depressed and scared. people tell me I am a wimp etc.

this makes so much sense now..

Good description Merit.

Merit,
Thank you for your service. I very much appreciate it.

You have just painted a GREAT picture of the PTSD monster.
Thank you so much for posting it. I would only add that it can
also lay dormant for years, even decades, and then rear it's
ugly head right out of nowhere.

i am glad you found my description helpful. after studying ptsd on my own for several months i am convinced that ptsd is as physical an illness as having a stroke or a concussion is a physical illness, the symptoms of ptsd can be entirely traced to neurological malfunction. it is, in every sense of the word, an injury. a disorder.

it is not a natural response to trauma. there is not yet any conclusive data as to why some develop ptsd and some do not, but i suspect it has to do with the maturity of the neurological functioning in the individual, and whether or not there are other factors at work such as previous abuse, personality disorders, other mental illness, depression, anxiety. all of which, by the way, i also fully feel to be biological.

i have a suspicion that if anyone is exposed to trauma extensive enough, long enough, they will likely develop ptsd. while its emergence is often random, i have never met someone who has been through complex trauma who does not have ptsd. it is indeed an injury. someone or something has injured you and this is the result, biologically.

it is like getting hit in the head. in fact, traumatic brain injury and ptsd are often indistinguishable from one another. i have both, they are different, but not to the outsider.

i have most of those things too. and was diagnosed with the same thing. if you would like to maybe we can talk sometime.

PTSD - A mental trap of time regardless of where you are. You are instantly transported to the event of the trauma, whether you desire to go or not. No choice.

I've come a long way, but still have triggers. Me, I've not been labeled OCD but I have "fixations" that take phases. For example, "collecting" ink pens, then will switch to "collecting" certain types of books, etc. I think the "collecting" is really a form of OCD somehow.