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What It’s Like To Have PTSD
The Albany Clinic • February 2, 2022
Millions of people have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a mental health illness prompted by a horrifying event — either from undergoing it or watching it. Symptoms can include flashbacks, bad dreams, acute anxiety, or irrepressible thoughts about the incident. However, if you suffer from it, symptoms are manageable.
Are There Related Conditions?
PTSD has many related conditions, some with overlapping symptoms, which can make it difficult to diagnose. These include:
- Acute stress disorder has similar symptoms, but they normally happen much quicker – often between three days to a month after the trauma. If you have acute stress disorder, you may relive what happened, have flashbacks or bad dreams, and feel detached from yourself.
- Adjustment disorder also happens in reaction to a traumatic life event. The emotional or behavioral symptoms usually are severe with great intensity.
- Reactive attachment disorder happens in kids who’ve lived through acute social neglect or poverty during the first years of their lives. It can be triggered when children don’t have the basic emotional necessities for comfort, encouragement, and affection or when frequent changes in caregivers (including frequent disruptions to their foster care arrangements) keep them from developing stable relationships.
What It’s Like To Have Ptsd
PTSD can be a jarring, terrifying experience – in some cases. People relive their trauma to the point where they can’t function. If you have PTSD, you know the feelings can last long after the traumatic incident ended.
Many U.S. military veterans describe PTSD in stark terms.
U.S. Air Force veteran Stacy L. Pearsall said , “Even just falling asleep was tough. The minute I would start dozing off, I would get a surge of adrenaline or anxiety and wake up. And even when I did fall asleep, I would wake up with night terrors or sweats.”
But you don’t have to be a combat veteran to experience PTSD. Anyone can get it. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that up to six percent of the population has symptoms in any given year.
PTSD is most clearly described in terms of its symptoms. They’re mostly grouped into four kinds: intrusive memories, avoidance , adverse changes in thinking and mood, and fluctuations in emotional and physical reactions. Symptoms can change over time or differ from person to person.
- You relive the event. Unwelcome memories about what you went through can crop up without warning. They can feel terrifying and real, as if you’re living through the trauma all over again. This is what’s known as a flashback. And you also can experience vivid bad dreams.
- You avoid something which triggers memories of what happened. This is common for someone with PTSD. You’re out and about and see someone or something that triggers a vivid reminder of what happened, so you naturally try and avoid that person or situation. For example, a late-night mugging outside your favorite eatery could make you avoid that restaurant. If you’re a wartime veteran, you might try to avoid congested places like big-box retailers due to the fear generated when surrounded by large crowds.
- Negative thoughts and feelings have become commonplace. You might be sad or disoriented — and don’t care about doing things you used to take pleasure in, like quality time with family or friends. Since your trauma, you’ve gradually begun feeling like the world is a dark, dangerous place, and no one’s trustworthy anymore. This can make it tough to feel or convey happiness or other positive feelings.
Besides recognizing the symptoms, the first step in possible recovery often means reaching out to your doctor or family and friends for support.
Diagnosis & Treatment
Diagnosis normally requires seeing a doctor or mental health professional with experience identifying and treating PTSD. To be diagnosed, your symptoms must persist longer than a month and trigger significant distress or inhibit how you function daily. Your healthcare provider will do a physical examination and recommend common tests to uncover any medical reason for symptoms. Your doctor or therapist may also use a mental health screener to assess your symptoms and compare them to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria.
Treatment may include psychotherapy, self-help, lifestyle changes, antidepressants, or options like ketamine infusion or Stellate Ganglion Block.
Final Thoughts
If you have post-traumatic stress disorder, one of the best things you can do is realize that you’re not alone and that there are many resources to help you manage symptoms and start getting better. You can reach out to your healthcare provider or other organizations for useful treatment information.
The post What It’s Like To Have PTSD appeared first on The Albany Clinic.
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