A mental illness affecting some people who witness or experience a traumatic event, post-traumatic stress disorder can severely impact a person’s ability to socialize, remain employed and enjoy meaningful relationships. Examples of traumatic events commonly causing PTSD include being sexually or physically assaulted, involvement in military combat, suffering major losses due to natural disasters and vehicle accidents. Some individuals may also develop PTSD after a nonviolent event, such as the death of a child or parent. People may even develop PTSD from witnessing a terrible event.
What is interesting about PTSD is that symptoms may not emerge for several years. Psychiatrists hypothesize that at the moment a person must suddenly cope with a traumatic event, they may subconsciously try to suppress their fear and terror as a form of self-preservation. It’s only later that a traumatic memory is triggered by something (a noise, a visual, a nightmare) that forces suppressed memories into their consciousness.
The Biological Factor Behind PTSD
Research suggests that individuals with lower levels of cortisol, dopamine and serotonin may be predisposed to developing symptoms of PTSD. Dopamine and serotonin regulate feelings of anxiety, aggression, pleasure and apathy. Cortisol is a hormone essential for physically and psychologically coping with stress in a healthy manner. Insufficient levels of these neurotransmitters may interfere with a person’s ability to manage emotions evolving from witnessing or being the victim of a traumatic event.
Early Warning Signs of PTSD
No one remains unaffected by trauma. No matter what their prior mental health history, people confronted by traumatic events are at risk of developing PTSD. In some cases, a trauma victim may present early signs of PTSD by seeming to “overreact” to normal events. Soldiers returning home from battle may run frantically away from the sound of a car backfiring. Someone who experienced the loss of their home due to a tornado may become panic-stricken at the sight of storm clouds. A female child victimized by a male sexual abuser may be terrified by men who resemble the abuser. In some cases there may not be an obvious connection (to an onlooker) between the trauma and associated triggers; a sufferer may be triggered by the sight of blue skies, for example, if the originating trauma occurred on a sunny day.
People who inexplicably begin drinking alcohol or using drugs may be exhibiting another early warning sign of PTSD. When asked by concerned family members or friends why they “took up” drinking, a trauma victim may say, “Oh, I’m just trying to calm my nerves. I’ll be all right.” Drug abuse by trauma victims is often harder to detect. Well-meaning doctors may temporarily prescribe anti-anxiety medications to someone dealing with a recent trauma. Unfortunately, anxiolytics and opioid prescription drugs are addictive and could lead to trauma survivors turning to street drugs when their prescription runs out.
Common Signs and Symptoms of PTSD
If you or someone you know has experienced a traumatic event, watch for development of one or more of the following symptoms. They generally fall into four categories — cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physical — and often appear in combination.
Cognitive Symptoms
- Flashbacks and intrusive thoughts. Random, uncontrollable memories that may feel like reliving the trauma. The experience can be so vivid that hearing a similar voice, smell, or sound puts the person back in the original moment.
- Hypervigilance and exaggerated startle response. Being in a constant state of alertness, scanning for threats, jumping at the slightest noise or sudden movement.
- Difficulty concentrating. Constant anxiety and hyperarousal interfere with focus at work, school, or in daily life.
- Memory loss. The brain may suppress traumatic memories as a defense mechanism, though there’s no guarantee they won’t return.
Emotional Symptoms
- Lack of positive emotions. Sadness, anger, and guilt interfere with the ability to feel happiness even in good situations.
- Loss of interest in things once enjoyed. Hobbies, socializing, and activities that previously brought joy no longer hold meaning.
- Self-blame or blaming others. Feeling responsible for the traumatic event, or assigning blame to others, even when no one was at fault.
- Negative worldview and hopelessness. Viewing the future with pessimism, expressing low self-worth, expecting bad outcomes.
- Feelings of depersonalization, alienation, and detachment. Feeling disconnected from one’s own body, emotions, or surroundings — as if “outside” oneself.
Behavioral Symptoms
- Avoidance behaviors and self-isolation. Avoiding people, places, situations, or conversations that remind them of the trauma.
- Angry, irrational outbursts. Minor events triggering fight-or-flight responses, causing the person to lash out for seemingly no reason.
- Risk-taking behavior. Turning to binge drinking, drug use, gambling, impulse buying, or unsafe sex as coping mechanisms.
Physical Symptoms
- Insomnia, sleep disturbances, and recurring nightmares. Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep due to constant alertness, or fear of reliving trauma through dreams.
- Stress-related physical conditions. High blood pressure, ulcers, weight gain or loss, migraines, eczema, or other conditions linked to chronic stress.
PTSD symptoms may also improve or worsen over time. Some trauma victims appear to be coping well simply because they are ignoring (suppressing) unpleasant emotions and thoughts about the trauma. However, the unpredictability of PTSD means that a loved one you are worried about could go from acting normal to being inexplicably aggressive, depressed or even suicidal.
