PTSD - What it is.
PTSD is a condition that results after a traumatic event where symptoms persist for over a month. The DSM-V recognizes four symptom clusters:
- intrusive memories
- flashbacks, distressing memories, emotional distress around reminders of traumatic event(s)
- avoidance
- avoiding thoughts, conversations, place, activities, and people that are associated to traumatic event(s)
- negative changes in mood and thoughts
- negative thoughts, hopelessness, forgetting important details of traumatic event(s), difficulty maintaining close relationships. feeling detached from close relationships, lack of interest in previously enjoyed activities, difficulty experiencing positivity, emotional numbing
- changes in physical and emotional responses
- easily startled, hypervigilant or on-guard, self-destructive behaviors (excessive drinking, fast driving, etc.), difficulty sleeping, difficulty concentrating, hyperarousal, hypoarousal, overwhelming guilt or shame
