PTSD

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is often caused by a traumatic event where there is actual or threatened serious injury, death, or sexual violence. This can be an event you experienced yourself, something that  you witnessed or heard about. 

Symptoms include:

 Heightened startle response

Avoidance of emotions or thoughts about the trauma 

Avoidance of people or situations that remind one of the trauma

Flashbacks

Nightmares

Intrusive thoughts

Memory issues related to the event

Negative thoughts or beliefs about self and others

Feelings of horror, sadness, shame

Loss of interest in events that were once enjoyable

Feeling isolated, detached, and alone

Difficulty falling or staying asleep

Irritability

Hypervigilance

Difficulty Concentrating 

There is now a dissociative specifier for PTSD. This includes feelings of depersonalization and derealization. Depersonalization is a feeling of disconnection from self, whereas derealization is a feeling of disconnection from the world. See our page on Depersonalization/Derealization for more information.