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| | Notices | Welcome to PTSD Forum. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a life threatening, debilitating disorder that can break down a sufferer’s body through anxiety and stress. Further it poses a significant suicide risk resulting from the brains neurological imbalance and chemical depression. Sufferers often live in denial, thus this community is aimed at helping PTSD sufferers help themselves through others experiences, guidance and education. We are here for the sufferer, spouse and families surrounding PTSD. Spouses and family are too often forgotten in this equation, and often they receive all the worst that PTSD has to offer. If you're involved in any way with PTSD, get registered and help yourself now. Non-active members will eventually be deleted. If you are not a sufferer, carer or someone within the mental health industry, and active, then there is little reason for you to be a member of this forum. Non-active members with zero posts are deleted periodically during the year. |  | 
07-09-2005, 10:59 PM
|  | Administrative Editor PTSD | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 7,283
| |  Symptoms of PTSD
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms
The symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder are broken into three main categories, being: - Intrusive,
- Avoidance, and
- Arousal
Intrusive comprises:- Distressing memories or images of the incident
- Nightmares of the event or other frightening themes
- Flashbacks (reliving the event)
- Becoming upset when reminded of the incident
- Physical symptoms, such as sweating, heart racing, or muscle tension when reminded of the event
Avoidance comprises:- Trying to avoid any reminders of the trauma, such as thoughts, feelings, conversations, activities, places and people
- Gaps in memory – forgetting parts of the experience
- Losing interest in normal activities
- Feeling cut-off or detached from loved ones
- Feeling flat or numb
- Difficulty imagining a future
Arousal comprises:- Sleep disturbance
- Anger and irritability
- Concentration problems
- Constantly on the look-out for signs of danger
- Jumpy, easily startled
You can find more information about each from the DVA website.
Last edited by anthony; 05-03-2006 at 05:57 PM.
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07-10-2005, 06:53 PM
| | Administrative Editor PTSD | | Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 7,283
| |
In addition to the above, the following is a comprehensive guide, in both health and laymans terms, on the full conditions that those affected by PTSD can/do suffer.
The first part is the correct symptom outlined from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, and the bold on the right are the laymans interpretation. - recurring memories of the traumatic event which you can't seem to get out of your mind - Intrusive Thoughts
- recurring dreams of the trauma - Bad Dreams & Nightmares
- feeling that the traumatic even was happening again (hallucinations, flashbacks) - Reliving The Trauma
- things or events act as triggers which remind you or resemble your traumatic event - Flashbacks
- these triggers or reminders make you feel nervous, tense, generate panic attacks - Panic Attacks
- purposely avoiding thoughts, feelings or conversations about trauma - Withdrawn
- deliberately avoiding activities, places and situations about the trauma - Phobias
- when trying to recall the traumatic event you are unable to recall or remember certain things or important aspects that had happened - Memory Loss
- losing interest in people, things and activities (family, friends and hobbies) which were important to you prior to the traumatic event - Lack of Motivation
- feeling more emotionally estranged, separated or feeling cut off from others - Alienation
- feeling a markedly reduced ability to feel emotions, especially those associated wtih intimacy, tenderness and sexuality - Lacking Emotions
- difficutly falling or staying asleep - Poor Sleep
- experiencing irritability or outbursts of anger - Rage
- difficulty concentrating on tasks or completing tasks - Poor Concentration
- feeling overtly alert or watchful when you don't need to be - Ever Watchful
- having strong startle reactions - Edgy
- worrying about coping with everyday situations - Lack of Confidence
- difficulty keeping a regular job - Work Difficulties
This information was quoted from the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) book "A Vietnam Veterans Experience", by Wayne J Scott. | | Thread Tools | | | | Display Modes |  Linear Mode | 
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