Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffPost-traumatic stress disorder symptoms typically start within three months of a traumatic event. In a small number of cases, though, PTSD symptoms may not appear until years after the event.
Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms are generally grouped into three types: intrusive memories, avoidance and numbing, and increased anxiety or emotional arousal (hyperarousal).
Symptoms of intrusive memories may include:
- Flashbacks, or reliving the traumatic event for minutes or even days at a time
- Upsetting dreams about the traumatic event
Symptoms of avoidance and emotional numbing may include:
- Trying to avoid thinking or talking about the traumatic event
- Feeling emotionally numb
- Avoiding activities you once enjoyed
- Hopelessness about the future
- Memory problems
- Trouble concentrating
- Difficulty maintaining close relationships
Symptoms of anxiety and increased emotional arousal may include:
- Irritability or anger
- Overwhelming guilt or shame
- Self-destructive behavior, such as drinking too much
- Trouble sleeping
- Being easily startled or frightened
- Hearing or seeing things that aren't there
Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms can come and go. You may have more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms when things are stressful in general, or when you run into reminders of what you went through. You may hear a car backfire and relive combat experiences, for instance. Or you may see a report on the news about a rape and feel overcome by memories of your own assault.
When we look around at the ultra calm people, Eckhart Tolle comes to mind. example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j42cTkiGdXY. The knowledge of pointlessness is pointless.
If this guy is right, then the human animal only needs only, food, shelter, clothing, and all else is excess. So where do I go from here?
I wound up doing 60 sessions of neurofeedback that helped me immensely. But that's fairly new and not covered by most insurance. I do think that some kind of meditation practice is really valuable. A biofeedback device like HeartMath can help, but in a pinch, I find listening to calming music (I like classical) and looking at Flickr slide shows of nature works well too.
ReplyDelete