What are the symptoms for post-traumatic stress disorder?
The typical symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder are classified into three general categories. One category includes arousal symptoms. This would be reflective of increased general activity of the norepinephrine or adrenaline system and can be manifested through irritability, problems with sleep, increased startle response, and just a general hypervigilance to the environment. Another category of symptoms are what we call the avoidance symptoms, and these include a feeling of estrangement from people, an emotional numbing, or an inability to really feel things or experience things in a normal way. People feel a detachment; they often feel that others can't really understand what they are going through. The final category of symptoms is the re-experiencing cluster and this would include intrusive recollections of the event. This is sort of akin to getting a melody in your mind which you just can't get out, and this can become very bothersome as inner fears of thinking about other things. Intrusive recollections can also occur as bad nightmares, and then in rare cases people can have flashbacks in which for a moment they relive the traumatic experience replete with a lot of sensory experiences. Patients with PTST can have other things such as anger outbursts, irritability, and it's not uncommon to have survivor guilt, especially if a traumatic event that they were involved with had resulted in death or serious injury to another person.
