forum I need help understanding PTSD

Started May 27, 2019 by Jilla

tune

My protagonist had PSTD from an abusive childhood, and I need to know if anyone can help be better understand the condition in any way.

Well better late than never, i hope you can still use this information xD

This is just coming from my experience with my own PTSD, others may have different experiences and triggers.
To explain a little bit, I got diagnosed with PTSD last year for a period that took about 2 years (i'm 19 now).
I was 13/14 at the time and just dumb in general and always a bit angry/not knowing what to do with myself and wanted a diffeent group of friends.
Said group i wanted to get into didn't like me and started bullying me quite bad, things got physical but most of the trauma is mental.

Now, with trauma comes triggers. Things that remind you of that situation/period.
Most given examples are music, pieces of clothing, certain sentences and food. But also small things that may seem stupid, like a blue backpack (not even necessarily the backpack-brand that was in the situation), flowers or a certain scent.
I always hated the scent of cinnamon for some reason, because i ate a lot of apples with cinnamon during that time.
But it's not always clear why something triggers me, sometimes it's just something that's off and gives me anxiety or a panic attack. I think an example of this would be the scent of spray paint. Nothing happened with spray paint, but it still makes me nervous.

I personally get flashbacks where it almost feels like i'm back in that situation where i can even feel my back against the wall or other things, and even smell cigarettes (they smoked, so you could say that used to be a big trigger for me when i was younger).
Then there are of course nightmares. Nightmares are often not the situation in chronical order, they can be flashes of 16 situations all mashed together. I always wake up covered in sweat and racing heart, sometimes even crying before i actually wake up.
And they don't even need to be from a situation, sometimes it's a very strong feeling (usually fear or anger) that takes shape.
A friend of mine clenches her hands and holds A LOT of tension in her muscles. She always had her muscles aching because of this, especially in her legs. This is very common as well.

Something for me that happens all the time -even when i'm not panicking or having flashbacks or whatver- is that my hands shake quite bad. it gets worse every now and then, but that's probably due to all the tension i held in my body as well.
(At this point I'm just giving examples oops, but that may help you understand better).

Often times PTSD comes with anxiety or a panic disorder. It's also worth to be noted that mental problems like autism, ADHD, borderline and other personality disorders can make it harder to treat in therapy (but please go to therapy, it's not worth beating yourself up)

I can definitely help. While I don’t have PTSD myself, I’m currently studying it in my honors psychology course and have a couple of important things to offer about it! (Note that most of this is coming from my textbook and not personal experience!!)

A listed trigger could be intense stress, and symptoms of PTSD include nightmares, persistent fear, difficulty relating normally to others, hypervigilance, self-destructive behavior, and troubling memories of or flashbacks to the traumatic event.

Another thing to note that children are usually more vulnerable to PTSD because witnessing or experiencing trauma may instill a sense of hopelessness about the future and may impair their ability to trust. The negative consequences of bad experiences can produce increased anxiety and other symptoms for many years.

Also something very very important to know is that not everyone who experiences extreme stress develops PTSD or has PTSD. While someone might be extremely stressed, they shouldn’t go as far as to self diagnose themselves with the disorder, as PTSD can be considered a whole other level (for example, using Afghanistan combat veterans, while almost 100% may experience some form of stress levels, 90% of those were not diagnosed). It is very important to differentiate between extreme stress and PTSD.

Some other little facts are that women are twice as likely to develop PTSD over men. The limbic system(heavily involved with emotion) also tends to be much more active in individuals with PTSD. I also learned that various crafts such as knitting or sewing or pottery can be very therapeutic for those with PTSD (world war veterans would do this often. Heres a link to an article if you want to read more on that https://www.sciencealert.com/modern-life-is-brutal-here-s-why-craft-is-so-good-for-our-health )

I hope some of these things helped!