What are symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
People with PTSD repeatedly re-experience their trauma through memories and thoughts of the experience. They often suffer from flashbacks, hallucinations and nightmares. The anxiety associated with the traumatic event can provoke avoidant or isolating behaviors. Persons with PTSD can have feelings of detachment from family and friends, isolation, and loss of social interactions. Severe dissociative symptoms include depersonalization, psychic numbing, or amnesia. Increased arousal can manifest as emotional lability, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, sensitivity to sensory stimuli (startle response), and physical symptoms such as rapid heart beat, shortness of breath, nausea, dizziness, and gastrointestinal problems.
