Poll When Did the Symptoms of PTSD First Appear, After the Initial Traumatic Event?

[anthony]

So when did your symptoms first appear? This is the magic question which will show quite drastic results compared to many experts belief that PTSD presents as a majority near immediate after a traumatic event itself.

 

[piglet]

This is a question I can't even answer, as I cannot remember when the trauma started, only when it stopped. I do have a distinct recollection of something that I now know was a flashback. This was only a few months after I left home. However, it is very probable that I might have shown signs of ptsd as a young child. I just don't know.

If I think about when I actually sought help with symptoms, this was 21/2 years after I left home. I had been coping with the symptoms for a long time and just accepted them as part of me. My life was quite restricted, but manageable. I couldn't handle the depression side of it though and that is what sent me into the doctor. This was ten years ago.

 

[Nam]

My trauma was during childhood. I did not have symptoms of PTSD until I was twenty five. I did suffer from undiagnosed depression here and there growing up, but the PTSD did not happen until my memories, or flashbacks returned.

 

[carpediem2006]

It is hard to say as many of us have more than one traumatic event. When exactly it becomes PTSD is difficult to quantify, but the symptoms are more or less immediate. I think that we should also look at PTSS (stress syndrome) that would be a temporary reaction to a one off event as opposed to long standing ongoing stressful situations such as combat, harassment, bullying and abuse. In these cases the symptoms are present but intensify as the threat does not diminish but increases.

As the threat increases so do the negative impacts, such as loss of employment, relationships, friendships so the symptoms then become self-exacerbating.

For many I think full recovery from something like a car crash, earthquake or other one off event is fully feasible.

There will always be triggers, but at the same time we learn to protect ourselves for reasons of self preservation, just as we look before crossing the road. We know and deal with daily 'dangers' every day. The problem is when these dangers are much more than checking to cross the road. And the response is similarly much stronger. I begin to think of it a bit like self protection where the response has gone haywire because the threat(s) were so large.

 

[Farmer]

My traumatic event happened when I was 8 but the sympoms didn't show up untill 13 or 14, Being an adoleciant I told no one for fear of being different even tho I could see the world was going on a different road than me.

 

[nml]

Im not sure if the symptoms started as a child or not. There wasnt anyone really paying attention to me unless I was being abused. I was diagnosed with Complex/Chronic PTSD also as I have carried the traumas into my adulthood attempting subconcsiouly to change the outcome of a long ago story. As now I know the symptoms, they ahve been there for many years. Some very traumatic memories were surpressed some were not. I crashed about 9 months ago.

 

[lorrie]

how long?

Stress and trauma has been in my life since my childhood, but the abuse from my marriage and the relationship is my demon. The question is tough because I tried to hide with alcohol but it jut covered the symptoms. I guess it has been about 12 years and my mind has just recently really started trusting my ability to deal with things that I never could before.

 

[reallydown]

Don't know if this is helpful

I also went through childhood trauma... I can't say when exactly my symptoms started (there was some related depression in highschool) but I didn't give it much importance until college--when it really started affecting me...

I also have a memory(very sketchy though) of another childhood trauma...and when I asked my mom about it she said that at about that time I had started wetting myself (even though I was fully potty-trained)...so I guess at that time the symptoms showed up earlier...

 

[nml]

I had forgotten about the bed wetting. Which made matters worse as I would get "punished" for it. I also remember throwing up alot as a small child between ages 5 to 8 years old. I guess symtoms were there. I didnt think about those things as being symptoms. geez.

 

[sonrisa]

Same here, bedwetting until age 7 (and got punished for it), and at a younger age a lot of outbursts (over and above the terrible twos) which were thought to be some kind of disorder but eventually put down to an allergy to a soft drink. Sure in my teens it was starting to come through more, with depression due to home siutation and bullying at school too, but it was after the car crash when I was 22 that ptsd was clear. Even then, was young [40 now] and didn't understand what it was etc, but definitely about 4 years ago the final crash came, and totally withdrew.

Been finding my own ways of dealing with things until reading on a depression site a year or so ago about ptsd, and suddenly remembering it had been referred to around the time of the car crash. It really made sense then, and to finally have someone assessing correctly just this week, and referring me on for the right help, is a real positive step of progress, and feels like the end of a very long chapter, and the beginning of a much better chapter. This week the first diagnosis was put to me as 'depression with cumulative ptsd that could have begun in the developmental stage but isn't innate', so I agree that often we don't realise how early ptsd is beginning, until the symptoms become much clearer. And definitely, when ptss becomes ptsd I agree must be when we either can't find a way to resolve a trauma or are overwhelmed with circumstances that are consistently traumatic over a long period of time. And e.g. if something very difficult is hanging over your head day in day out, I can very much understand carpediem's point about when it crosses over to 'major threat/flashing lights' when the threat response has got so overwhelmed.

Cat

 

[becvan]

I voted for 12 months or longer.

My first memory of trauma (and there are too many to count) is when I was around age 5 but I don't have many memories before the age of 12. So we'll just go with that!

Bec

 

[cookie]

It has been a loooooooong time. trauma started around 3. Symptoms didn't come until last yr. 45 yrs afterward. I know it's strange, i can't seem to do anything the normal way.