Why Is Ptsd Sometimes Delayed?

[EveHarrington]

Why delayed?

I think I'll answer in another 50 years once we've hopefully determined the physical mechanisms behind PTSD. Until then, your guess is as good as mine.

For now, I just tell people it is what it is, and delayed onset in PTSD is very common.

Sort of like why many types of damage to our bodies may take years before resulting in an actual disorder or disease.

 

[Lionheart]

I wanted to thank everyone for their replies!!!

I have a much better idea of why my PTSD symptoms were delayed. Although they tell me that my traumas were prolonged and severe, I can see that I was good at pushing that stuff to the back of my mind until later, other things triggered the memories to come out into the open.

I used alcohol to avoid my symptoms for many years and when it stopped working as a coping tool, I was left with little choice but to get help for the PTSD symptoms that I could no longer suppress or avoid.

I am doing so much better now and I am presently working on an old stuck spot and brushing up on my coping skills in therapy. I am so happy that I chose to get help with my symptoms otherwise, I might not be here or at least, I would've been a miserable person!

Thanks again for all of the replies!

 

[oasis2003]

My PTSD was delayed in onset. My stress cup was totally overflowing and a huge trigger brought mine on. I have lots of surpressesd memories and many traumas which I just had to cope with.Many many defence mechanisms

 

[Ellabella44]

Delayed as well. youngest years ongoing situation with my parents. pretty much what @ladee said.
copy what others do and magically you are ok... cough.
Fake it till you make it, but well some things are too big to keep faking.

Then when you cant, the nightmares are real. The dream is that this stuff never happened.
That things happened to someone else.

I tried like @Lionheart777 to drown the THIS HAPPENED with alcohol. Bad idea.
Drinking didnt make me back into who I was when I forced all of it into a box and tossed the key away.
It almost took me away from my husband and kids before I decided to get sober and get help.

I have also asked why the f*ck now? and only answer I've found is that my kids are old enough to understand what is going on with me.

 

[ladee]

@Ellabella44, that is what happened to me.. got sober in '84 and my world exploded.... have been picking up the pieces ever since.... I really understand. Gentle hugs to you.

 

[Ronin]

I had trauma of different types to be occupied by.

& most often, at the time, I was having company to laugh at the bad bits with. It was like we may be dying in this shithole but we're having tonsa fun, so not a big deal, let's keep on thinking and going :D

It's when I have to deal with something much more without reach to fun the world slows down and goes kaboom if I don't distract it with something else meantime.

 

[void]

I've done a quick skim of research on this, and it looks as though a talent for avoidance may have som...

May I ask?:)

In hindsight, did you have anxiety, depression, whole body tension, and dissociation, during the 30+ year 'delay'???
Was it just mild?
or was there NONE?

 

[Sandstone]

Interesting question, and one I've wondered about. I can only give a narrative answer, as it is so mixed.

I didn't have depression ( except the day before my period). I think the word that would have summed me up was jolly. My social life was very good, and I enjoyed many hobbies. I was told I was quite funny and creative. My self talk was "I'm a woman and I'm strong"

I was aware that I was anxious, but could generally live with it. It didn't stop me doing social things, and once I realised that I was going to worry exactly the same amount about sitting on a supermarket till or conducting a meeting with Directors it didn't stop my career. I did leave two jobs because I thought I wasn't good enough, though my bosses disagreed. My friends enjoyed my easy blushing, and would compete to see who could turn me reddest, and with them I found it as funny as they did. In work it was more of a problem.

I knew my traumas and strange childhood had affected me, in that I had to think consciously about how others would behave, because it was nothing like me. My sibling was the only person I knew who thought like me. I had a sense of myself as a child in an adult world. I made two attempts at therapy about 15 and 8 years before PTSD because I was aware there could be less burden in my life. A Rape Crisis group was useful, an individual T less so.
I was bad to catastrophic at picking relationships, but I think it was the people I chose, not the relating that I was bad at. I think I was a good parent through that, and have been a good, stable and happy marriage for 14 years. When I met my husband, I still didn't trust my judgement and got my best friend and my children to interview him.

I certainly had a high degree of separation from my body. I was badly co-ordinated, dreadful at sport and alway had bruises I couldn't account for. But it didn't stop me learning modern jive and later ballroom, both badly but enjoyably. I have had various pain conditions considered or diagnosed over the course of my life ( "growing pains", abdominal spasms, arthritis and lupus ), but I have also been identified as having a high pain threshold and needed no drugs in childbirth.
I can't answer clearly about other forms of dissociation, because I am so confused about where I am with that now. I do know that I was very different between work and social life. None of my colleagues believed I had danced on the table at a Christmas party in a hotel, but my friends who were there didn't see it as out of character.

I'm pretty sure no-one would have thought of diagnosing me with any MH condition, though I might have been considered eccentric. Generally I was so happy with my life that when I did buy a Lottery ticket my children would take it off me for fear I might tear it up if we had a big win. It was a shock when all the PTSD stuff ripped its way out.

 

[void]

Interesting question, and one I've wondered about. I can only give a narrative answer, as it is so mix...

Thank you for your outstanding reply @Sandstone .
Btw, you communicate VERY well.

My experience stands in stark contrast to your own. From my earliest memories, even 2-4 years of age, I was highly anxious, stressed and afraid. The anxiety, depression, fear, nightmares, flashbacks, dissoc., etc....have been a daily fixture of my existence my entire life.

My T.'s have aptly described my childhood as one of "continuous trauma".
I have to this day, never felt relaxed......not even once.
I don't really know for sure what it even is....perhaps I never will.

I recall the first time I ever witnessed love.
I was allowed to stay over night at a friend's house and his parents...............loved him.:wideeyed::confused::wideeyed:
They hugged and kissed him.........they asked about his day........they knew about his daily life..........they shared feelings.......I was GOBSMACKED!:wideeyed::wideeyed::wideeyed:

I was 13 yrs old seeing love for the very first time. I was in a daze. I had no idea that such a thing was even possible. I couldn't eat...his mother was so worried....:cry: she wanted to know if she should take me HOME!!!!!:wideeyed:......I begged her not to.:cry::nailbiting::nailbiting::nailbiting:

Well, anyway, enough of all that.
Be well.

 

[anonymous]

Does anyone feel their delayed onset went along with super strong avoidance, denial and other coping mechanisms that thereafter (PTSD onset) actually sabotaged progress? In other words the things that helped protect from it before then become part of the obstacles to getting better? I wonder sometimes if delayed onset may come with certain common treatment difficulties and almost need a different approach.

 

[Ellabella44]

yes, I pretty much felt like everything keeping me together was cracking and falling apart for months. Feeling split, and then its like an explosion happened. I think if I hadnt been able to accept being fragmented I'd still be stuck screaming in my head from things I could no longer control and couldnt stop seeing. I was lucky to find someone with similar experience before I quit drinking and went to therapy.

Shutting down emotions has been my biggest obsticle. Dissconnecting is a habbit and its really hard to break. Connecting to someone even my husband and children was difficult. Its awful not knowing how you actually feel about people you apparently loved before everything crashed. I'm having to re learn showing someone the care they give me. I get frustrated and have to push aside the walls I still have up.

 

[Enaila]

Why delayed?

I think I'll answer in another 50 years once we've hopefully determined the physical...

I think this comparison sums it up nicely. My therapist says our minds do amazing things and I was in survival mode for all those years. It wasn't until both my boys graduated high school that I finally realized they and I were safe, which is when my flashbacks from childhood and a dangerous marriage started.