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

[MizzASG]

My PTSD symptoms did not start developing until about 9-12 months after my car accident. It started with me hearing an audio trigger (squealing tires trying to come to a stop). After hearing that, unaware, I started spiraling downhill until things started getting out of my control and my boyfriend convinced me to see my doctor after a sudden outburst of inappropriate anger (more like rage) for NO REASON.

 

[ayuria]

I didnt show major symptoms until almost 8 years after the R. I was diagnosed first with depression and then the memories came back and i got diagnosed with complex chronic PTSD and have been suffering it the past 2 years.

 

[insomnia]

I went through a lot of childhood abuse but some how I was able to put it in the back of my mind for a decade and not think about it.
So that I could function and live.

I didn't have a nervous breakdown until my ex husband attacked me. A little while after he attacked me I started seeing a psychiatrist and he said I have ptsd.

 

[disconnect]

Years later.

 

[PainX2]

I probably had the symptoms as a teen but never recognized it. I just thought I was different like every other teen feels. It hit me like a ton of bricks a week ago after the smallest thing finally took me over the edge.

 

[Richelle]

It's hard to say when the symptoms started, I lost a big portion of my memory of the trauma and I'm not even sure how long it lasted. My memories before and sometime after are all disorganized. But I think it was about a year later that I started to get "real" symptoms. I used to roller skate every day and had some friends on the Internet, but suddenly I got very depressed and lost my interest for everything. The medication I got triggered a psychosis, so I don't know what symptom belonged to where.

 

[Cynthiatoo]

I have mutliple traumas, the first,but not the worst was early childhood sexual abuse, so I dont know. I do was being treated for major depression and anxiety in my twenties, thirties and forties due to coping with his serious, chronic lung illness and fighting the healthcare system. Then after my son died when I was 47, I experienced grief for at least four to five years. The PTSD seemed to 'consolidate" around then because just as I came to terms with grief, my daughter had enough of me and wanted a normal mother. In my mind, this was the final straw, but i could be wrong. This was five years after the most significant trauma and this was when all of the symptoms came together often and in extreme intensity. Flashbacks, heart episodes, paralysis, terror, wanting to be dead. During this time, I attempted to return to my chosen field in healthcare in a PTSD unit and Psych ward. I lasted six months the last time and have not been able to work since. I cant even cope with looking at job ads.

 

[jesse]

This question is a tough one. My abuse started happening when I was 4 until I left the home at 17. I was not diagnosed until I was 33. Looking back I definitely had signs of PTSD as a young child, terrible nightmares, screaming in my sleep, sleepwalking, startling easily, etc. I can't remember the exact age I was when I started having these symptoms.

 

[jovoda]

I have no idea when my symptoms first started. I always remember feeling incredibly alone though. God, I'm 31 now, and can remember my "weird" behavior being noticed since preschool at least. Honestly, I really wasn't even aware that I was surviving so much until I left my house of origin and had had yet another major traumatic event seven months prior. It seemed that that instance let all the others come floating to the surface. It is amazing how long someone can stuff their shit b/c they are not safe to deal with it in their situation.

 

[LSNP]

Golly, which trauma?

What I have noted with the "end" of the most "recent" trauma, which lasted in excess of five years, that I didn't truly begin to realize how much damage was done until the immediate threat (the immediate threat being daily, non-stop, week-after-week, year-after-year) legally ended and "protected" me.

I find that now that I am not in constant flight or fight, I am exhausted and walking, sometimes crawling, amidst rubble.

 

[deer_in_headlights]

I don't know... abuse started so early in my life. I do remember at 5 yrs that I completely shut down after being told my Mother would die if I told anyone about a particularly bad sexual abuse incident, and that I would be responsible for it. I remember being in a crib and learning severe life-threatened "lessons" that I was never to ask (cry) for anything/help from either parent, that put me into survival mode: dissociated, no crying states. I think dissociation developed very quickly at that age after trauma. I wasn't dxed with PTSD until decades later.

 

[Meli]

PTSD symptoms have always been a way of life for me as well. Violent child abuse beginning at age 5, and sexual trauma in my late teens and early adulthood. It's hard for me to distinguish between Depression symptoms and PTSD symptoms. I was extremely fearful of my father growing up, and have always been the odd ball amongst peers. Reaching out for attention with strange attire or acts of promiscuity on one end of the spectrum to complete isolation and antisocialism on the other. I too have lost a ton of my memories. I don't hardly remember my childhood at all, only in spurts; tiny chunks of info, usually the bad stuff.

~Meli