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

[midi]

I can't answer the poll because I grew up in a violent home where a lot of bad crap happened on a continual basis from birth (literally, I was stuck in the birth canal and a scar from being yanked out with forceps is still visible on my skull).

 

[champuli1]

Hypervigilance started immediately after my trauma (6 days after 13th birthday). I basically went into "disconnect mode", but didn't realize what was happening at the time. As I moved more fully into my true teenage years, I did a lot of acting out - nothing blatant, just stupid self-sabotaging behavior. Still, I didn't really know what was happening or that it was connected to the trauma.

Seems like from my mid-20's on to early 50's, everything quieted down to a more manageable level with just sporatic episodes. In that time period, I have been living the best life I can and enjoying my life as well as I can - sort of like "living well is the best revenge" - with the trauma still being very much a part of me but not defining or controlling me.

About 3 years ago, though, I started having really severe episodes again. I'll get triggered by some out-of-the-blue thing and be right back in hell for however long it takes me to climb back out again. I answered "between 1-3 months" on the survey and that is true, but I believe that I could almost say I have had a new onset - or maybe "relapse" is a better term - of PTSD in the past three years. I believe my PTSD has been worse in the past 3 years than it has since my teens and 20's.

 

[Jubilation4Me]

I just can't give a fair answer for this poll question. I've been thinking on it for the past couple of days, and I'm honestly unable to choose any of the options available. It seems to me that I've had the PTSD symptoms since early childhood.......I actually thought this was just me and the way my mind worked. Until very recently, I'd been thinking the PTSD symptoms were my unusual and crazy personality! Gotta laugh at that.....instead of cry!!

 

[louisa]

I also have a problem defining when exactly my symptoms began, so it is impossible to answer this question correctly. I believe that I remained in a state of shock for a long time after the event that triggered PTSD. Hyper vigilence was present from the begining and continued with startling intensity for many months. The police gave me the name of an advocate who was available to help me if I wished - she was also a qualified counsellor but not asigned to help me in that area, however, it was she who first suggested that I was suffering from PTSD because of my symptoms and because of the nature of the event that triggered these symptoms. She told me this sometime during the three months following the event. Another counsillor I saw but couldn't discuss my trauma with has also suggested I have PTSD. My G.P is currently carrying out blood testing - she wants to check my liver before supplying me with setraline, which she says helps PTSD symptoms. So she also seems to concur - that its PTSD. Am awaiting diagnosis. So not sure if I should answere poll?

Louisa

 

[Mercy]

I voted 12 months and after because I didn't recognize it until I was 40. The abuse started in infancy and continued until I was 14.

 

[goingonhope]

Can't vote as I haven't a clue and am not up for guessing.

The only thing I do know is that in going back in memory there were blantantly now recognizable and typical Ptsd symptoms present as early as 8yrs. of age.

Prior to this there were those late evenings that I'd stay up awake unable to sleep and sometimes afraid to attempt sleep, as well as, my afraid/ashamed, shy and terribly withdrawn nature outside of the home and general distrust of people's intentions. Well I can't say for sure that these here things in and of themselves, that I recall, could be attributed to necessarily Ptsd symptoms; rather just the way things were then.

Now, just remembered countless upon countless dreams of being able to fly and jog in place and propel myself upward and away; Haven't any clue as to when these were, or for how long they lasted, but that whole series of incredibly, vivid dreams were most interesting and sometimes frightening when occurring as a young kid.

But, as for voting I can't, because I don't know and can only guess.

 

[skyp56]

Like a lot of others here, I cannot answer this question with a specific time frame.

My traumas are multiple, starting with childhood, and I don't know when I first started showing the actual symptoms of PTSD.

I have only been diagnosed with PTSD for a year or so, but I'd guess I've had symptoms most of my life.

Also complicating the time frame issue for me is that I remember only bits and pieces--snapshots--of my childhood. Who knows what else is back there?

I voted 12 months, though.

 

[jennifer0506]

I think that it's difficult to tell. I was actually diagnosed 4 years after the traumatic event. But when i look back, i started having nightmares almost immediately after the event. And flashbacks started happening i guess around 6 months after..

I think that my life generally went downhill after my traumatic event, because it literally couldn't go any other way. My hole family fell apart after my mothers brain injury. So.. you could say from the moment go i started having symptoms. I was even sick for a week because of stress only a month after my mums accident.

It's difficult to tell. You just feel so lost, so deppressed, and so.. confused that well, you don't even consider that there could actually be something more wrong with you. That you could have a disorder, that it's effecting you that badly. It's why 'Grief' is the first stage of the 'five stages of grief'. PTSD can only ofcourse, be related to grief in some ways..

But yeah, definetly difficult to tell. And i think, often too painful to tell. Alot of my time then is still blocked from my memory.

 

[Mina]

Mine was pretty clear-cut. It was about 4 or 5 months after the bite.

 

[suzie q]

Continual Trauma Over Lifetime So Far..

I remember having depression issues in my young life. This went untreated for almost 25 years. It wasn't until after I was married at 26 that I felt a need to deal with all the past trauma in a cognitive, therapy arena. I felt my husband deserved a somewhat "normal" wife, and I had many mental and physical problems the first 10 years of our marriage.

By a psychiatrist, I was eventually diagnosed with chronic depression, bi-polar, obsessive/compulsive. I also knew at the time that I was an alcoholic/drug addict, eating disorder, and a cutter. I had tried to commit suicide in my teens without success. It wasn't until I was in my mid 30's that I was diagnosed with PTSD.

My shrink didn't give me any information on it, and I had never heard of it except relating to combat Vets. I have recently, at the age of 49, started to look into the symptoms and behaviors in an attempt to control my anxiety and rage.

 

[lrs]

I could not answer this.
I was beaten throughout childhood and into early teens.
Beatings go back as far as I can remember.
I have been told that they even occurred during infancy.
My childhood was a total disaster, so I don't have an answer.

 

[This Ends Now]

I voted 1 to 3 months but it is hard to tell. The abuse started too young. I don't remember "normal". Even in kindergarden I would cry in class. The teacher would ask the class to draw pictures and mine were always different. I was asked to draw a dream one time and it was a nightmare about my father. I was asked one day to finish a story about the "warm fuzzies" and the "cold pricklies" and make up an ending... my warm fuzzies died in a closet while the cold pricklies laughed.