Signs Appear Immediately After The Trauma?

It is a familiar misconception that symptoms of PTSD appear immediately after trauma. In reality, this fallacy couldn't be further from the truth.

Research to date tends to generally state that symptoms will appear within 3 months of the trauma. Don't confuse that as, "I 'll have all symptoms to meet PTSD within 3 months." That isn't what I'm saying, nor what current research discusses. The National Institute of Mental Health cites this precise data.

There's no single important answer to when symptoms appear or how many will show up and when. The most common thought in the subject is that an individual may have one or more symptoms within 3 months. Think about it like this -- you may lose sleep immediately, have awful dreams. That's one symptom, and it would be natural to experience nightmares and sleeplessness directly after experiencing injury. That subsides, and then you may find that you simply isolate yourself a month later -- another symptom. You may have a really hard week at work, then explode at someone. It happened this once, some months after your traumatic occasion, although you have never done that before after a tough week. This is another symptom.

All of the preceding are single, isolated symptoms of PTSD. You aren't experiencing those symptoms concurrently. You experience them as isolated seemingly dissonant, occasions. You may experience them simultaneously, yet they're still a just three symptoms of many. This is what most research points to in relation to having symptoms within the first 3 months after your stabbing exposure.

Without experiencing the symptoms required to meet diagnosis having PTSD isn't all that different --on a smaller scale -- from how we experience viral infections. You may get a virus from your kid on a Sunday, incubate it for 5 days with no symptoms, and then experience the symptoms the subsequent weekend. You were contagious and carried the virus all week, but how could you possibly know? Maybe you felt a little sore throat as the week wore on or had some sniffles, but it's the correct time of year to have seasonal allergies. It does not mean you didn't have a virus, merely that you did not match the telltale hints you would need to seek help and afterwards get treatment.

On a bigger scale about sufferers of dementia? Many people with dementia experience a few symptoms, spread out, for months or even years before realizing there's a real issue going on. They become disoriented every now and again or lose their balance. If they're of a certain age, stumbling here and there or occasionally being forgetful does not set off any alarm bells, the same way that being concerned or on guard following injury is a totally non-pathological response to recently experiencing injury. It often takes more time, and definitely requires more symptoms before discovering you have a persistent issue, even if you do in fact already have the disorder to be ticked off.

MyPTSD has polled this exact question for 9 years, to further illustrate the variability for when symptoms begin. Those people who have replied, our member poll results, demonstrate that 31% experience symptoms in the first three months, with 49% taking longer than 12 months.

Our results show a considerably broader result set taken at the time of writing this post over 9 years. If a single statement was made by MyPTSD, as other authoritative sources state and the NIMH, then our perspective would be that nearly all people take longer than 12 months to experience symptoms.

This perspective aligns with resilience data (also cited by NIMH) that the majority of individuals exposed to trauma do not develop PTSD, let alone symptoms that would be viewed as a mental health state. PTSD from just one event is much rarer than PTSD from compounded traumatic events throughout life.

In short, the myth that PTSD appears following a traumatic event has little basis in reality. Without growing full blown PTSD sufferers can go years, even decades. Build a community around themselves of supportive, compassionate people who stress disorders are both comprehension and reliable and the best thing trauma survivors can do is to get help as fast as possible. This base of support will serve as a resiliency tool, and it can be priceless in helping those who experience injury return to a sense of normalcy. The honesty of others can function as a check against irrational and uncharacteristic behaviour -- an extra set of eyes to surveil the survivor for hints of a difficulty that is growing. Additionally, seeking a professional's help following injury has benefits that are manifold and clear, whether to help mitigate developing symptoms with medications or simply serve as a guide to return to a steady, healthy lifestyle post-trauma.