Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

The symptoms of PTSD can be mental and physical. Your symptoms might look or feel different to someone else's. And they might impact your life in different ways.

Your symptoms might start right after an event happened. Or they might show up months or years later.

Adrenaline rises, sometimes there are chest pains, palpitations, and I live with a constant neuralgic pain, and all this is caused by the PTSD where I am re-living a traumatic event over and over again

Common symptoms of PTSD

Each person's experience of PTSD is unique. But these are some common symptoms that you might have.

Reliving what happened to you

This can include:

• Flashbacks
• Nightmares
• Intrusive thoughts. These are difficult or unwelcome thoughts that come into your mind that you can't control. 

When these things happen, your emotions might be intense. You might feel afraid or upset. They might be the same emotions you felt during the trauma.

Your body might also react to these things. You might feel pain or nausea. You might sweat or tremble.

This is sometimes called 're-experiencing'. 

Alertness or feeling on edge

This can include:

• Being jumpy or easily startled
• Feeling like something bad is going to happen
• Feeling you need to constantly check things are safe. Or feeling you need to change the way you do things to keep safe
• Being overprotective of people close to you
• Feeling emotional more easily. You might feel angry, upset or aggressive over things other people think aren't a big deal
• Problems getting to sleep or staying asleep
• Finding it hard to concentrate, even on simple or everyday tasks
• Other symptoms of anxiety

This feeling of being extra alert is called 'hypervigilance'. Being hypervigilant means your body and mind are always looking out for danger. 

The lack of sleep and the sense of never being at peace are exhausting.

Avoiding feelings or memories

This can include:

• Feeling like you have to keep busy
• Avoiding anything that reminds you of the trauma
• Being unable to remember details of what happened
• Feeling emotionally numb or cut off from your feelings
• Feeling numb or detached from your body
• Doing things to hurt yourself or that put you in danger

You might use recreational drugs or alcohol to avoid memories. Or you might feel you need to move away or change your job.

You might dissociate to avoid feelings and memories. This is when you disconnect from yourself or the world around you. We've more information on dissociation. 

My behaviour changed and became erratic. I would alternate from wanting to shut myself away and not see or talk to anyone to going out to parties in the middle of the week and staying out late.

Difficult beliefs or feelings

This can include feeling:

• You can't trust anyone
• Nowhere is safe
• No one understands
• What happened was your fault
• Guilty, sad, angry or ashamed

I couldn't leave the house and became afraid of going to sleep as I was convinced I was going to die.

Physical symptoms

This can include:

• Headaches
• Pain, including chronic pain conditions
• Feeling dizzy
• Stomach aches and problems with your bowels
• Shaking and trembling
• Sweating
• Chest pain
• Feeling tired or exhausted 

It was Bonfire Night and the bangs and the noise triggered something in my memory. I had heart palpitations, I was shaking and sweating.

What are flashbacks?

A flashback is when you relive parts of a traumatic event. Or feel as if it's happening right now. Flashbacks happen suddenly and aren't in your control. It's different to just thinking about your trauma.

Some flashbacks might feel like you're watching a video of what happened in your mind. But not all flashbacks are like that.

A flashback could include:

• Seeing full or partial images of what happened
• Noticing sounds, smells or tastes connected to the trauma
• Physical sensations, such as pain or pressure
• Feeling the emotions from your trauma

Certain places, people or situations might trigger a flashback for you. Or you might find that flashbacks seem to happen at random.

Flashbacks are normally quite short. But you might take a while to recover from them if they feel very bad.

You might get flashbacks just once in a while, or many times a day.

You can read some tips on how to cope with flashbacks on our page on self-care for PTSD.

The accident kept replaying in my mind — the sight, sound, touch and smell of those moments were repeated many times each day, in what I finally came to understand were flashbacks.

Emotional flashbacks

Emotional flashbacks are when you feel the emotions you did during your trauma. These emotions might feel very intense.

You might not realise they are a flashback. This is because they might not come with images or sounds from your trauma. This might make you react to things happening right now as if they were causing these emotions.

PTSD and day-to-day life

The symptoms of PTSD can impact your day-to-day life. This can include having trouble with:

• Looking after yourself
• Holding down a job
• Friendships or relationships
• Remembering things
• Making decisions
• Your sex drive
• Coping with change
• Enjoying things you'd usually like doing

If you drive you may have to tell the DVLA that you have PTSD. This will depend on how your symptoms impact you. For more information on your right to drive, see our legal advice on fitness to drive.

I couldn't understand why I felt like my brain wasn't functioning – I couldn't remember things, I couldn't process things. It was like my brain had just slowed down and ground to a halt.

PTSD and other mental health problems

You might have other mental health problems along with PTSD. These could include:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Dissociative disorders

You might also feel suicidal or self-harm.

You can find more support and information on our types of mental health problems page.