{"id":1234,"date":"2025-11-24T09:21:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2025-11-24T09:21:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:21:23","slug":"how-do-i-know-if-i-have-ptsd-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/how-do-i-know-if-i-have-ptsd-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do I Know If I Have PTSD?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) isn\u2019t just \u201cfeeling stressed\u201d after something bad\u2014it\u2019s a specific clinical condition that follows exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. You don\u2019t need to have been in combat; car accidents, assault, childhood abuse, sudden loss, medical trauma, or witnessing horror can all trigger it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/how-can-i-tell-if-someone-has-ptsd\/\">four core symptom<\/a> clusters (DSM-5 criteria) must last more than one month and cause significant distress or impairment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Intrusion symptoms\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Recurrent, involuntary, and distressing memories<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nightmares about the event<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Flashbacks (feeling like it\u2019s happening again)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Intense psychological or physical reactions to triggers (e.g., smell, sound, date) that remind you of the trauma<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoidance\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Deliberately avoiding thoughts, feelings, or conversations about the trauma<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Avoiding people, places, activities, or objects that trigger memories<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Negative changes in mood and cognition (at least two)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Inability to remember important parts of the event (dissociative amnesia)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Persistent negative beliefs about yourself\/others\/world (\u201cI\u2019m broken,\u201d \u201cNo one can be trusted\u201d)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Blame of self or others<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Persistent negative emotions (fear, horror, anger, guilt, shame)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Markedly diminished interest in life<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Feeling detached or estranged from others<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Inability to experience positive emotions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hyperarousal and reactivity (at least two)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Irritable or aggressive behavior<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reckless or self-destructive behavior<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Hypervigilance (constantly scanning for danger)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Exaggerated startle response<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Problems with concentration<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sleep disturbance (trouble falling\/staying asleep or restless sleep)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>If you recognize most of these<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mayoclinic.org\/diseases-conditions\/post-traumatic-stress-disorder\/symptoms-causes\/syc-20355967\"> symptoms<\/a> appearing or worsening after a specific traumatic event, and they\u2019ve lasted over a month, you very likely meet criteria for PTSD. Delayed-onset PTSD (symptoms starting 6+ months later) is also real and common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Only a qualified mental health professional (psychiatrist, clinical psychologist, or licensed trauma therapist) can formally diagnose PTSD. Self-assessment tools like the PCL-5 can help you track severity, but they\u2019re not a diagnosis. Seek an evidence-based evaluation early treatment (trauma-focused CBT, EMDR, or Prolonged Exposure) dramatically improves outcomes. You\u2019re not \u201ccrazy\u201d; your brain is stuck in survival mode after something genuinely overwhelming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) isn\u2019t just \u201cfeeling stressed\u201d after something bad\u2014it\u2019s a specific clinical condition that follows exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. You don\u2019t need to have been in combat; car accidents, assault, childhood abuse, sudden loss, medical trauma, or witnessing horror can all trigger it. The four core [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1235,"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions\/1235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindfulsolutionswa.com\/faqs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}