Signs Appear Immediately After The Injury?

It is a familiar misconception that symptoms of PTSD appear instantly after trauma. In fact, this fallacy could not be farther from the truth.

Research to date tends to broadly state that symptoms will appear within 3 months of the injury. Don't confuse that as, "I will have all symptoms to meet PTSD within 3 months." That is not 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 sentiment in the subject is that a person may have one or more symptoms within 3 months. Think about it like this -- you may lose sleep instantly, have terrible dreams. That's one symptom, and it would be natural to experience nightmares and insomnia directly after experiencing trauma. That subsides, and then you may find that you simply isolate yourself a month later -- another symptom. You may have a really hard week on the job then burst at someone. You have never done that after a rough week, but it occurred this some months after your traumatic event. This is another symptom.

All the above are single, detached symptoms of PTSD. You aren't experiencing those symptoms simultaneously. You experience them as isolated apparently dissonant, occasions. You may experience them concurrently, yet they are still a mere 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 much smaller scale -- from how we experience viral infections. You incubate it for 5 days with no symptoms, may contract a virus from your kid on a Sunday, and then experience the symptoms the following weekend. You were infectious and carried the virus all week, but how could you possibly know? Perhaps you felt a little sore throat as the week wore on or had some sniffles, but it is the correct time of year. It doesn't mean you didn't have a virus, only that you did not meet the telltale signals you'd need to seek help and afterwards get treatment.

On a larger scale, how about sufferers of dementia? Many individuals with dementia experience several symptoms, spread out, for months or even years before realizing there is a real problem going on. They become disoriented every now and again or lose their balance. If they are stumbling here and there or sometimes being forgetful doesn't set off any alarm bells, the same way that being apprehensive, of a certain age or on guard following trauma is a perfectly non-pathological reaction to recently experiencing injury. It frequently takes more time, and definitely requires more symptoms to be ticked off, before discovering you have a persistent problem, even if you do in fact already have the disorder.

To further illustrate the variability for when symptoms start, MyPTSD has polled this precise question for 9 years. Our member poll results, those who've answered, reveal that 31% experience symptoms in the first three months, with 49% taking longer than 12 months.

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

This view aligns with resilience data (also cited by NIMH) that most people exposed to trauma do not develop PTSD, let alone symptoms that would be viewed as a mental health condition. PTSD from a single occasion is considerably scarcer than PTSD from compounded traumatic occasions throughout life.

In short, the myth that PTSD appears following a traumatic event has little basis in reality. Sufferers can go years, even decades, without developing full blown PTSD. The best thing trauma survivors can do is to get help as fast as feasible build a community around themselves of supportive, compassionate people that are both comprehension and honest. This base of support will function as a resiliency tool, and it can be priceless in helping those who experience trauma return to a sense of normalcy. The honesty of others can serve as a check against irrational and uncharacteristic behavior -- an extra set of eyes to surveil the survivor for hints of a difficulty that is growing. Furthermore, seeking a professional's help following trauma has advantages that are manifold and obvious, whether to help mitigate developing symptoms with drugs or simply serve as a guide to return to a secure, healthy lifestyle post-trauma.