Avoiding reminders of the traumatic event may include avoiding people, places, activities, objects, and situations that may trigger distressing memories.
Alterations in cognition and mood: Inability to remember important aspects of the traumatic event, negative thoughts, and feelings leading to ongoing and distorted beliefs about oneself or others.
Arousal and reactive symptoms may include being irritable and having angry outbursts; behaving recklessly or in a self-destructive way; being overly watchful of one’s surroundings in a suspecting way; being easily startled, or having problems concentrating or sleeping. After surviving a traumatic event, many people have PTSD-like symptoms at first, such as being unable to stop thinking about what’s happened. Fear, anxiety, anger, depression, guilt — all are common reactions to trauma. However, the majority of people exposed to trauma do not develop long-term post-traumatic stress disorder.