Am I Experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

After an experience of trauma, it is common to experience unwanted memories and disruptions in arousal, but people with PTSD find that these experiences persist. PTSD is experienced by between 3 and 5 people out of every 100 (Kessler et al, 2005) but like many anxiety disorders, it is under-diagnosed and often goes unrecognized (Kasper, 2006). 

The DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for PTSD include:

• Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.
• Intrusion symptoms associated with the traumatic event in the form of: 
  • Recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories of the traumatic event.
  • Recurrent distressing dreams in which the content and/or affect of the dream are related to the traumatic event.
  • Dissociative reactions (e.g., flashbacks) in which the individual feels or acts as if the traumatic event were recurring.
  • Intense or prolonged psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event, or marked physiological reactions

"Some people who report similar experiences to yours have a condition called post traumatic stress disorder. Would you like to try a short quiz that could give us an idea whether this is a problem that troubles you?"

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).
• Kasper, S. (2006). Anxiety disorders: under-diagnosed and insufficiently treated. International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 10(sup1), 3-9.
• Kessler, R. C., Chiu, W. T., Demler, O., & Walters, E. E. (2005). Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 617–627. 
• Stansfeld, S., Clark, C., Bebbington, P., King, M., Jenkins, R., & Hinchliffe, S. (2016). Chapter 2: Common mental disorders. In S. McManus, P. Bebbington, R. Jenkins, & T. Brugha (Eds.), Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: NHS Digital. 
• World Health Organization. (2019). ICD-11: International classification of diseases (11th revision). Retrieved from https://icd.who.int/