While both men and women can experience post-traumatic stress disorder after a traumatic event, women are known to experience it differently than men.
The symptoms women struggle with can be experienced over a longer period. They can become more sensitive to reminders of their trauma, and it usually takes much longer for their PTSD to be diagnosed, if it is diagnosed at all.
Trauma therapy and a stay at a mental health clinic can help a woman go back to leading a happy and healthy life. But to convince her to seek the help and the treatment she needs and deserves, it’s important to first recognize the signs of PTSD in women.
Learn about these ten common signs of PTSD in women:
Sign #1: Intrusive thoughts and memories
A woman who has lived through a traumatic event can experience intrusive thoughts and memories. These can come to her when she is placed in a situation that reminds her of her trauma, but they can also come randomly, as she is just trying to get on with her life.
These distressing thoughts and memories can create discomfort and anxiety. These signs of PTSD can’t simply be ignored. Enroll in PTSD treatment centres Ontario to begin the healing process under professional guidance. These treatment centres will offer the guidance and resources to treat your PTSD symptoms.
Sign #2: Nightmares
PTSD, unfortunately, brings horrifying nightmares to many women. These nightmares can feel extremely real and cause distress, physical pain, and panic attacks.
Since getting enough quality sleep each night is essential to our physical and mental health, a woman who sees her sleep disturbed by nightmares night after night will have difficulty getting on with her daily life. Her lack of sleep could even worsen any other symptom she is experiencing.
Sign #3: Vivid flashbacks
Experiencing vivid flashbacks is another common sign of PTSD in women. Women seem to experience this symptom a lot more frequently than men do.
Flashbacks are a way to re-experience trauma like intrusive thoughts and nightmares. Certain people can trigger situations, smells, or sounds or come out of nowhere.
Since flashbacks feel real, they can generate the same emotional and physical response as being placed in a real, frightening situation.
Sign #4: Missing memories
Many women who have experienced trauma will have missing memories. This occurs when a woman’s brain is trying to protect itself from a traumatic event it has experienced by erasing memories of the event.
This can seem less damaging than experiencing intrusive thoughts or flashbacks. But the problem is that the brain of a woman who has PTSD can then struggle to store and recall memories of events that happened after the trauma, which can negatively impact her daily life.
Sign #5: Avoidance
Avoidance is one of the signs of PTSD in women. A woman who has experienced trauma might do everything she can to avoid situations, places, people, actions, or anything that reminds her of her trauma.
Avoidance can also be emotional, which means a woman will avoid thoughts and feelings related to her trauma. While this can be a good defence mechanism in the short term, it could make the symptoms of PTSD worse over time.
Sign #6: Self-isolating
After experiencing a traumatic event, women can find it difficult to relate to others who have not experienced the same thing. They can feel like outsiders and even turn to self-isolation instead of seeking the help and support of their loved ones.
Sign #7: Anxiety
Anxiety is not exclusively a symptom of PTSD. But women with PTSD can experience heightened anxiety, panic attacks, irritability, and sleep issues.
Depending on the trauma they have experienced, they could get startled very easily by either movements or sounds and show an exaggerated response to whatever startled them. Women can also struggle with hypervigilance since they must always be on high alert to avoid another traumatic event.
Sign #8: Inability to focus
For women who have been through horrifying, traumatic events, going back to normal life can be very difficult. One of the signs of PTSD is to be unable to focus on anything and to experience concentration problems.
This symptom, especially if it’s coupled with memory issues, can make it impossible for a traumatized woman to succeed at work or school if she is still a student.
Sign #9: Acting carelessly
Women with PTSD can be left with an emotional numbness which makes it seem like they cannot care about anything anymore.
They can engage in careless, erratic and dangerous behaviours just because it allows them to feel something for a brief moment. They can also turn to drug or alcohol abuse, which is not a healthy coping mechanism.
Sign #10: Negative thoughts
Finally, women with PTSD can be left with many negative thoughts about themselves or the world they live in. They can blame themselves for the traumatic event that happened to them and feel hopeless and worthless.
These negative thoughts can lead a woman to depression and turn into suicidal thoughts, so seeking professional help is important.
