It can happen to someone who was sexually assaulted and it could happen to someone who has a car accident. Their guidelines outline a range of symptoms that must be present for PTSD to be diagnosed. Someone who suffers from PTSD will re-experience the traumatic event through recurring nightmares, flashbacks or daydreams and intensifying symptoms when exposed to reminders of the traumatic event. Because the traumatic event was life-threatening, the flashbacks can be equally as terrifying because they do seem so real. The flood of emotions and physical sensations can be overwhelming and debilitating.
Flashbacks occur around some trigger that reminds the person of the traumatic event.
Suppose someone was in a serious vehicle accident, and when they drive by the place the accident occurred they might experience flashbacks of the event. Nightmares and difficulty can be severe enough to interfere with a person's daily life activities. These difficulties often lead to other problems in social and personal relationships which can lead to marital discord and job loss. Feelings of detachment may be experienced as will be the inability to have loving feelings. Being over stimulated occurs as well with an exaggerated startle response, sleep disturbances, irritability and outbursts of anger and physiological reactions to reminders of the traumatic event.