But the symptoms you describe sound a lot like post-traumatic stress disorder. Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, afflicts 8 percent of Americans, according to a survey reported in the December 1995 Archives of General Psychiatry . Doctors have known about PTSD since at least the Civil War, and have developed many treatments in recent years. Yet twice as many women as men suffer from the disorder, and for them the initial trauma is most often some form of sexual abuse or attack. The trauma leaves its mark in various ways.
Some victims suffer from nightmares and flashbacks.
Others become emotionally detached or apathetic. Some feel unreasonably irritable or have trouble sleeping. And many have combinations of these symptoms. The mind-set of the individual may also make a difference. For example, a study reported in the November 1997 issue of Psychological Medicine looked at PTSD rates among torture victims in Turkey.