Understanding persons with post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd)

Let's take an example someone with PTSD. He came back from Iraq, and backfire around a car. They react, their heart races, they sweat. They have all the physiological symptoms right? And at the same time they can say logically "Yeah I know I am not in Iraq". __________Dr. Cheryl Arutt__________ Exactly. __________JJ Thiret__________ And you know what I know that was a car that got fire __________Dr. Cheryl Arutt__________ What I find with a lot of people who where on that situation where a car backfires is that for a second they often to have an exaggerated startle response. Their body is hyper vigilant. __________JJ Thiret__________ Hyper sensitive yeah __________Dr. Cheryl Arutt__________ But what happened in that first moment in that split second their body has already dumped a ton of adrenaline and cortisol, stress hormone coursing through the blood stream. So even though very rapidly, mentally they able to go, "Ahhh that was a car backfiring. I don't ... you know I am not in danger". They still have to wait. Probably almost an hour for their body to reabsorb all of the energy that they gave it to fight as if they were in combat and not only is this really exhausting, in case a lot of wear and tear on them physically and mentally but feel really frustrated because they do know as you said, you know from the eyebrows up, they know that this is not that. And they know that very quickly but their body can't catch up. People think that flashbacks are bigger part of PTSD that they really are. They are actually not the most prevalent symptom. I think that the car backfiring may cause a flashback but may just cause exaggerated startle response which is very very common ... __________JJ Thiret__________ Core morbidity of GAD maybe. Generalize Anxiety Disorder. __________Dr. Cheryl Arutt__________ Its another PTSD symptoms as well but basically they ... you know you can know instantly and be oriented instantly to where you are and what's going on. But your body has become ... your fight/flight(?) has become disconnected from the present. So even though you're mind is in the present, your body goes in to that whole alert. Poor Joe still fitting with his heart pounding even though he knows oh well it's not necessary and it's very frustrating for poor Joe and really exhausting to keep going into that that full scale alert knowing that you don't need to be. And it really physically takes a period of time for the body to reabsorb all that cortisol and adrenaline. And no matter what you are thinking to yourself and if there are things that can help you and if you go "Dammit it happened to me again. I am such an idiot. I have no control". You gonna stay upset longer but if you can get look "This is my system. It's trying to protect me and I just need to breathe" and you can talk yourself down sooner but it still takes a while.