Our evolutionary adaptive response to trauma is a flight/fight/freeze/faint response. Post traumatic stress can manifest in many different symptoms.

Very Young Children

• May present few apparent symptoms.
• May report more generalized fears such as stranger or separation anxiety
• Sleep disturbances
• Preoccupation with words or symbols that may be related to the trauma
• May repeat themes of the trauma in play
• May lose an acquired developmental skill, such as toilet training

Elementary School Age

• May experience visual flashbacks or amnesia
• May miss sequence related events when remembering the event
• May believe that there were warning signs that predicted the trauma
• Compulsively repeating some aspect of the trauma in play, for example an increase in shooting games after exposure to a shooting

Adolescents

• Symptoms resemble adults
• More likely to engage in reenactment, incorporating aspects of the trauma into their daily lives
• More likely than younger children or adults to exhibit increased impulsive and aggressive behaviors
• Experience nightmares and intrusive thoughts about the trauma
• May be easily startled
• May avoid reminders of the trauma
• Can become depressed, angry, distrustful, fearful, alienated, and feel betrayed
• Many do not feel they have a future

Adults

• A general loss of interest in life
• Difficulty imagining a future
• Sleep disturbances
• Avoidance of people, places, and other reminders of the traumatic event
• A sense of current or imminent danger
• Flashbacks or intrusive recollections so vivid that the person feels as if they are reliving the actual event
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Detachment in relationships
• Lack of trust

Updated 2016, original article from WellnessOptions #12, 2003