Hell. Reading through the diagnostic criteria of symptoms, my own personal inventory included, at some point, pretty much all of them. Going in any depth here would generate a mighty tome. If there's a shortlist, I'd say the shittiest is the mix of insomnia/chronic nightmares combined with hypervigilance and intrusive memory recall/flashbacks. It's a perfect storm for, well, Hell.
D) all of the above
Manage it. Mostly.
Yup. My memory of the trauma was a jumble at first. Then details slotted in. Turns out it wasn't my mind filling in the blanks with speculation... i had a ridiculously detailed, encyclopedic memory of the event, just took a while for those chapters to make it from draft to print. As for memory in a day to day capacity? It's simultaneously duller and sharper. Ask me what I had for lunch last tuesday? Fuck if I know. (that's the sort of thing I would've remembered in my old life.) Ask me the color of the car parked outside on the street tuesday at 1:17pm? Oh fuck yes I'd remember that. Hypervigilance means I notice all sorts of things. PTSD makes sure I never fucking stop paying attention... but sometimes the mundane details of safe interactions aren't enough of a priority to retain. Noteworthy stuff? Yeah... that stays. Razor sharp. Crystal clear. More likely than not, if the witness is giving details about the trauma, even if the wording is inexact, there's a very solid chance the memory of the incident is spot on--provided one accounts for the delineation of reality viz a viz actuality.
Fuck you. Okay, I'll stop being an asshole for a moment. This question is, single-handedly, the biggest problem with "misunderstandings of the general population." Wonder where the stigma comes from? It's the one-to-one association of PTSD with combat... thus because combat is, y'know, by definition violent, people make the mistake of thinking PTSD breeds violence.
No. But I was tortured by police responding to my 911 call, so thanks for reminding me that the assholes who shat on my constitutional and human rights, deprived me of necessary medical attention, and illegally used enhanced interrogation techniques on me on US soil (but fortunately destroyed their own video and audio recordings because I wouldn't break or sign the false confession to the completely wrong and violating-the-laws-of-physics narrative they concocted)... are supposedly heroes or some shit. Because, of course, militarization of police. (ample media on that... categorically ignored by all who matter, of course.)
Honestly, thanks for taking interest in the topic in general. It would be delightful if anything could be done to destigmatize and demystify the condition. But it won't happen. Being a jerk, largely for the reasons I've ranted throughout: questions are always framed based on assumptions that prevent any other conclusions ever being drawn than the stereotypes they reinforce. I have all sorts of pointed experience with the intersection of living with PTSD and the idiocy surrounding it in the legal system. But I'll be honest-- affording anonymity to victims, sufferers, and survivors? That's showing respect. Using your own throwaway to protect your identity? That's a massive slap in the face... whether it was intentional or not, who knows. There are drive-by requests for information like this on a fairly regular basis, and I'm quite certain a number of people are quite willing to talk, in detail. But most of the requests are fairly non-serious... by that, I mean lacking in proper grounding. Okay, a law article. Where? What journal? You're a student? Writing for a law school journal? What's the scope of this? something on a national level, or at a T14, is going to hit a lot differently than the one-off course fan-zine from the legal clinic run out of Podunk U. Hamburglar College of Environmental Studies. How could someone open up about personal experiences when there's little reason to think the person on the other end is anything other than a troll with a hardon for schadenfreude?
7a) And, absent proper training, an attorney, who doesn't understand PTSD, when trying to spin, with ill-intent, a well educated, prepared, and eloquent witness's testimony, may find himself on the receiving end of a verbal smackdown by said witness, resulting in the judge calling for a recess until she can properly tally the degree to which that attorney is to be reprimanded in and out of court... and costing a few hundred thousand dollars through the aforementioned monumental fuckup.
7b) Flashbacks: ain't nothing like the movies. I mean, maybe for someone out there, as PTSD symtoms are so individualized, maybe... but the great majority of the people I've met and spoken with are in agreement, "not like the movies." I think we wish it were, because then it'd be easier to describe. For me, it's not that I think I'm back being choked and beaten... it's I FEEL I'm back being choked and beaten. Maybe it's a sense thing. More likely than not it's an emotional thing. I know I'm sitting on a couch staring at a wall... I just don't FEEL like I'm sitting on a couch staring at a wall.
7c) Suicidality. It's never really polite to talk about, but hot shit. This gets swept under the "derp! yer mentally ill!" rug so much... it's stupid and it's bullshit that it does. While PTSD is becoming more and more commonly diagnosed, the stereotypical presentation is with a significant TRAUMA. Not a whoopsie-someone-said-something-mean... but oh-i-almost-died-because-someone-tried-to-kill-me level of trauma. Maybe not kill, maybe just rape, or maim, sure--whatever. I mention this not to invalidate other traumas not fitting this mold, but to underscore that the people with PTSD underwent a trauma that isn't part of every day, normal, sheltered life (you know, the sorts of sheltered lives lived by the attorneys and doctors and politicians who make or break the lives of those with PTSD). And when you're faced with something that happens that's so horrible, either the event itself, or being subjected to how other people handled it--it's nearly impossible not to see life as a giant slap in the face. It's vile. PEople are terrible. The world is fucking awful. It doesn't matter that kittens are cute, because monsters are fucking real. And they're out there. And nobody fucking does a thing to stop them because lookkittensarecute! Not wanting to be a part of that world? That's not necessarily a sign of "oh you're delusional and medication will fix you!" Sure, therapy may help you see that kittens are cute again... and that kittens are cute AND monsters are real (rather than "kittens are cute BUT MONSTERS ARE REAAAALLLLL") PTSD is statistically more likely in traumatic events where the sufferer was in a position of less power, or even helpless. When someone else (singular and/or plural) has deemed your life relatively meaningless... it's pretty easy to feel as though your life is meaningless. And hey, if your life is meaningless AND the world/society is a piece of shit... why the hell would you want to stick around? It's not about "derp! death is cool!" so much as life is awful. A pill won't undo the trauma. A pill won't make the world shiny again. A pill might let you sleep a little easier, letting you cope with the world in all its shitty glory. Yay? You know what would make me more gungho about the world again? Seeing the people who tried to kill me, or the people who tortured me, meet some real justice. That would give me a better night's sleep than any pill. That would make me infinitely more willing to be part of the world again.
7d) Following that last sentence: it's really no surprise that one of the biggest trends is for those with PTSD to self-isolate, withdraw from the world, and everyone else... eh?
7e) Anger is useful. Stop trying to demonize it and instead respect it for what it is: an extraordinarily useful force. Anger is one of the few things that will motivate survival at almost any cost... and you can see why survival might be intimately linked with "post-traumatic" anything... because if you don't survive the trauma, there's nothing post- you need to worry about.
Apologies for lack of editing... insomnia and being fed up with bullshit make for an epic rant.