Skip to content
Hyperarousal (degree of fight/flight reaction sustained, vigilant for further threat)
- Increased heart rate
- Shallower, faster breathing
- Colour change to skin – paler or duller
- Cold sweats
- Feeling on edge or anxious
- More reactive – irritable, angry, experiencing rage
- Difficulty concentrating or remembering
- Excessive worrying about oneself or others
- Experiencing panic.
Avoidance (safety behaviour) and Numbing (preventing overwhelm)
- Avoid other people, become withdrawn/isolated
- Struggle to have happy or loving feelings
- Start taking more risks
- Self-medicate (alcohol/drugs)
- Difficulty remembering some of what happened
Re-experiencing (the brain is processing the experience, coming to terms with what happened)
- Unable to stop thinking about what happened; going through ‘what-if’s’
- Experience sensory fragments (smell, taste, sound)
- Flashbacks
- Memories constantly triggered by external reminders
- Dreams/nightmares.
Thoughts (Negative thinking & low mood to keep us away from further danger and reduces enthusiasm to take risks)
- Being pessimistic – always having a ‘glass half empty’ attitude
- Catastrophising
- Fixed/rigid thinking
- Focusing on what cannot influence/control
- Feeling flat or low in mood
- Experiencing negative emotions much of the time (e.g. fear, horror, guilt, shame)
- Feeling disconnected from other people