post traumatic stress disorder

Hi tsr,

I'm not too sure on what to ask about ptsd, as yesterday 6th of october i witnessed a horrific suicide on a dual carriage way. As i was about to enter my work place which is next to a dual carriage way, a lady mid thirties step foot infront of a lorry. The really big ones that transport heavy loads. I was the first to call the services on scene and i saw everything. I guess i'm not that sensitive but what really annoyed me was that i was in shock and one of the employee which shift ended at 2.30pm told me that he wanted to go home on time, I ended up switching and having a go shouting and even the customers heard. I couldn't even serve anyone at that time since i were in a state of confusion and shock, the supervisor told me to continue on working and i told him that i'm going to compose myself, yet did not grant my wish until the deputy manager came and told me put everything back and chill out as long as possible. If i were to call out for ptsd what would be the first process?

Reply 1

Little Popcorns

Original post by TanMan

sorry to hear you had to go through that. I'd suggest heading to your GP and explaining what happened and how it's affecting you.

Reply 2

username1862217

That sounds like shock rather than PTSD. Nonetheless you should seek help.

Reply 3

Pathway

Original post by TanMan

That sounds horrific. I'd also suggest making an appointment with your GP and asking for talk therapies/medication. If you need someone to talk to, I'm around. I have been diagnosed with PTSD myself, though for various other different reasons and from what I understand they don't generally diagnose PTSD after only a day.

Reply 4

TanMan

Original post by Pathway

Yeah i know it wouldn't be an immediate diagnosable condition, it would take atleast a couple days just to make sure that the symptoms are definitely ptsd, but i appreciate your advice and i think that's the way to go through really. It's not the deal about the death of the person but more of the stress and anger that was involved straight after as i was immediately put into work and my health not taken care of first.

Reply 5

TanMan

Original post by Keyhofi

That sounds like shock rather than PTSD. Nonetheless you should seek help.

I would believe so, but wouldn't it not be a symptom of ptsd counting on stress that's involved after the incident? I'm not having bad thoughts of the incident but it's more to do on what happened after, i was put into work immediately and not given a proper break which annoyed me of the employees that were involved. As if they took more care for the workplace than my actual health, but i just want to make sure that i can definitely go to the doctors and say i have these symptoms of it like last night, i couldn't really sleep for the anger and everything that happened yesterday afternoon

Reply 6

TanMan

Original post by Little Popcorns

sorry to hear you had to go through that. I'd suggest heading to your GP and explaining what happened and how it's affecting you.

i much appreciate your advice, i'm on here just to confirm that the symptoms i'm having is a case of this condition before i take any further steps. I know it wouldn't be an immediate day as it can occur a few days or weeks later. But i've been up all night trying not to think about it too heavily with the problems that occured after the incident

Reply 7

Pathway

Original post by TanMan

PTSD is generally only diagnosed after a month has passed since the traumatic event. You also need to be avoiding things relating to the trauma, reliving it (e.g. flashbacks, nightmares, etc.), emotional numbing and hyperarousal. In addition to these symptoms they have to be impacting in multiple different areas (so family life, school, work, etc.). There may be other issues too like insomnia, depression, headaches, substance abuse.

Right now it's far too early to tell whether or not you have PTSD and honestly, I wouldn't try and label it as anything. But getting help is definitely your top priority. Sorry to hear that your work were less than understanding, often people don't quite understand how distressing things like that can be and so they dismiss it. It shouldn't happen. Getting help now and nipping any potential problem in the bud would be beneficial for you though, so definitely make an appointment with your GP to discuss your concerns. They may choose to watch and monitor you for a few weeks to see how you go, often the initial shock dissipates. If you adjust well and there are no other problems then you should be ok.

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/healthadvice/problemsdisorders/posttraumaticstressdisorder.aspx This might be useful for you to read.