Is This A Mild Form Of PTSD, In Your Opinion?

[MainerMikeBrown]

Years ago, I was working with a mental health worker. She was what they call a case manager.

She told me that a few years beforehand, a cop pulled her over because she was speeding past the speed limit while driving her vehicle.

She claimed that the officer who pulled her over was angry and rude to her. She then stated to me that since then, every time she drives her car and she sees a police car, she gets nervous because of the unpleasant experience she said she had with that officer. Not super-nervous, but still.

Yes, even mental health workers get nervous too sometimes.

So with that said, do you think that this lady getting nervous every time she sees a police car while she's driving because of the rude officer is a real mild form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

I was just curious as to what everyone here thinks.

 

[Hurt&Hopeful]

In a certain way, I suppose. It is a natural stress response to a perceived danger. PTSD is a little different in that the stress response, though, is brought on at unpredictable times, sometimes by something unrelated to the trauma completely. That's the disorder part. Stress and trauma must be processes out of the body, or they are stored there and cause issues - for me, it comes out as panic attacks, physical shaking, or episodes where I just sort of disconnect and get spacy/lightheaded/nauseous. But it rarely has anything to do with the original trauma.

But yeah, she definitely developed a fear reaction to something that wasn't necessarily a real danger to her.