If you're reading this, you've probably been through something that changed you. Maybe you don't sleep the way you used to. Maybe certain sounds, places, or even smells send your body into a state of alarm that feels completely out of proportion to what's happening. Maybe you've been telling yourself you should be "over it" by now, and the fact that you're not feels like a personal failing.
It isn't. And the fact that you're asking the question -- "do I have PTSD?" -- takes real courage. Most people spend months or years avoiding that question. Asking it is the first step toward understanding what's happening and, eventually, feeling better.
This article will walk you through what PTSD actually looks like, who it affects, how clinicians screen for it, and how you can take the same validated assessments they use -- for free, right now, with instant results.
Important note before we begin
This article is educational, not diagnostic. No online screening tool can diagnose PTSD. Only a qualified mental health professional can make that determination after a thorough evaluation. What a screening tool can do is help you understand whether your symptoms are consistent with PTSD, so you can have a more informed conversation with a provider.
If you are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, please reach out immediately:
- 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 (available 24/7)
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
- Veterans Crisis Line: Call 988, then press 1
You deserve support, and these services are free and confidential.
What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It's not a sign of weakness, and it's not something you can simply will away. PTSD involves measurable changes in brain function -- particularly in the amygdala (threat detection), prefrontal cortex (rational thought), and hippocampus (memory processing).
In simpler terms, PTSD is what happens when your brain's alarm system gets stuck in the "on" position. The traumatic event is over, but your nervous system hasn't fully received that message. So it keeps responding as if the danger is still present.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) organizes PTSD symptoms into four clusters. Understanding these clusters can help you identify whether what you're experiencing fits the pattern.
Common signs of PTSD: the four symptom clusters
Cluster 1: Intrusion symptoms
Intrusion symptoms are the ones most people associate with PTSD. They involve the traumatic memory forcing its way into your awareness, even when you don't want it there.
- Intrusive memories: Unwanted, distressing memories of the event that appear without warning. You might be doing something completely unrelated, grocery shopping, sitting at your desk, playing with your kids, and suddenly the memory is right there, vivid and consuming.
- Flashbacks: These go beyond memory. During a flashback, you feel as though the traumatic event is happening again, right now. Your body responds accordingly: racing heart, sweating, muscle tension. In severe cases, you may temporarily lose awareness of your actual surroundings.
- Nightmares: Disturbing dreams related to the trauma, or sometimes nightmares with the same emotional tone even if the content doesn't directly match the event.
- Intense distress at reminders: Strong emotional or physical reactions when something reminds you of the trauma. This could be a date on the calendar, a news story, a tone of voice, or a physical sensation.
Cluster 2: Avoidance
Avoidance is your brain's attempt to protect you from the pain of the trauma. The logic is straightforward: if reminders cause distress, avoid the reminders. The problem is that avoidance tends to expand over time, shrinking your world.
- Avoiding thoughts or feelings: Actively pushing away memories, thoughts, or emotions connected to the trauma. This might look like staying constantly busy, using alcohol or substances to numb out, or immediately changing the subject when related topics come up.
- Avoiding external reminders: Steering clear of people, places, activities, objects, or situations that trigger memories of the event. Someone who was in a car accident might stop driving. Someone who was assaulted in a particular neighborhood might reroute their entire life to avoid that area.
Cluster 3: Negative changes in thoughts and mood
This cluster is often the least recognized, both by the people experiencing it and by those around them. It involves shifts in how you think about yourself, others, and the world.
- Inability to remember key aspects of the trauma: Not ordinary forgetting, but a specific gap in memory related to important parts of the event (dissociative amnesia).
- Persistent negative beliefs: Thoughts like "I'm broken," "No one can be trusted," "The world is completely dangerous," or "It was my fault." These aren't just bad days. They're persistent, deeply held beliefs that color everything.
- Distorted blame: Ongoing, distorted thoughts about the cause or consequences of the trauma that lead you to blame yourself or others inappropriately.
- Persistent negative emotions: A near-constant state of fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame that doesn't lift. This isn't sadness about the event. It's a pervasive emotional tone that seeps into everything.
- Loss of interest: Activities that once mattered to you, hobbies, work, socializing, exercise, no longer hold any appeal. The things that used to define you feel empty or pointless.
- Feeling detached from others: A sense of being cut off from the people around you, even those you love. You might feel like you're behind glass, watching life happen to other people. Emotional numbness is common here.
- Inability to experience positive emotions: Difficulty feeling happiness, satisfaction, love, or joy. This is sometimes described as emotional flatness or feeling like the color has drained from life.
Cluster 4: Hyperarousal (changes in arousal and reactivity)
Hyperarousal symptoms reflect a nervous system that is perpetually on high alert. Your body is ready for danger even when none exists.
- Irritability or anger outbursts: A short fuse that doesn't match your pre-trauma personality. You might snap at loved ones, rage at minor inconveniences, or feel a simmering anger that you can't fully explain.
- Reckless or self-destructive behavior: Taking risks you wouldn't have before, driving too fast, substance use, unsafe sexual behavior, picking fights. This can be an unconscious attempt to feel something or to regain a sense of control.
- Hypervigilance: Being constantly on guard, scanning your environment for threats, sitting with your back to the wall, always knowing where the exits are. Your body is tense and ready to react at all times.
- Exaggerated startle response: Jumping at sudden noises, flinching when someone approaches unexpectedly, reacting physically to things that other people barely notice.
- Concentration difficulties: Trouble focusing, following conversations, reading, or completing tasks. Your brain is allocating so many resources to threat monitoring that there's little left for daily functioning.
- Sleep disturbance: Difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or both. Your body doesn't feel safe enough to fully let go into sleep. This compounds every other symptom because sleep deprivation makes emotional regulation harder.
For a clinical PTSD diagnosis, symptoms must be present for at least one month, cause significant distress or impairment in daily functioning, and not be attributable to substance use or another medical condition. You would need at least one intrusion symptom, one avoidance symptom, two symptoms from the negative thoughts/mood cluster, and two from the hyperarousal cluster.
Can I have PTSD even if what happened doesn't seem "bad enough"?
Yes. This is one of the most important things to understand about PTSD, and one of the biggest barriers that keeps people from seeking help.
There's no objective threshold of "bad enough" that determines whether someone develops PTSD. Two people can experience the same event and have completely different responses. One may process it and move on. The other may develop PTSD. Neither response is wrong or weak -- they reflect differences in neurobiology, prior experiences, support systems, and many other factors.
PTSD can develop after events that others might minimize:
- A difficult childbirth
- A medical procedure or diagnosis
- Emotional abuse or neglect (even without physical violence)
- Witnessing an accident or violent event (even on video)
- A sudden, unexpected death of someone close to you
- Bullying, harassment, or humiliation
- A natural disaster, even if you weren't physically injured
- A betrayal by someone you trusted
If your nervous system registered something as life-threatening -- to you or to someone you care about -- that's enough. Your body doesn't check a severity scale before deciding to activate a trauma response. If you're experiencing the symptoms described above and they're affecting your daily life, what you went through was "bad enough" to warrant attention and care.
How long after a trauma can PTSD develop?
PTSD can appear at different points in time, which sometimes makes it harder to connect your current symptoms to the original event.
Acute stress disorder occurs within the first month after a traumatic event. Many trauma responses during this period are normal -- your brain is processing something extraordinary. Most people's symptoms will naturally diminish over a few weeks as the brain integrates the experience.
PTSD is typically diagnosed when symptoms persist beyond one month and continue to cause significant distress or functional impairment. For many people, PTSD symptoms begin within three months of the trauma.
Delayed-onset PTSD is real and recognized in the DSM-5. Some people don't develop the full symptom picture until six months, a year, or even several years after the event. This can happen when a new life stressor reduces your coping capacity, when you encounter a powerful reminder of the original trauma, or when you finally feel safe enough for your brain to begin processing what happened.
This delayed onset is part of why PTSD can be confusing. You might think, "The event was years ago -- why would I be struggling with it now?" The answer is that trauma doesn't operate on a neat timeline. Your brain processes trauma when it has the resources to do so, and sometimes that takes time.
Is PTSD only a military thing?
No. This is one of the most persistent misconceptions about PTSD, and it prevents millions of people from recognizing their own symptoms.
While PTSD is common among military veterans -- and the condition was first formally recognized in the context of combat (originally called "shell shock" and later "combat fatigue") -- it affects people from all walks of life.
Here are the numbers:
- Approximately 6% of the U.S. population will have PTSD at some point in their lives (National Center for PTSD).
- About 12 million adults in the U.S. have PTSD during any given year.
- Women are about twice as likely as men to develop PTSD, partly due to higher rates of sexual assault and interpersonal violence, and partly due to biological differences in stress response.
- PTSD can occur at any age, including in childhood.
The most common causes of PTSD in the general population include:
- Sexual assault or abuse
- Physical assault or domestic violence
- Serious accidents (car crashes, workplace injuries, falls)
- Life-threatening medical events (heart attack, ICU stay, traumatic childbirth)
- Natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricanes, fires)
- Sudden, unexpected loss of a loved one
- Childhood abuse or neglect
- Witnessing violence or death
- Refugee and immigration trauma
If you've experienced any of these and are having persistent symptoms, PTSD is worth considering -- regardless of whether you've ever served in the military.
Take a free PTSD screening
Clinicians and researchers use validated screening instruments to assess PTSD symptoms. Two of the most widely used tools are available here for free. Both were developed by the National Center for PTSD (part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs) and are used in clinical settings, VA hospitals, and research studies worldwide.
PCL-5: thorough PTSD screening
The PCL-5 (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5) is the most widely used self-report measure for PTSD symptoms. It is used by the VA, the Department of Defense, clinical researchers, and mental health providers across the country.
- 20 questions covering all four DSM-5 symptom clusters
- Takes 5-7 minutes to complete
- Scoring: Each item rated 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely), for a total score of 0-80
- Clinical cutoff: A score of 33 or above suggests probable PTSD and warrants a clinical evaluation
- What it tells you: A detailed picture of your symptom severity across intrusion, avoidance, negative thoughts/mood, and hyperarousal
The PCL-5 is the assessment most likely to give you a meaningful, nuanced understanding of your symptoms. If you have 5-7 minutes, this is the one to take.
PC-PTSD-5: quick initial screen
The PC-PTSD-5 (Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5) was designed for rapid screening in primary care settings. It's the tool your doctor might use during a routine checkup to determine whether a more thorough PTSD evaluation is needed.
- 5 questions covering the core features of PTSD
- Takes 1-2 minutes to complete
- Scoring: Each item is yes/no, for a total score of 0-5
- Clinical cutoff: A score of 3 or above suggests possible PTSD and indicates the need for further assessment
- What it tells you: Whether your symptoms are significant enough to warrant a deeper look
The PC-PTSD-5 is ideal if you want a quick check, if you're not sure whether a full assessment is necessary, or if you're screening for the first time and feel overwhelmed by the idea of a longer questionnaire.
Which one should I take?
If you're unsure, start with the PC-PTSD-5. It takes less than two minutes. If your score is 3 or above, follow up with the PCL-5 for a more detailed picture.
If you're ready for a thorough self-assessment, go directly to the PCL-5. It provides more clinical information and maps directly to the four DSM-5 symptom clusters.
Both assessments on Survey Doctor are completely free, private (your results are not shared with anyone unless you choose to share them), and you'll receive your score with clinical interpretation immediately after completing the assessment.
What to expect when you take a screening
Here's what the process looks like so there are no surprises:
1. You'll answer questions about the past month. Both the PCL-5 and PC-PTSD-5 ask about symptoms you've experienced in the last 30 days. Answer based on how things have actually been, not how you think they should be.
2. Be honest with yourself. There's a natural tendency to minimize -- to select "a little bit" when "quite a bit" is more accurate. No one else is seeing your answers. The more honest you are, the more useful your results will be.
3. You'll get your score immediately. After submitting, you'll see your total score, what it means clinically, and a breakdown by symptom cluster (for the PCL-5).
4. It might bring up feelings. Answering questions about trauma symptoms can be activating. That's normal. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, it's okay to take a break. You can also come back and complete the assessment later.
5. The result is a starting point, not a verdict. An elevated score doesn't mean you definitely have PTSD. A low score doesn't mean your suffering isn't real. Either way, the information helps you take the next step.
What should I do if my score is elevated?
If your PCL-5 score is 33 or above, or your PC-PTSD-5 score is 3 or above, here are concrete next steps:
1. Don't panic
An elevated score on a screening tool is information, not a sentence. It means your symptoms are consistent with PTSD and that a professional evaluation would be worthwhile. Many people score above the cutoff and go on to get effective treatment that significantly reduces their symptoms.
2. Seek a professional evaluation
A screening tool identifies the possibility of PTSD. A clinician confirms (or rules out) the diagnosis through a structured clinical interview, which considers your full history, the context of your symptoms, and other factors that a self-report questionnaire can't capture.
Look for a mental health professional who has specific experience with trauma. You can search through:
- Psychology Today's therapist finder (filter by "PTSD" or "trauma")
- The VA (if you're a veteran)
- SAMHSA's treatment locator (1-800-662-4357)
- Your primary care provider (they can refer you to a specialist)
3. Know that effective treatments exist
PTSD is one of the most treatable mental health conditions when you get the right help. The following evidence-based treatments have strong research support:
- Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): A 12-session protocol that helps you examine and modify unhelpful beliefs about the trauma (like excessive self-blame). CPT has been extensively studied and is recommended by the VA, the APA, and international treatment guidelines.
- Prolonged Exposure (PE): A therapy that involves gradually and safely confronting trauma-related memories and situations you've been avoiding. It helps your brain learn that the memories, while painful, are not dangerous. Typically 8-15 sessions.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Uses bilateral stimulation (often guided eye movements) while you recall the traumatic memory, helping your brain reprocess the experience so it no longer triggers the same intense response. Typically 6-12 sessions.
- Medication: SSRIs like sertraline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil) are FDA-approved for PTSD. Medication can be used alone or in combination with therapy.
The important thing to know is that PTSD doesn't have to be permanent. With the right treatment, most people experience significant improvement.
4. Track your symptoms over time
If you do begin treatment, periodic re-screening with the PCL-5 can help you and your provider track your progress. A clinically meaningful change on the PCL-5 is a reduction of 10 or more points. Seeing that number decrease over the course of treatment can be powerfully motivating, especially during periods when progress feels invisible.
Survey Doctor lets you save your results and compare them over time, giving you a clear picture of your recovery trajectory.
Common questions
Can PTSD go away on its own?
In some cases, PTSD symptoms diminish over time without formal treatment, particularly if you have strong social support and effective coping strategies. However, research shows that many people with PTSD do not recover without intervention, and symptoms can persist for years or decades. Treatment significantly speeds recovery and reduces the risk of complications like depression, substance use disorders, and relationship difficulties. If your symptoms have been present for more than a few months, professional help is strongly recommended.
Is complex PTSD (C-PTSD) different from PTSD?
Complex PTSD is associated with prolonged, repeated trauma -- such as ongoing childhood abuse, domestic violence, or captivity -- rather than a single event. In addition to the four PTSD symptom clusters, C-PTSD often involves difficulties with emotional regulation, a persistently negative self-concept, and problems with interpersonal relationships. C-PTSD is recognized by the World Health Organization (ICD-11) but is not yet a separate diagnosis in the DSM-5. The PCL-5 captures many C-PTSD symptoms, though it wasn't specifically designed for that purpose.
Can children have PTSD?
Yes. Children can develop PTSD at any age. Symptoms may look different in children than in adults -- for example, younger children might reenact the trauma through play, have frightening dreams without clear content, or show regression in developmental milestones (like bedwetting after being toilet-trained). The PCL-5 and PC-PTSD-5 are designed for adults. If you're concerned about a child, consult a child psychologist or psychiatrist who specializes in trauma.
What if I score below the cutoff but still feel like something is wrong?
Trust your experience. Screening tools use statistical cutoffs, which means some people with genuine PTSD will score below the threshold (this is called a false negative). Other conditions, such as adjustment disorder, acute stress disorder, depression, anxiety, or complicated grief, can also cause significant distress after a difficult experience. If you're struggling, a score below the cutoff is not a reason to avoid seeking help. Talk to a professional about what you're experiencing.
Is a screening the same as a diagnosis?
No. A screening identifies people who are likely to have a condition and would benefit from further evaluation. A diagnosis requires a full clinical assessment by a qualified professional. Think of a screening like a check engine light -- it tells you something needs attention, but a mechanic still needs to look under the hood to determine exactly what's going on.
Will taking the screening make my symptoms worse?
For most people, no. Some people experience a temporary increase in distress when focusing on their symptoms, but this is generally mild and short-lived. If you find the process overwhelming, it's perfectly fine to stop, take a break, and return later. The assessment will be here when you're ready.
How often should I retake the assessment?
If you're in treatment, many clinicians recommend retaking the PCL-5 every 2-4 weeks to monitor progress. If you're self-tracking, monthly assessments provide a good balance between useful data and avoiding over-monitoring. Checking in too frequently (daily or even weekly) can create unnecessary anxiety about small fluctuations that don't reflect meaningful change.
Can I use my screening results when talking to a provider?
Absolutely. Bringing your PCL-5 or PC-PTSD-5 results to an appointment gives your provider useful information and can make the initial conversation easier. Many clinicians appreciate when patients come prepared with screening data -- it saves time and shows engagement in the process.
You asked the question -- that matters
The fact that you searched "do I have PTSD" and read this far says something important about you. It says you're paying attention to yourself. It says you're not willing to just accept suffering as normal. It says you're looking for answers.
Whether your screening score is elevated or not, your experience is valid. Trauma affects people in different ways, and there's no wrong way to respond to something that overwhelmed your ability to cope.
If you're ready to take the next step, the PCL-5 and PC-PTSD-5 are here for you. They're free, they're private, and they take just a few minutes. The results won't define you, but they might help you understand what you're going through -- and that understanding is where recovery begins.