PTSD - The Symptoms . . . Avoidance

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By Mayo Clinic staff


Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.

Symptoms of PTSD fall into three main categories: . . .

. . . 2. Avoidance

•Emotional "numbing," or feeling as though you don't care about anything
•Feeling detached
•Being unable to remember important aspects of the trauma
•Having a lack of interest in normal activities
•Showing less of your moods
•Avoiding places, people, or thoughts that remind you of the event

On May 3, 2011 I was admitted into the hospital via the ER. The lower abdominal pain was becoming increasingly worse. I acquiesced to a transvaginal ultrasound because my new GYN (whom I met over a bottle of champagne at a school fundraiser) emphatically impressed upon me: "you can't go on like this...we have to do something."

The procedure inflamed an onslaught of unrelenting, double-me-over-pain. I was told (as distinguished from "asked") to go to the ER. An exploratory laparoscopy was needed...STAT... BTW, what are your current markers? That was May 3rd.

At 8 p.m. on May 7, I began refusing pain meds.

At 11 p.m. on May 7 I asked my night nurse to inform the gall bladder specialist that I would not be doing the procedure scheduled for the next morning.

At 6:30 a.m. on May 8 I text messaged my husband and asked if he would mind not going to the Navajo Nation that morning, and to come and pick me up.

At 7 a.m. on May 8 my day nurse asked what had changed that I was insisting on being discharged.

At 7:-08 a.m I informed her that:  I have been off pain meds long enough to think.

By 12:30 p.m. on May 8, 2011 the attending physician agreed with my decision to be discharged.