note; these are my personal experiences. i am clinically diagnosed with complex post traumatic stress disorder and also study psychology, and PTSD in general shows up very differently in all people. please be mindful of this information.
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anywho! many a times i see PTSD in whump and in general being represented as flashbacks, nightmares, avoidant behaviour, and so on which isn't wrong or exaggerated, just coming on here with some more symptoms or issues i don't see often, mainly physical manifestations. feel free to give your whumpees an even harder time <3
1. Trauma literally rewires the brain and its no joke. The amygdala is in overdrive constantly. Whumpee's always on edge. The hippocampus reduces in size, and boom, eventually you're losing your mind and your memories of what happened. Now whumpee has little to make sense of why they are the way they are, and whatever they recall is so blurred it's driving them insane.
2. Getting triggered by a smell, sound, even a sensation on the body, like the wind on the skin 'rubbing off' the wrong way and Whumpee's suddenly spiraling. What's worse is the moment itself is so distressing they disassociate before they can help it. It takes hours to come back to their own body and realize that they can't remember anything except feeling lost and terrified that they can't even calm down. And they don't even know or remember why.
3. Following up on the previous prompt, outsiders will have a hard time telling if Whumpee is upset, sleep-deprived or tired (could be!) or simply out of it. Eyes glazed over, expression slack. Maybe their eyebrows are furrowed slightly. They stare into the distance and only hum back responses or a few syllables. Later into the day, somebody asks them what they're angry about. Whumpee stops, and thinks. What are they even upset about? They don't know.
4. Just fucked up hormones in general :/ Effective for female whumpees, intense stress levels interfere with hormone production and can infact halt your menstrual cycle. I struggled with this & when my cycle actually resumed the cramps were like 10x worse than what they were before lol. Additionally, some studies also report that PTSD symptoms worsen during the menstrual phases. Not fun.
5. The immune system of a Victorian child. Falling sick way too often. Headaches that don't go away. Digestive issues that give a Whumpee stomach cramps every time they even try to eat (this varies a lot). AUTOIMMUNE DISEASES OF ANY SORT!! Alot more things that can wrong. LOTS of potential for non-whumper whump.
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all from me for now. based on some unfortunate experiences i've had in the past year :'). hope this helps someone or so
