My experience of PTSD with delayed onset of 12 years leads me to believe there are many who believe they have an anxiety disorder and present as anxious / paniced and/or depressed.

My experience of GP's (family doctors) is they just don't have time or inspiration to ask the penetrating questions that unlocks the "other symptoms" we had taken on board, without recognising or being able to describe them. e.g. easily startled, very vigilent, poor or disturbed sleep (nightmares, flash backs), difficulties with memory and concentration.

Many doctors fail to pick up on these teltales unless something stares them in the face - an obvious trama or tramatic event being brought up in conversation. So many seemingly irrational "other" root causes seem to abound - bullying at school, work, residential schools, witnessed disaster or motor vehicle accident, verbal or physical abuse, s*x**l abuse and vixctim of a crime, more ...

In my few months in this forum, there have been so very few posts in this PTSD area, and yet I have, in communicating with peers here, discovered several presenting as anxiety, have unstated historical events which, when mentioned leads me to suspect PTSD and not a general anxiety disorder they have been told they have. PTSD is then found to be the complete and correct diagnosis.

With my short experience on this site this suggests there may be more than a few NMP members are living day to day treating the _symptoms_ anxiety and depression and not the root cause.

I thought I'd post this in case it prompts others to ponder "do I have anxiety / panic disorder or PTSD?" it's easy enough to check - do a goodle search "DSM-IV+PTSD;.com" and see the criteria. Typical examples are ......

Repeatedly remembering the event.
Dreaming about the trauma.
Flashbacks.
Losing interest in your life.
Feeling separated from others.
Not experiencing many feelings.
Being on alert all the time.
Trouble sleeping.
Feeling guilty.
Trouble remembering things.
Beginning to avoid your life.
Reacting to things that resemble your trauma.
Feeling sad about what happened.
Telling the same incident over and over
Troubles with intimacy.
Troubles with relationships.
Feeling like you cannot control yourself.
Developing an eating disorder.
Developing a drinking disorder.
Developing a chemical abuse disorder.
Trying to control other people
Trying to control the events in your life.
Not leaving your house

I hope this helps someone (or more)...

Antipodes (an-tip-od-ease)- because I'm on the other side of the world)