Acute Stress Disorder

The acute stress disorder (ASD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are both are stress disorder. In this article, we discuss what is ASD  and its symptoms and causes.

Acute stress disorder involves symptoms that last from three days to one month following exposure to one or more traumatic events. Symptoms develop after an individual experience or see an event involving a threat or actual death, serious injury, or physical violation to the individual or others. Symptoms fall into the five general categories of intrusion, negative mood, dissociation, avoidance, and arousal, and begin or worsen after the trauma occurred.

• Intrusion symptoms (involuntary and intrusive distressing memories of the trauma or recurrent distressing dreams)
• Negative mood (persistent inability to experience positive emotions such as happiness or love)
• Dissociative symptoms (time slowing, seeing oneself from an outsider’s perspective, being in a daze)
• Avoidance symptoms (avoidance of memories, thoughts, feelings, people, or places associated with the trauma)
• Arousal symptoms (difficulty falling or staying asleep, irritable behavior, problems with concentration).