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[Todd]

I was kidnapped by my moms ex at the age of 8. It only lasted a few hours, but since that day i've had really bad abandonment issues. When someone leaves and I dont hear from them I start to think they arent coming back or something has happened to them. I talked to a family member who works for the state mental hospital, she said it sounds like classic PTSD. I'm going to try to find a therapist to help me with it. I just wanted to see what you guys thought.

[Memeki]

My opinion is that people can experience trauma varying at all levels (PTSD or not) from all kinds of unpleasent experiences. It can come from witnessing something like a murder to something as simple as almost being hit by a car. It affects all people differently. If you think you're having trauma and stress related to this particular incident, then yes, you would want to sort that out with a therapist.

Sometimes it goes away, sometimes it needs a little more than time. When I needed to jump off of a platform in gym class (a very, very high up platform, and it was small) I could not even stand up from a sitting position without severe vertigo for a few days. Meanwhile, when the oil burner exploded at my house and set it on fire when I was about 4, I had a traumatic, incolsolable fear of fire for almost my entire life. That didn't go away until around high school. Looking back, I really should have sought therapy as a young child, the way I was absolutely terrified of fire drills, or even simply hearing a fire engine in the distance, I'd literally almost throw up out of fear. When it gets to a point where you need to deal with such trauma every day, or it interferes with your life, there's no questioning that you should seek help for it. Doesn't matter if it's certified PTSD or not.

[evilavatar]

No one can ever say what exactly will cause a person to have mental crises and there is no hard and fast cause for PTSD. Some people will go through dozens of traumatic events and suffer no ill effect while others witness one thing and a scarred for life. 

[Big Ed]

I was kidnapped by my moms ex at the age of 8. It only lasted a few hours, but since that day i've had really bad abandonment issues. When someone leaves and I dont hear from them I start to think they arent coming back or something has happened to them. I talked to a family member who works for the state mental hospital, she said it sounds like classic PTSD. I'm going to try to find a therapist to help me with it. I just wanted to see what you guys thought.

Seeing a therapist is a good idea.  PTSD can be brought on by long term stress, or an intense traumatic event.  Women who have been raped commonly suffer PTSD.  Also how the PTSD affects an individual differs.

[Earthbound Misfit]

My dauther was briefly in the Army and was married to a soldier as well who had been to Iraq and was diagnosed with PTSD... however the way THEY explained PTSD to her was that it is when someone is on high alert constantly (as soldiers  are in war) for long periods of time, when they come back their adrenaline vlave does not shut off as most people's valve do, therefore leaving them in a constant high alert status and having constant anxiety feelings.

Has anyone else heard this theory?  Or diagnosis?

I can see with this discription how someone who had been kidnapped would get that way.

[dymaxion]

It seems like a completely valid way to explain PTSD in that sort of situation.

(of course, if the PTSD is a result of internal affairs I doubt they would be so kind and streamlined)

[Sofia03]

I was once kidnapped for about three hours about 20 years ago. Anxiety and recurring nightmares went away only about 3 or 4 years later.
Recently I was extorted by threathening my life and my kids' life. So far, I have not been able to overcome that, to the extreme that I left my job, sent my kids away and I feel very helpless. Although they didn't hurt anyone phisically, they stole our lives.
It seems to be quite differente when they threaten you than when they threten you kids.

[flushed]

Any trauma can cause PTSD.
The signs can be found online. Here are some I know of, if you have random flashbacks in the middle of unrelated activities or when doing nothing, a fight or flight reaction (a bad kind of adrenaline rush) to a sound, word or smell, unexplained fear or fear of things that do not pose immediate danger By fear I mean the full on holy shit I'm going to die heart racing adrenaline rush to nagging sense that you should avoid something or someone or paranoia that something bad is going to happen. An inability to trust in general or in specific circumstances or some permutation which on objective reflection is unreasonable.

It couldn't hurt you to talk it out with a pro. Here's a site to help you know what to expect http://www.aboutpsychotherapy.com/index.html