PTSD: When Really unexpected things happen

I was watching CNN this morning about the Isla Vista Tragedy murders and a girl (likely a college student there was talking as a witness. I don't think the whole thing had sunk in yet so as she tried to talk about it she started to break down. She talked about how the guy in the BMW had put a little gun out the window and she thought it was an air soft gun with foam or rubber pellets like college kids shoot each other as pranks. So, she smiled and thought she was going to be shot by an air soft pellet or something and instead heard the wind whoosh by her head as a shot passed nearby her head.

This girl has or will have PTSD over this incident.

I know someone who attended San Bernadino State University who was shot at while he and his girlfriend were walking in the foothills behind the university by people with .22 rifles. The people just started shooting for no reason at about 1/2 mile away at them. So, they hid behind rocks until these people went somewhere else. Then they returned to the campus and reported this to the police. However, the man missed a lot of school the next month and his grades suffered some. His girlfriend had to get a leave of absence from  school for the rest of that term and didn't return until the fall. So, when someone shoots at you or near you and you completely don't expect this because you are not a soldier in a war, you likely are going to have some type of PTSD from this experience.

IT is the unexpected when it happens that you (your brain, your subconscious and your emotions) are not ready to deal with. It so disrupts your view of reality that you cannot sometimes function normally for weeks or months or years after this happens because it has squirreled your subconscious mind from shock.

It is very important to talk this sort of thing through with friends, relatives and/or a counselor to lessen the problems you might encounter both now and in the future.

You might think you are a tough man or woman or child. However, all our subconscious minds are about 2 years old. Your subconscious mind is not an adult and never will be and it is very impressionable. So, you have to heal your subconscious mind in order to move forward usefully in your lives. So, be sure to get counseling from someone you trust as soon as possible after a PTSD event.