Has anyone had PTSD symptoms suddenly return?

Many years ago, I used to suffer from flashbacks, nightmares, etc., which were related to my abusive childhood. It sort of made sense that they happened when they did, since I was newly an adult & had just gotten out of the abusive situation. Once I was no longer in survival mode 24/7, all the symptoms started appearing.

Some 20 years later, I'm having flashbacks and nightmares again. I can't for the life of me think of what set me off this time. It's all the same stuff--childhood things. I've been out of my childhood home for ages, and I thought the PTSD was gone.

It's all a little scary and I'm wondering if I'm not losing my mind. Has this ever happened to anyone else?

don't worry about losing your mind.. this sounds perfectly ''normal'' for ptsd..

I've had 1 major relapse of ptsd in the last 10 years and 1 medium size one that i'm (hopefully) coming through to the end of now..
Has anything in your life changed at all and may have caused this?
Maybe you've stopped/started therapy/with a new therapist.. maybe you've ended/started a relationship?.. maybe you've moved house - got new neighbours that remind you of things..
Looking at your signature and i hope you don't mind me asking.. but is there anything unusual happening inside your system at the moment? (an integration or something..)..

xx

No, I don't mind you thinking about my sig at all, that was a good suggestion, actually. Something does seem to have happened with a particular alter, now that you mention it. She's unaccountably gone into some sort of deep hibernation. I guess I'd assumed that an unknown thing had caused both that and the return of the PTSD symptoms. I just have no idea what it could have been.

It's an interesting idea that maybe the catalyst was entirely internal. I'll bring that up with my therapist. Thank you.

Yep. After twenty-three years. My PTSD was military related after a involuntary nine month stay in Siberia during the Cold War. I worked through it and past it and suddenly, there it was again. The trigger was easy to find in my case. I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Episode with some psychotic features and they got a judge to authorize an involuntary 72-hour hold.

I beat the hold (immediately filed a writ of habeas corpus), but had a referral to a pdoc. During the time leading up to that appointment, the nightmares came back...and were even in Russian.

Anyway, got through that appointment with the pdoc saying that he thought inpatient was neither necessary or a good idea and the nightmares stopped. I don't think that it is a lack of healing from the PTSD, I think it is more like (**TW for SA**) planning a simulated rape for your next date night with your husband when you are a SA survivor. I don't think it really matters how much work you do on the issue at hand - replaying it in real life is going to cause some anxiety.