Cognac, I have some knowledge about this topic. I will make some general comments about these points one of the posters copied and pasted. A caveat about generalizations is, they always have exceptions so some of this may not apply to you.
1) recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. Note: In young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.
Some persons are consciously aware of their triggers or stimulus response others are not because they are below that conscious threshold. This fight or flight response is fired in the sympathetic nervous system. When this happens the person goes into self induced hypnotic trance that it's hard to break until it passes. I was once on flight about to land and the person in front of me went into a panic attack. This particular case is a good example of how the person could not pin point the exact cause. When I asked her to pay attention to images, sounds, or feelings she might be experiencing she became aware of images flashing in her mind of the plane crashing. In this case I simply had her manipulate the sub components of her mental pictures to bring her back to reality.
I once worked on a young teen age JW girl that went into a panic attack at a meeting with no apparent logical reason. She was a sexual abuse survivor that had many repressed memories that were now flashing in her mind. Repression can take place up to around age 6 after that the person does not have the ability to repress memories. The exception is someone that suffers from extreme dissociative disorder.
(2) recurrent distressing dreams of the event. Note: In children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.
Dreams occur as a function of processing the days experiences. We all experience about 6 every night, the first two are a reliving the day's events, the next two are dreams from the past relevant to the day's experience. The final two are a blending of the previous four usually in metaphor form or fantasy. A recurring dream is thought to be an issue the person is incapable of dealing with.
(3) acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated). Note: In young children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.
This is what I mean by trance state that is triggered in the victim. If you want to educate yourself more on this one great book I recommend is, "Trances people live" By Stephen Wolisky.
(4) intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.
I once worked on a JW a Vietnam vet that would go into age regression and re-experience his trauma of loading bodies onto an evac chopper in the field every time he heard a chopper overhead. Some victims are flooded with the same feelings they felt during sexual abuse from their past during one of those stressful episode.
(5) physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.
This can happen when one or more of the senses are triggered. An image, a certain smell, a taste, a feeling, or a sound can set off a flood of uncontrollable emotions.
C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following:
(1) efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma
This is a natural phenomena to adapt and move on.
(2) efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma
(3) inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma
This can be done through selective amnesia to repress the event or series of events before age 6.
(4) markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities
This is due to over generalized fear that can not be partitioned or limited to just a person or situation.
(5) feeling of detachment or estrangement from others
This lack of intimacy is due to the person not having the competency to be able to do it. Their natural development was interrupted so the person has to learn the "how to" do it.
(6) restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings)
It's like the person is emotionally dwarfed again due to lacking the competency. We are capable of experiencing over 750 emotional states. The PTSD victim can only experience a hand full of emotions.
(7) sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)
In my experience they distort time and can not conceptualize a proper time line. Rather than experiencing life as a series of sequential events their perception of time is very distorted.
D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following:
This is hyper arousal that often leads to unhealthy promiscuity with some sexual abuse survivors and in others the other extreme of frigidity.
Hope this helps.
Victor