It took you longer than you expected to finish some work and now it's getting dark. You are hurrying down the alley as fast as you can as passing through there has always given you goose bumps. Perhaps it's because it's not well lighted. It started to rain and you dashed to a nearby doorway just as the lightning cracked and you almost shrieked. Now you remembered how lightning struck a tree in that alley, missing you a meter so. Trembling and almost in tears, you tried to get hold of yourself. As soon as the rain died down, you hurried to join other people to get a ride home.

To be scared of lightning and taking cover is a way of taking precaution. But a heightened sense of fear may indicate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is considered a high risk condition, which is why high risk life insurance companies now cover it.

If you have not showed one or more of these symptoms before the fearful incident, then you are going through a PTSD given these categories.

Traumatic episode re-surfaces

Given a similar situation like cars screeching or thunderous lightning may relive the frightening episode that happened to you or a dream that turned into a nightmare as it appears that you're right into the situation (re-experiencing) of a car accident or almost struck by lightning.

Disassociation from the trauma

This may be avoiding talking about the traumatic event or even answering questions from family members or a counselor. You may refuse, avert, or leave a room when seeing or hearing similar situations in movies, news cast or even photos. If you involve yourself in said situation, you may appear untouched or act like hearing those kinds of incidents for the first time. The opposite is staring out to space seemingly lost in thoughts. You avoid the company or get out of the presence of people you associate with the incident.

Increased anxiety, vigilance and guardedness.

You avoid places that may put you on danger like dark or busy streets. If you find yourselves in such places, anxiety grips you. Alone or in a crowd, you often feel uneasy and may get jittery in an affair if there's no good friend or family member to go home with. You get startled and may cry or manifest adverse reactions to a simple tap on the shoulder, hearing sudden sounds or expressed anger over speeding drivers, if your trauma was a road accident.

If you find yourself with PTSD symptoms a month after the trauma, you are experiencing acute PTSD. If symptoms surface after six months, you are having a delayed onset of PTSD. This is a sort of delayed reaction to a trauma that was so severe, say resulting to a death, or when you were physically close to the event. Inability to cope with any of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder may lead to other problems like drugs and alcohol problem, depression and other anxiety disorders.

So if any of you are confronted with this problem, it would be best for family members and close friends to get professional help for their suffering loved one. A professional can offer more details about it.