Seasonal · Anniversary Reactions
Anniversary reactions and trauma anniversaries
The VA's National Center for PTSD on the predictable resurgence of symptoms around the time of year a trauma occurred.
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — National Center for PTSD5 min read
Anniversary reactions — the often-unconscious resurgence of distress around the date or season of a past trauma — are one of the most reliably predictable patterns in trauma psychology. The VA's National Center for PTSD is the most authoritative free source on the topic.
Knowing the pattern is itself the first intervention, because much of the secondary distress comes from misreading the symptoms as a fresh deterioration rather than a known recurrence.
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A note on this article
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