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How do we define PTSD fear?
Our fight or flight mechanism firing is what we think of normal fear.
Cortisol, adrenaline gets dumped into our bloodstream along with bp, heart rate, and respiration increasing.
That deep thud in our solar plexus freezes us temporarily.
Some of PTSD fear uses the same mechanism when a trigger fires.
Other PTSD fears are more abstract, they are connected to past violent trauma
I think these are implicit memories, subconscious and abstract.
“Implicit memory relies on structures in our brain that are fully developed before we are born. Because it’s an unconscious, bodily memory, when it gets triggered in the present, it does not seem like it’s coming from the past.
Instead, it feels like it’s happening now.
Thus, we react as if we are back in the original situation.”
From These Invisible Memories Shape Our Lives
Lisa Firestone, Ph.D.
This is why PTSD feels so alive, so ever-present.
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PTSD - A Way Out.com 