Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a common element when writing fiction. Authors are known to put their characters through traumatic events or to give them traumatic backstories. It’s likely that your characters hasn’t made it through life without some event that could have caused them to experience PTSD. The difficult part, then, is writing the disorder accurately.

The most common elements to see in fiction are often the more rare or infrequent symptoms. They’re used because they’re dramatic. However, PTSD is more than just flashbacks. It’s more than just bad dreams. There are a lot of other daily habits and responses that are far more subtle which are part of PTSD.

In this episode, we talk about some of the common traits and causes, and how to best write PTSD into your story.

First aired October 24, 2022.

The post S36E7 – Dark Psychology: Writing Realistic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder appeared first on Writing Roots.