PTSD symptoms

There are a lot of good resources including books that describe PTSD and its symptoms. I recommend the book The body keeps the Score. He describe many of the symptoms I experience much better than I ever could. However, the effects are so devastating, that they do require repeated and multiple explanations for people who have not experienced it to at least get some understanding of it.

Cognitive decline

This is probably the most annoying symptom - you can not act if you can not think.

Permanent decline

My cognitive decline after the injury was very drastic. I was able to act in autopilot mode, but when I needed to think, to plan, or to learn something new then I would hit brick wall. Event at the best estimates I felt that I am functioning at 5% of previous capacity while many areas become impossible at all. Yet, from outside, it might not seemed so bad as I still could do trivial things on autopilot and memories from past were still accessible.

In time it got a bit better, but my productivity even at best times is below 10% what it used to be. The main problem is that even average complexity problems were too complex for me now.

When stressed