John Watson does not have PTSD
“Your therapist thinks it’s post-traumatic stress. Fire her…You’re not haunted by the war, Dr. Watson. You miss it.”
that is the opposite of PTSD
That’s one interpretation. I’m rather fond of Emma’s. ”Missing” the war does not at all preclude being traumatized by it. Seeking out danger doesn’t mean there isn’t a post-traumatic response going on, either. Mycroft’s a smart guy and all, but he’s not a psych professional.
Entirely wrong, Songlin, sorry. In fact, in John’s case, missing the war would most likely be considered a symptom.
PTSD is a cognitive pattern created in response to trauma. In cases of PTSD among veterans, it’s not uncommon for them to miss war, because it’s familiar. The response to it is ingrained on their neural patterns.
What is strange, unfamiliar, frightening, to vets with PTSD is their response to civilian life. It becomes very difficult for them to handle civilian life, tackle daily problems, and interact with people (especially their loved ones), because the moment stress flips the switch in their brain—say, an argument, or being startled when someone slams the door, or struggling with long-term stress like finances—they’re taken through the PTSD response.
For veterans, that response tends to include a sublimated response to stress, because they learned to use it to give them a boost in battle, suppressing the normal emotional stress reaction in favor of harnessing and riding the adrenaline rush. Time may slow down for them, emotions fall into the background; they focus on the crystal-clear perception and survival-based decision-making, and do not cope with or confront the fear, anger and other emotions.
For many, violence is a natural part of this response, because the stress reaction is naturally associated with someone attacking them. This is where it gets uncomfortable for them, because the instinct is to physically lash out. They often become scared of hurting people, and consequently often withdraw from interacting with others or become repressed in their interactions, always wearing a mask and not letting anyone in for fear that becoming emotionally involved will flip them into a PTSD episode. Sometimes they learn to fight down the physical response, but then they tend to strike out verbally, or leave without addressing the problem.
Some veterans suffering from PTSD seek out situations and activities that are likely to evoke that adrenaline/stress pattern—drag racing, motorcycles (taking stupid risks like extreme speeding and stunts), crime. Because the pattern is familiar and comfortable, and because that adrenaline spike is frankly a huge rush. It’s entirely possible to get addicted to it.
Sound like anyone?
It’s probably also worth noting that elevating risk factors for veteran PTSD include a history of sports, competition or other stress-inducing activities (ask any athlete you know about the adrenaline rush of competition; it’s very common for sports players to have cultivated it for years before they ever signed up for the military); and also situations involving long-term stress, such as divorce, financial problems, or family problems back home (alcoholic sister?).
And then there are the flashbacks and nightmares. John has them. We saw that in his very first appearance. PTSD nightmares are often terrifying, haunting manifestations of the subconscious. One soldier who was treated for PTSD described how he would dream of canvassing buildings and huts on patrol, and everywhere he looked in the dark windows and doors, he saw glowing red eyes watching him.
Flashbacks, meanwhile, can come in the form of emotional responses that are inappropriate to the person’s current situation but appropriate to the originating trauma (‘triggered episodes’ as most people in fandom call them), they can be memories intruding at random into normal life and thought, or they can be full-on movie-style immersive relivings of the memory. They can be triggered by scents, words, settings or other things the person associates with the traumatic event, or by nothing at all. These, too, can come in the form of nightmares, where the person relives the traumatic event.
This—the nightmares and flashbacks—are the most typical element of PTSD, and the only one that needs to be present. Going by John’s first scene, he does indeed have PTSD. That nightmare was textbook, and that is all it takes, because that is the core of PTSD—the continued intrusion of a traumatic episode upon a person’s life, months or years after the episode itself occurred.
So yeah, given what we’re shown by the episodes, there’s a very good chance John does have PTSD. Which is not to say that he has to, of course. Everybody’s unique. But anybody writing him with it has plenty to support them.
I’d like to add, on behalf of PTSD sufferers, that the condition has nothing at all to do with fear, or weakness, or an inability to cope. PTSD has nothing to do with whether you’re afraid, or angry, or calm under pressure; it has to do with stress. A PTSD sufferer isn’t weak or afraid if s/he has PTSD; it just means that they were thrown into a situation where they had to do the best he could, and for whatever reason—perhaps psychological, perhaps environmental—they were unable to come to terms with the trauma they experienced at the time. It’s also a condition that can be overcome and cured, though its curability in any given person varies massively, and partially depends on how much they really want to be over it (like I said, some of them like the adrenaline rush, and some have simply been kicked around too much to put their faith in doctors or the psychiatric system).