PTSD is caused by not dealing with traumatic past events in a healthy manner - they come back to haunt. There's only one relatively decent cure called EMDR. You can find out about it at emdr.org. Your symptoms may or may not be PTSD related, but finding an EMDR certified therapist can only help, as we may land in odd places due to past trauma. I am still unravelling past abuses, and it may be one reason I eneded up in a relationship with an abuser. What traumatizes one person may not traumatize another. It's all in how we deal with things and emotional abuse is as insidious as physical abuse, perhaps more. I had a mother who saw me as a difficult child. There were times she told me I was worthless. If I wet the bed, she rubbed my nose in the sheets. Things like that, buried for a long time, can trigger emotions when the subconscious recalls them in an unrelated event, criticism taken out of context, for example, might recall feelings of worthlessness or a reaction to those feelings when the message hasn't (or perhaps has) been conveyed. A loud noise may recall a gunshot - a smell, something sweet, or something dire.