Mowtown, the difference in you is that you actually "did" experience a person who was a constant threat to you, that is real, not paranoia.

With PTSD the person does experience "heightened fears" and is very sensitive, that is the hypervigilance part. Your "fears" are deeply engrained in you from your father, that really happened, was nothing you ever made up.

I could "not" have my horses/ponies out at night after what they went through, as soon as it got dark they would get upset until I put them in, that is because they "feared" what already happened could happen again. My daughter's horse upon just seeing my neighbor's dog totally paniced and tried to jump out of his paddock and did not make it and bent a tubegate with plywood on it to make it solid, he bent it in half and when I rushed from the barn to see what the noise was about he was literally on the gate like sitting on a shelf. I was alone and he is a big horse, I did not know what to do but luckily he slid to the ground, slowly got up and walked and then trotted up a small incline and stood there frozen, staring at that dog shaking, just shaking in fear. I was lucky he had his winter blanket on otherwise he would have suffered lacerations to his body from the plywood he broke in half. Now this is a horse that NEVER cared a less about dogs, never cared a less about seeing my neighbors dog before their dog was loose and targeted all of them.

You need to understand the brain, these fears are "real" even in a horse, not imagined, but because something really "did" happen.

OE