#it gets cold

prolonged and powerful emotional distress to stimuli that remind an individual of the traumatic event / 

this happens in a few different ways, though most violent comes when reacting to cold. it’s stated in the show that lucifer runs cold and i have no doubt this played in many tortures while in the cage. adam struggles during the winter and even on good days finds himself close to panic when faced with colder temperatues. he only goes out when it is absolutely necessary ( such as for school or work ) and has found that he needs to wear even more layers than normal in order to keep himself anywhere near calm. my default is him living in minnesota or around the area still, which can get closer to zero or below during winters. when he first started working at the diner, he had a particularly rough reaction ( cough panic attack ) to going into the freezer, which has lead to him avoiding it to the best of his ability ( and his coworkers rarely asking him to do so. ) he also has a jacket at work at all times for him to wear whenever he has to enter, no matter how short the amount of time spent in there may be.

attempts to avoid places, activities, conversations, and situations that may lead to disconcerting thoughts, feelings, or memories that remind the individual of their trauma

the issues with cold are stated above. he attempts to keep from it the best he can. he also tries very hard not to speak about the time that he spent “in a coma”. his thoughts have a tenancy to spiral if he lingers on that for too long and has lead to panic in itself. 

repeated nightmares about the trauma /

this one is pretty self explanatory. though they are all vague details and nothingness by the time he comes to, adam suffers from violent nightmares about the ordeal he’s been through. 

hand in hand with the above, adam has lots of trouble sleeping due to the nightmares, which has developed into insomnia over time.

feeling disconnected from others / dissociation / depersonalization /

adam will often go through episodes where the world around him starts to feel fake. as though things aren’t really happening or perhaps he’s not really there at all. sometimes they are very mild and he can easily pull himself out of them. other times, they last for hours.

adam has a few different techniques he utilizes in an attempt to pull himself back. the most commons are pressing into and listing each of the bones in his hand(s). another is going through colors and finding five things that he can see for each color of the rainbow ( red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. ) another is simply grounding, using his senses to help him put together the reality of the situation.

lack of interest in previously enjoyed activities /

again, pretty self explanatory. adam is trying to force himself back on track and push through the depressive state he finds himself in many days, but it’s hard to do more than he has to more often than not.

depression!! while adam may have struggled with some low level before, it has definitely worsened after his time in the cage.

extreme startle reflex / hypervigilance

especially after nights where he hasn’t gotten much sleep. while not particularly violently, adam will not react well to surprise touches or anything of the sort.

he can overreact to loud noises, things people may say to him, and so on. he’s paranoid that something bad might happen at any moment.

anxiety!!! something that has also fully developed after his time in the cage.

problems concentrating.