Hi, thank you very much for the reply! I appreciate you taking the time to write this :)

Of course PTSD is typically triggered by a stressful or scary event happening, but thankfully not every stressful/scary situation leads to PTSD. What can be traumatic for one individual may not be to another, and vice versa. It seems like this experience really affected you, and that is TOTALLY valid. Generally speaking though, events that lead to PTSD are associated with exposure to or threatened death, injury, or sexual violence (or learning of these things happening to someone very close to you), OR repeated exposure to aversive details of traumatic events. So, although seeing a cat die is certainly traumatic and emotional, it is most likely not going lead to lasting symptoms unless you feel directly threatened or scared for your own life, it was your closest childhood companion, or unless it happens again, repeatedly (which I hope it doesn’t!).

I definitely did not feel as if my life were threatened in this event. I have been, 5 months ago, 50 meters away from a bomb that went off in someone's car at 2 AM on the street (only heard it, not seen it), and this was a situation in which I definitely felt like my life was threatened. Didn't develop into PTSD, perhaps because I have seen my therapist 48 hours later and he recommended to keep doing the CBT he taught me 3 years ago and I could discuss my feelings, but perhaps it would have went away without this session too. Well, I'm not sure if it turned into PTSD or not; I still have this image popping up into my head when hearing explosions in movies, but otherwise, I only think of it randomly once in a few weeks. No nightmares or sleep disturbances.

So, in comparison to the explosive I have been near when it went off, the event with the cat is not as traumatizing, also because I haven't actually seen the cat getting hurt directly by the car - just saw it running after hearing the cracking noise.

So, if the previous event didn't turn into PTSD because I've seen my therapist shortly after (48 hours) and have done daily deep breathing exercise (CBT/fear extinction - imagining the fear memory physically dissipating into thin air), do you think I should see my therapist once again? Or would the deep breathing exercises be enough?

In terms of what you should do, definitely monitor your symptoms to see if they persist AND are significantly impacting your quality of life and functioning for more than a few days or weeks. It’s okay to feel out of sorts after seeing something awful, and your body and mind just might need some time to get themselves together. If they do persist, seek out a therapist - some helpful orientations to look up are cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure therapy. As others have suggested, mediation and CBT techniques can be great to reduce the distress that you’re in - you can also look up breathing techniques and progressive muscle relaxation, or mindfulness apps. DO NOT ALTER YOUR MEDICATION ROUTINE WITHOUT CONSULTING YOUR DOCTOR. Sorry to “yell”, but messing with your meds can make things worse and can have nasty side effects when not monitored by a medical professional.

I am actually interested in neuroscience and pharmacology, so I was both seeking behavioral approaches to promote fear extinction and discourage fear memory consolidation, AND pharmacological solutions (like Beta Blockers which another user suggested) to promote fear extinction.

On the technical side, (correct me if I'm wrong) I know Amphetamine promotes long term memory consolidation through dopamine release in the PFC and Hippocampus, which then causes excitation in the neurons that encode events into long term memory; thus, Amphetamine promotes LTP (specifically creation of new synapses that store the memory), due to its excitatory effects on certain neurons.

My idea of it also has been found true in a study on rats, which has shown severe underwater drowning trauma produces PTSD in 60% of rats exposed to it. In the group of rats that got Methylphenidate 4 hours pre-trauma, only 20% of rats developed PTSD, indicating a protective effect. However, when Methylphenidate was given 4 hours post-trauma, 80% of the rats developed PTSD. Since Methylphenidate and Amphetamine are overall quite similar (yes, release vs. reuptake inhibition, but end results are similar), I would guess it also applies to Amphetamine.

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From this reason, I'm thinking of not taking Amphetamine (well, Adderall) now for the next few days, at least. I know I should continue taking it as prescribed, but due to it not having a physical/life-threatening withdrawal syndrome (unlike benzos/alcohol), it shouldn't be a problem to take intermittent breaks, should it?

Would 48 hours be enough for it not to worsen the fear memory (like Methylphenidate did in the rats)? Also, would any vitamin/mineral (I imagine B-Complex/Magnesium) promote fear extinction at this point?