Trauma

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can develop as a result of a terribly frightening, life-threatening, or otherwise highly unsafe experience. PTSD sufferers can “re-experience” the traumatic event or events in some way, tend to avoid places, people, or other things that remind them of the event (avoidance), and can be exquisitely sensitive to normal life experiences (hyperarousal). Although this condition has likely existed since humans have endured trauma, PTSD has only been recognized as a formal clinical syndrome since 1980.

Not every person exposed to stressful events will develop PTSD. Some people have a short period of 4-6 weeks during which they feel some of the symptoms of PTSD, but which then subside on their own. However, PTSD in combat veterans may also take some time to emerge after the veteran is no longer exposed to the stressor. It is not unusual for several months to pass before symptoms become apparent.