What is PTSD?

According to the American Psychiatric Association, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is a condition where a person’s mental, physical, social, and/or spiritual wellbeing have been affected after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. (See What is trauma?)  To be diagnosed with PTSD, one must have symptoms lasting for more than a month and that cause significant problems in that person’s day-to-day life.¹ (See What are the symptoms of PTSD?) It can affect people from all walks of life and be the result of physical or emotional harm or a situation that was life-threatening, such as a natural disaster, terrorist attack, serious accident, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, witnessing the death of a loved one, and/or bullying, among many other things.^{2, 3} As many as 12 million people are living with PTSD in the United States.⁴ Women are twice as likely as men to have PTSD, while Latinos, African Americans, and Native Americans/Native Alaskans have higher rates of PTSD than non-Latino whites.⁵

Complex PTSD (or developmental trauma) occurs as a result of ongoing adverse events or trauma in childhood and can present in ways similar to PTSD. These experiences can have a profound impact on personality as well as cognitive, social, and emotional development.⁶