Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for certain psychological consequences of exposure to, or confrontation with, stressful experiences that the person experiences as highly traumatic. The experience must involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury, or a threat to physical and/or psychological integrity. It is occasionally called post-traumatic stress reaction to emphasize that it is a routine result of traumatic experience rather than a manifestation of a pre-existing psychological weakness on the part of the patient.

PTSD is considered to be primarily an anxiety disorder and should not be confused with normal grief and adjustment after traumatic events. Most people who experience traumatic events will not develop PTSD. For most people, the emotional effects of traumatic events will tend to subside after several months however if they last longer, then a psychiatric disorder may be diagnosed. It is also possible to suffer PTSD in conjunction with other psychiatric disorders; these disorders often include clinical depression, general anxiety disorder and a variety of addictions. PTSD may have a delayed onset of months, years or even decades and may be triggered by an external factor or factors.

PTSD has two specific diagnostic criteria.

a) That the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved
actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others; and

b) That the person’s response to (a) involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

Symptoms of PTSD can include the following: nightmares, flashbacks, emotional detachment or numbing of feelings (emotional self-mortification or dissociation), insomnia, avoidance of reminders and extreme distress when exposed to the reminders ("triggers"), irritability, hypervigilance, memory loss, and excessive startle response, clinical depression and anxiety, loss of appetite.

Childhood physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, including prolonged or extreme
neglect; also, witnessing such abuse inflicted on another child or an adult
Violent physical assaults (at any age)
Adult experiences of sexual assault or rape
Surviving or witnessing a terrorist attack
Experiencing or witnessing physical or psychological torture
Civilian experiences of warfare or ethnic cleansing
Combatant experiences of warfare (also referred to as combat stress reaction)
Occupational experiences, such as through police work or fire fighting
Living through a natural catastrophe, such as a tornado, tsunami, or severe earthquake
Witnessing the sudden death of a loved one
Having or witnessing a serious automobile accident
Experiencing a vicious attack by a dog, shark, mountain lion, or other animal
Having a close brush with death as a result of electric shock, near-drowning, falling
from great height, life-threatening medical complications, etc.

PTSD may be experienced following any traumatic experience, or series of experiences which satisfy the criteria and that do not allow the victim to readily recuperate from the detrimental effects of stress. It is believed that of those exposed to traumatic conditions between 5% and 80% will develop PTSD depending on the severity of the trauma and personal vulnerability. According to the National Comorbidity Survey Report, the estimated lifetime prevalence of PTSD among adult Americans is 7.8%, with women (10.4%) twice as likely as men (5%) to have PTSD at some point in their lives.

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