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Note that it is possible (perhaps common) for people to experience severe distress following a traumatic event without meeting all of the requirements which would result in a diagnosis of full blown PTSD. This does not mean they are not suffering - sometimes it just means that they do not qualify for help! The formal definition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is as follows.

The experiencing or witnessing of an event involving death, threatened death or serious injury, causing intense fear, helplessness or horror (or in children, disorganised or agitated behaviour).

Experience of one of the following:

• Recurrent intrusive images or thoughts
• Dreams
• A sense of reliving the event or intense mental or physical distress when something triggers the often unconscious associations with the event (such as significant anniversaries, hearing a particular sound, the sensation of intense bodily heat).

Experience of three of the following:

• Persistent avoidance of anything associated with the trauma, such as thoughts, feelings, activities, places or people.
• Amnesia (loss of memory) for aspects of the event.
• Sense of detachment
• Loss of warm feeling or sense of foreshortened future.

Experience of two of the following:

• Difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Irritability or outbursts of anger
• Difficulty in concentrating
• Hypervigilence and exaggerated startle response.

Symptoms must have occurred for at least a month and have significant adverse effect on work, social or daily functioning

 

Criteria for PTSD - a summary

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