Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is classified under the rubric of Trauma and Stress related disorders in the fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The rubric of Trauma and Stress related disorders is itself relatively new, starting only with the DSM-5, with previous editions classifying the disorder as an anxiety disorder (Sascher & Goldbeck, 2016). Unlike anxiety disorders, all disorders classified under the Trauma and Stress umbrella are differentiated by the presence of a precipitating traumatic event (McGraw-Hill Education, 2012). In other words, one of the main diagnostic criteria of PTSD is exposure to a traumatic or stressful event: such as “death, threatened death,” violence or violation: witnessed or directly experienced (National Center for PTSD, n.d.). Military veterans are of course repeatedly exposed to such traumatic events, which is why the prevalence of PTSD is relatively high among this population cohort. In fact, PTSD was once informally described as “shell shock,” (American Psychiatric Association, 2018). When it became apparent that the symptoms of “shell shock” were also common among some victims of rape or child abuse, the concept of PTSD as a psychiatric disorder evolved. While most people experience at least some type of traumatic event during their lifetime, only ten percent of the population will develop the symptoms of PTSD: an unusual, persistent, and debilitating long-term psychological response to stress. Recent...

Many people experience acute symptoms immediately following the traumatic event, but “most individuals are able to cope with the stressor and maintain or regain homeostasis” in both body and mind (Heim, Schultebrauchs, Marmar, et al., 2018, p. 331). Those who do not regain homeostasis may be diagnosed with PTSD if they fulfill the primary diagnostic criteria outlined in the DSM-5. The DSM-5 contains several necessary diagnostic criteria for PTSD. A person who meets some but all of these criteria may not receive a diagnosis for PTSD.
For example, PTSD refers to the manifestation of a cluster of symptoms including at least one of each from several different categories including intrusion symptoms, avoidance symptoms, cognitive and mood symptoms, and alterations in arousal and reactivity (National Center for PTSD, n.d.). Intrusion symptoms refer to nightmares, flashbacks, and other means in which the individual essentially relives the initial traumatic event. The person may have a physiological as well as a psychological response to environmental triggers that are associated that the precipitating trauma. Environmental triggers could be sensory such as sounds, smells, or places. To be diagnosed with PTSD, the individual must exhibit at least one intrusion symptom.

The individual…