Experiencing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

To better understand the challenges to learning that PTSD poses, a review of the criteria for its diagnosis is in order. According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) (1994/2000), PTSD can be diagnosed if and only if a stressor event can be identified, and that stressor event involves witnessing or experiencing the event as a threat of death or of serious injury to physical integrity, and the victim responds with feelings of fear, helplessness, or horror. Symptoms from each of three types of feelings characterize PTSD and must all be present longer than one month:

• three or more symptoms of avoiding stimuli associated with the trauma as well as a general numbing of responsiveness,
• one or more symptoms of re-experiencing the traumatic event, and
• two or more symptoms of increased arousal.

What is understood about the effect of these symptoms upon the course of the disorder?