Flashbacks, nightmares and exaggerated startle responses all are typical symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, but the condition is more complex.

Seventeen symptoms are used to diagnose the disorder, and a person must meet the minimum criteria for a positive diagnosis. The following are guidelines to understand the disorder. Only a trained psychologist can make a diagnosis.

Source: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The person must have been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:

  • Actual or threatened death, serious injury, or threat to physical integrity.

  • Response to the event involved intense fear, helplessness or horror.

    The traumatic event is re-experienced persistently in at least one of the following ways:

  • Recurrent and intrusive thoughts about the event.

  • Recurrent distressing dreams of the event.

  • Flashbacks or hallucinations.

  • Intense distress at exposure to triggers that symbolize the event.

  • Physiological reactivity to triggers, such as pounding heart or sweaty palms.

    The person must persistently avoid stimuli associated with trauma in at least three of the following ways:

  • Avoiding thoughts, feelings or conversations about the event.

  • Avoiding activities, people or places that remind a person about the event.

  • Inability to recall an important aspect of the event.

  • Diminished interest or participation
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    in significant activities.

  • Feeling of detachment or estrangement from others.

  • Restricted range of emotions.

  • Sense of foreshortened future, such as loss of expectation of having a career, marriage, children or normal life span.

    The person must experience persistent symptoms of arousal in at least two of the following ways:

  • Difficulty falling or staying asleep.

  • Irritability or outbursts of anger.

  • Difficulty concentrating.

  • Hyper-vigilance.

  • Exaggerated startle response.

    Symptoms must last for at least one month.

    Disturbance causes significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning.