The development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stresser involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to a new physical integrity; or witnessing of an event of the above. This could include rape, molestation and other unwanted advances while on active duty in the military. The person’s response to the event(s) must involve intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

Symptoms include persistent re-experiencing of the traumatic event, persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness; persistent symptoms of increased arousal. The symptoms must be present for at least one month, and cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, and personal areas of functioning.

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