You can suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after exposure to particularly traumatic events.  The effects are accumulative. It produces feelings of intense fear, helplessness, and horror brought about by reliving those severely traumatic events from the past through dreams, nightmares or flashbacks.

Traditionally it was limited to:

• The threat of death or serious injury.
• Witnessing death or serious injury
• Being told about the death or injury of someone close or significant in the sufferer’s life.

In recent years this condition has been identified in a wider range of situations.

A traumatic event is really anything unexpected that is outside your normal life experience.  It can include natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes and tornadoes as well as violent crimes such as assault or rape.  The more personal the experience then the more severe the symptoms and the longer they last.

There is growing awareness that PTSD can also result from an accumulation of many small, individually non-life-threatening incidents.

To differentiate the cause, the term Complex PTSD is now being used.