PTSD is a disorder that occurs in response to a variety of traumatic events, but that usually involves experiencing or witnessing violence or threat of violence. The key PTSD symptoms are intrusions and avoidance. Intrusions take form of unwanted thoughts, images, and sensory experiences that are related to the traumatic event.
Avoidance takes various forms of going out of your way to not have thoughts and feelings related to trauma, or to not be around people or places that remind you of trauma. PTSD often changes people’s beliefs about themselves, others, and the world, and results in significant daily anxiety.
Thankfully, there are many effective, evidence-based options: written exposure therapy, cognitive processing therapy, and prolonged exposure therapy have all been demonstrated to be effective approaches to healing PTSD.