posttraumatic stress disorder cultural definition

A psychological disorder in which a person continues to respond with distress to a traumatic event long after that event has occurred. The affected person may reexperience the event in their thoughts or dreams and exhibit a heightened state of arousal characteristic of extreme stress. Combat and rape are two of the most common causes of this disorder.

• PTSD was formalized as a disorder after the Vietnam War, when returning soldiers would often continue to show the signs of stress long after they had left the military.