About trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Learn about PTSD, its symptoms, and its impacts.

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Trauma and traumatic events

Trauma refers to a person's experience during an event that is so distressing that it overwhelms them emotionally. People react to threatening situations in different ways, and they may experience different responses to traumatic events.

A traumatic event is something a person can experience that can cause:

physical harm (like getting hurt or injured)
emotional harm (like feeling overly scared, anxious or angry)
spiritual harm (feeling like your beliefs or values are challenged)
psychological harm (affecting the way you think or feel)

A potentially psychologically traumatic event is a stressful event, or series of events, that:

has caused psychological trauma
could cause PTSD or other trauma-related mental health conditions

These events can lead to poor mental health and a greater need to seek mental health care.

Examples include:

seeing or experiencing severe injury
witnessing a death
experiencing or witnessing:
- family violence
- sexual violence
- domestic abuse
- intimate partner violence
attacks or stress based on gender, race or culture
exposure to human remains

Events also include:

war, terrorism or mass violence
military service in a conflict zone
living through natural disasters and providing rescue or relief support afterwards

Not everyone who goes through these kinds of events will develop PTSD. Many factors can affect whether someone will or won't develop PTSD. People can have many different reactions to potentially psychologically traumatic events.

About PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that may occur after exposure to psychological stress. It is a collection of feelings, behaviours and experiences that can result from a single specific, severe, potentially psychologically traumatic event, or from a series of such events.

Symptoms

PTSD can affect anyone, no matter their age, culture or gender. The symptoms can show up within 3 months of the event, but sometimes they can appear years later. The symptoms can also change over time and be different for each person.

If you have PTSD, your symptoms might include:

flashbacks (feeling like you're reliving the event)
sleep disturbances and nightmares
intrusive memories
being hyperalert (always feeling on edge or in danger)
persistently negative thoughts
low mood, anger, or feeling emotionally numb

Triggers and memory

Certain things might remind you of the traumatic event or series of events. These reminders are called triggers and can include:

sounds
sights
smells
thoughts
memories

You may also have trouble feeling emotionally connected to family or close friends.

Your memory of the traumatic event could be affected. You may:

remember it often and vividly
have trouble remembering parts of it (amnesia)
try to avoid remembering it by avoiding places, people or circumstances that remind you of the event

Risk factors

Risk factors are things that can make it more likely for someone to develop PTSD. These can include:

past trauma
feeling extreme fear or helplessness (feeling unable to escape from the situation)
lack of social support after an event (not having family or friends to provide support after an event)
current or past mental health disorders or substance use issues
feelings of guilt or shame about what happened or its outcome
additional stress after an event, like:
- losing a loved one, job or home
- experiencing pain and injury

Protective factors

Protective factors are things that can help to reduce the chance of developing PTSD.

These can include:

joining a support group
having coping strategies to manage stress and get through the event
feeling confident about your own actions about the event
social support from friends, family, colleagues or others

Diagnosis and treatment

A PTSD diagnosis must come from a licensed healthcare professional, such as a:

family doctor
clinical psychologist
psychiatrist

They will use information about your symptoms and experiences as part of their assessment.

You might be diagnosed with PTSD if your symptoms:

last longer than a month
cause significant distress or problems:
1. at work or school
2. in social or family life
3. in other important areas of your life
aren't better explained by another physical or mental health disorder

Trained mental health professionals can offer different treatments and therapies to help:

manage and reduce symptoms of PTSD
improve quality of life
develop skills to maintain good mental health

It's important to know that supports are available. While everyone's experience is different, there are several ways to approach treatment. Talk to a mental health professional to find which options are right for you.

Statistics

About 8% of adults in Canada have moderate to severe symptoms of PTSD. PTSD is more common for women (10%) than men (6%). It's most common among people aged 18 to 24 (14%) and least common among those aged 65 and older (3%).

About 5% of adults in Canada report that they've been diagnosed with PTSD.

Not everyone with PTSD symptoms will seek care or get diagnosed.

Learn more:

Language related to PTSD

Discussions around PTSD and related mental health conditions often lack a common language for people living and working in different contexts. The Glossary of Terms on Psychological Trauma attempts to bridge those gaps by sharing terms that describe trauma-related mental health challenges.

The glossary was developed and is updated by experts across Canada. It's not a product of the Government of Canada.