Onto our fourth installment of Psychoanalyze Your Characters, my attempt to share some psychological knowledge to help you flesh out your characters' psyches. Today I'll shift from Axis II to Axis I, focusing on the clinical syndrome of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a normal reaction to an abnormal event. It's an anxiety disorder that some people develop after seeing or living through a threatening event. Most experience a "fight or flight" syndrome in response to a dangerous situation, but in PTSD this reaction is damaged and individuals feel threatened long after the danger subsides. Potential traumas include: * Abuse (physical, sexual, emotional) * Sudden, unexpected death * Natural or human-caused disasters * Personal assaults * Military combat * Accidents I've seen PTSD develop after individuals have experienced sexual abuse, motor vehicle accidents, childhood bullying, domestic violence, and suicide of a loved one, to na