Can you predict who will get PTSD?

Answer 1

There are definitely "risk factors" that can help narrow down which people are more likely to experience PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) after traumatic experiences. But you can't point to one person and say "that one will," or to another and say, "that one won't."

Our individual level of resilience is one of the things that makes the difference between who gets PTSD and who doesn't, and that resilience level can be affected by lots of things: partly genetics, partly environment, and even your current stress load.

Of course, even two people who have the same genes and grow up in the same house have subtly different environments that can cause their genes to express in subtly different ways.

People who have experienced child abuse are especially susceptible to PTSD. So, if you have two soldiers in the army and one has a history of child abuse and the other doesn't, you do have a clue as to which one is more likely to get PTSD. The reason is because during childhood the brain is developing its scaffolding for emotion regulation and future mental health. The higher the level of "betrayal" in the child abuse they experience, the higher their risk for PTSD. If it's a parent abusing them, that's a very high level of "betrayal" because parents are the primary people children depend on for the nurturing needed for a healthy brain.