PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder, is diagnosed by a psychiatrist or a PhD level clinical psychologist. When evaluating someone for PTSD, one must have a history of exposure to a life-threatening event, or witness someone going through such event. Then they must have a history of recollection of the event, through nightmares or flashbacks, which appear as a movie and they seem to be right back when the event occurred. Then they must have a pattern of avoidance of anything that reminds them of the event. Finally, one must have a history of hypervigilance, where one is constantly on-guard for any future dangers. Once the psychiatrist or PhD-level psychologist diagnoses PTSD, then the next step is treatment planning, which includes psychotherapy and medication treatment.
