Notes:

The second feature is some form of re-experiencing of the event. This can take all manner of forms:

• recollections that come on unbidden, come again and again and that are characteristically very distressing.
• dreams about the event
• feeling that the event is happening again, like a sense that they are reliving the whole thing or flashbacks so that the whole scene seems to intrude into normal perception, or hallucinations associated with the scene.
• distress at exposure to events that symbolise or resemble the event.

The classic one of these is the very common and well documented distress that many Vietnam vets experience when a helicopter goes overhead. The best way of doing psychiatry right is to see a lot of movies. Rambo has some good flashbacks scenes as does to Kiss or Kill.

Associated with the re-experiencing you get avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, with either avoidance of thoughts or feelings associated with the trauma or avoidance of situations that arouse recollection.