215 10 Is it PTSD?

Larissa brewed them some strong tea. It was too late for coffee, she concluded. She sat her nephew, Karl, on the couch and sat in the chair herself. Her office was not a doctor's office but the office of the director of the clinic she ran, so it smelled not of medical supplies but of exclusive, albeit subtle, perfumes.

"I'll ask you directly, and I hope you'll answer me honestly. As his boss, as someone responsible for his and others' safety, I need to know," Karl Walton announced with tension. "Does Steve have PTSD?"

Larissa sighed.

"It's too early to know."

"What do you mean, too early? After all, he's had traumatic experiences that..."

"Karl, don't confuse the concepts. Not every traumatic experience causes PTSD. There are other reactions to trauma, like anxiety. Yes, normal stress response is quite common, but it takes more than just the trauma experienced to diagnose PTSD. It takes the right symptoms with the right intensity."