Acceptance and Mindfulness-Based Approaches to the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the only anxiety disorder for which a specific event is seen as responsible for the etiology of the symptoms. More specifically, PTSD is diagnosed when a person has been exposed to a potentially traumatic event (e.g., sexual assault, combat, motor vehicle accident), during which the person experienced intense fear, helplessness, or horror (American Psychiatric Association, 1994), followed by a particular constellation of resulting symptoms. There are three main classes of symptoms in PTSD: reexperiencing, avoidance, and arousal. Reexperiencing symptoms may include distressing memories, nightmares, flashbacks, and intense distress or physiological reactivity upon exposure to internal or external cues related to the event.