Member-only story
Why Some People Develop PTSD While Others Don’t
70% of Adults Will Experience a Trauma in Their Lifetime but only 8% Will Develop PTSD. What Explains the Difference?
I know a guy who got shot in the head…twice. Two separate occasions. And he’s just…fine. No nightmares. No addiction. Doesn’t seem to have any major depressive spells, beyond the normal ups and downs of life. He has a beautiful wife, great kids, good job, maybe he works too much but he’s otherwise fine.
I never went through anything like that but I’ve been struggling with symptoms for over a decade.
It makes me wonder — why do some people develop PTSD and some people don’t?
Individual Variability
People respond to trauma differently.
Part of that is explained by the risk and resilience factors that we’ll discuss later but part of that is due to basic individual variability.
Scientists don’t have a rock-solid model for what will predictably produce PTSD and what won’t.
In other words, we don’t know exactly why some people develop PTSD and some don’t yet.
But here are some of the things the research suggests might have an impact.
