Traumatic events are shocking and emotionally overwhelming.
People who experience or witness them may have reactions of intense fear, horror, or helplessness. These events might involve actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual or other physical assault. They can be one-time occurrences, such as a motor vehicle or airplane accident, natural disaster, house fire, or violent crime, or they can be repeated and ongoing, as is often the case in child abuse and neglect, other forms of domestic violence, and combat. Unfortunately, traumatic events are quite common. In the United States, over two-thirds of the population has experienced at least one traumatic event and most of those individuals will experience more than one.