A traumatic event involves actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.

A person can be exposed to a traumatic event in the following ways:

• Directly experiencing a trauma(s)
• Witnessing a trauma(s) in person
• Learning that the traumatic event occurred to a close family member or close friend. In cases of actual or threatened death to a family member or friend, the event must have been violent or accidental.
• Repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of someone else's trauma(s) (for example, law enforcement officials who are repeatedly exposed to details of child sexual abuse)

Many stressful events of daily life are not sufficient to meet Criterion A (e.g., divorce, financial crises). Although these events can lead to adjustment problems, they cannot lead to a diagnosis of PTSD. In addition, DSM-5 is explicit that choosing to view media images, such as watching coverage of the 9/11 attacks on television, is not a Criterion A traumatic stressor.