e abuse battered women are subjected to markedly distressing.In addition to meeting the traumatic event diagnostic criteria, an individual must have symptoms from the intrusive recollection, avoidant/numbing and hyper arousal categories for a post traumatic stress disorder diagnosis to apply. The intrusive recollection category consists of symptoms that are distinct and easily identifiable. In individuals suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, the traumatic event is a dominant psychological experience that evokes panic, terror, dread, grief or despair. Often, these feelings are manifested in daytime fantasies, traumatic nightmares and flashbacks. Additionally, stimuli that the individual associates with the traumatic event can evoke mental images, emotional responses and psychological reactions associated with the trauma. Examples of intrusive recollection symptoms a battered woman may suffer are fantasies of killing her batterer and flashbacks of battering incidents. The avoidant/numbing cluster consists of the emotional strategies individuals with post traumatic stress disorder use to reduce the likelihood that they will either expose themselves to traumatic stimuli, or if exposed, will minimize their psychological response. The DSM-IV divides the strategies into three categories: behavioral, cognitive and emotional. Behavioral strategies include avoiding situations where the stimuli are likely to be encountered. Dissociation and psychogenic amnesia are cognitive strategies by which individuals with post traumatic stress disorder cut off the conscious experience of trauma-based memories and feelings. Lastly, the individual may separate the cognitive aspects from the emotional aspects of psychological experience and perceive only the former. This type of psychic numbing serves as an emotional anesthesia that makes it extremely difficult for people with post traumatic stress disorder to participate in meaningful interpersonal re...
