Intuitively it would seem like PTSD is a result of a traumatic break in expectations, rather than the trauma itself. Now, here's my reasoning for this. The bra

Intuitively it would seem like PTSD is a result of a traumatic break in expectations, rather than the trauma itself. Now, here's my reasoning for this. The brain is essentially a pattern recognizer in the sense that it will look for danger, and consider ways to avoid the danger.[1] If we think about the nature of trauma in the past, it has been a society where you are told by your surroundings that things like childbirth indeed is a dangerous but necessary undertaking, supported by the idea that your children will be able to take care of you when you're too old to do so yourself. The pre-modern world was a much more dangerous place due to the lack of modern medicine, et cetera. Now, in the modern world, the expectations about childbirth have also changed for the better. WHO states that between 2000 and 2017 maternal mortality dropped by 38% worldwide.[2] Going back to the original argument about PTSD, intuitively it makes sense that if you're subjected to a traumatic experience, your resilience (towards PTSD and other disorders caused by traumatic experiences) are very much affected by the individual's expectation towards the traumatic event. If people go through the event, with the expectation that there is a very probable risk that they will die, it seems there is relief in knowing you survived. On the contrary side, could it be the case that having overly optimistic expectations crushed by trauma, lead to the diagnostic symptoms we associate with PTSD? [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4141622/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4141622/ [2] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mo...