Can Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ("PTSD") develop in non-combat situations? Can fighting against actions of fraud, waste and abuse?

Of course it can! I have it. As I explained earlier, I was traumatized when I was punished for reported that I was sexually assaulted and my OIC, the perpetrator, was not punished. AND, he cont. to assault more women! You know how much guilt I have because I could not stop him from hurting others??

First off, it has been renamed PTSS for quite some time now. It's not a disorder. PTS Syndrome happens as a result of any traumatic event. It was finally realized and brought to light thereby changing the name. It is something that absolutely requires talking it out (with either a trusted friend or a professional counselor). I believe that fighting against actions of fraud, waste and abuse is a different kind of stressfulness, but not to the extent of PTSS. Though too many people nowadays cry stress in almost any situation. Grow up! Get the job done; move on with your life.

I'm going to have respectfully disagree. Here is the criteria from the DSM-5.
Criterion A
A person was exposed to one or more event(s) that involved death or threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or threatened sexual violation.

That being said a person developing an anxiety based disorder would reasonable based on the info provided.
I would also wonder how an officer was separated, as they can't be chaptered out.

Yes, PTSD originitated as a military related phenomena but over the years the medical profession has come to realize that it applies to people in all walks of life. Just recently saw a discussion on PTSD among the survivors of Sandy Hook and have seen speculation that Las Vegas shooting survivors are demonstrating symptoms associated with PTSD.

As a retired ANC, I can tell you from experience that PTSD is much more common than reported in the AMEDD. The seemingly endless stream of massive body wounds from down range since ‘03 have left many in the AMMED with multiple deployments both downrange & to various MEDCENS around CONUS. 1year down range service in CHS’s & FST’s (Combat Support Hospitals & Forward Surgical Teams) get their patients directly from the battlefield, received from flight medics in air rescue/air ambulance crews. These personnel are both AD & USAR. 3 year PCS assignments for AD to receiving the wounded @ Landstuhl in Germany, Nat’l Naval Med Cen in DC, & the burn unit in San Antonio are also back filled with many USAR personnel who often extend their service for an additional year’s tour.
That’s anywhere from 1to 3 year assignments where the staff AND all the support staff see severely wounded patients every single day; multiple amputations, ex-fixes, wound vacs on open bellies, ICP (intracranial pressure) monitors sticking out of the skulls swathed in bandages, usually ventilated, etc. Docs in the USAR usually do 90 day rotations, many of them trauma/ICU docs from civillian trauma hospitals, who freely admit that the battle trauma is many times more severe. Nurses, medics, lab & radiology techs serve 1-3 yrs, depending on AD or USAR status.
The sights, sounds, smells, colors of the wounds are a daily immersion in the horror of acute & massive trauma. Add to that the additional ongoing interactions with pt families, their grief, fear, & anger, & you have classic sensory & emotional overload. For those serving down range, mortars, IED’s, VBIED’s, etc, it’s compounded. Unfortunately, since the AMEDDare the “fixers & healers” there is both personal & self-imposed professional pressure to stuff it down, step up, keep on going, etc. Often, the stuffed down feelings come back to haunt us years down the road. So the question of whether or not non-combat PTSD happens, at least in the AMEDD, is a moot point.

Everyone piled on claiming Post Traumatic stress because there was no toilet paper. Deluged by these claims the VA accepted almost all of them. Then they didn't want anyone talking about the stressors because we were upsetting the others. How sad. Most never fired their weapons much less saw combat. We need to seperate COMBAT RELATED POST TRAUMATIC STRESS from anxiety disorder. As it is it interferes with the treatment of those who need it

About 2 years ago I signed on to help an indie project on a game that wanted to seriously tackle darker themes (game project folded unfortunately) and one thing that we found out was that empathy is a bitch.

In that endeavor over the course of about 6 months our group went from fully well functioning individuals to a neurotic mess, and while I would not jump on the PTSD bandwagon for that there is a type of trauma that happens when you have to get into the persona of people in ugly situations, and unfortunately our minds have evolved faster than our brains. What makes a horror movie so enjoyable is that we all know it is just make believe, even if we suspect that disbelief for a few moments, and part of the art of making one of those entertaining is having an understanding of how the mind works and engaging as much of our deep rooted primitive brain circuits as we can. There is a reason why some of the best directors and writers are full blown psychopaths.

Now as to dealing with a bureaucratic system...'a flight or fight response' is a 'flight or fight response', and a threat is a threat. our brains are wired to deal with threats and to prime ourselves to deal with it, but think of it in these terms, imagine a situation where you need to push your threat detection abilities to not only understand and deal with the current issues but to navigate the meta issues of the movings going on behind the scenes, what traits would aid you in that? More paranoia? More introspection on why that person's face flushed and their voice had what could only be described as a post orgasmic bliss to it while they were giving you that bad news? Would triple extra checks and hyper vigilance to documentation be of benefit?

Our brain while it may be lagging behind in some areas it is VERY good at dealing with threats to survival, and if it thinks keeping you up for 5 extra hours every night while your mind envisions scenarios of what happened and what might have happened behind the scenes is a good thing, then you had best get use to getting by on three hours sleep.

Yes sir, it sure can. I can't say that word here. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse are truly evil things. They can and will destroy and forever taint the mind of the abused.

This criteria must be met for a diagnosis of PTSD to be met.

The person was exposed to: death, threatened death, actual or threatened serious injury, or actual or threatened sexual violence, in the following way(s):

Direct exposure
Witnessing the trauma
Learning that a relative or close friend was exposed to a trauma
Indirect exposure to aversive details of the trauma, usually in the course of professional duties (e.g., first responders, medics)

That’s the T in PTSD. There, of course, is other criteria but absent a T there is no PTSD.

But let’s say he did meet the criteria. A diagnosis does not mean discharge. First the Soldier has to have received proper care (or refused care). Then, the Soldier must be permanently non deployable. At that time, a medical discharge can be pursued.

Details are limited but I’m hard pressed to think how your friend would meet criteria.

Well I know for a fact I didn't go to combat but the things that happened to me in my military career 10 years definitely compounded and made my PTSD complex and brought me to a seven year old emotional state and Mister trying to prove that I get pushed out for higher 10-year when I'm Medical Board and now the VA won't even consider me as PTSD and I got to go through the whole thing again disassociation panic attacks nightmares fatigue you name it I have it but I didn't go to combat therefore do you think I'm discriminate against absolutely