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

Yes it can, the same as for any civilian in a situation causing a significant emotional event.

I startle. I have done so for over 30 years and didn't understand why until recently. In May 1983 two of my Soldiers were seriously injured in an electrical explosion that occurred approximately ten feet behind me. Whenever I am focused on something or unaware someone is behind me even a quiet whisper causes a a reaction.

Just what is PTSD? A response to an event that one is either emotionally or psychologically prepared to handle? I didn't get it for a while, but growing up with WWII vets all around and watching families deal with Vietnam while I was in school, I saw patterns. My uncle was a top turret gunner/flight engineer on a B-17, and never talked about his experiences. When he did talk, it was at the VFW with fellow vets. He finally opened up to my older sister who used his experiences to write a history of the war from his perspective. He brought out photos he had taken twenty years earlier and that had sat in boxes all that time, never seeing the light of day. During a lot of those "study sessions" he would just stop talking and start crying.
Many years later while starting a family of my own we lost our youngest son at birth, and that mentality of "Suck it up cause you're the man of the house" meant the raw emotions were shoved away for later, never dealt with in a realistic way. They came back to the surface some twenty years later while back at school for a career change, covering US history and subjects that brought back my own memories. It didn't help that I'd been recently in an accident, and my son had run over a cyclist who ran a stop sign, memories have a way of being just as fresh "today" as they were from the past. Nope, not service related. Not even close. But who is really prepared for the worst? Looking back at how my uncle had kept his secrets for all those years I can more fully understand what it's like. The actual cause could be almost anything, from personal loss, injury on or off duty, or whatever events take us on that mental trip we're not prepared for. To be quite honest, I wouldn't be able to write this without some very serious help from some great people on campus. Starting with our dean of students and other professionals who help students deal with the stress of learning.

PTSD is a traumatic event that causes issues. It doesn't just have to be combat. Any type of abuse or violence can cause it or even something the person perceives as an attack that keeps replaying in their mind. Might not seem like much to someone else but to the affected person, it is a ptsd event.

Nightmares thirty years after retiring from a toxic employment represent a form of PTSD!! CPT Gurinder (Gene) Rana Having a Patrol Cap, size 7-5/8 nearby, reduces other nightnares.

PTSD isn’t a condition limited to combat. Any life-threatening event can result in a person developing PTSD. Which I guess begs the question, how much of the above-described “fight” led this person to feel as though their life was at risk. I taught middle school on the South Side of Chicago, and many of those kids exhibited the symptoms of PTSD from living in neighborhoods with high murder and gang violence rates. I worked with non-combat vets who were victims of MST, and they had PTSD. I know corrections officers who have PTSD from working in jails/prisons.

The thing that I would be interested in discovering is why you and I could have the same experience that results in one of us developing PTSD but not the other one. Because if we can figure that out before combat, many, many veterans and their families could have better lives.

Can PTSD develop outside of Combat? Yes. This has been shown to be the case with Firefighters, Police Officers, and even victims of car crashes. Basically PTSD is a catch all mental disorder that can manifest anywhere there is trauma that the mind cannot handle. The mind is tricky as some have significant barriers and fortitude while some seemingly do not.

Veterans of the wars in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) found significant relief from their symptoms as a result of practicing the Transcendental Meditation® technique, according to a new study published recently in Military Medicine.
The 41 veterans and 5 active-duty soldiers in the study had been diagnosed with clinical levels of PTSD. After one month, 87 percent had a clinically significant decrease of more than 10 points. The reduction was so great that 37 participants had their symptoms reduced to below the clinical level for PTSD.

Source: https://academic.oup.com/milmed/article-abstract/183/1-2/e144/4781643?redirectedFrom=fulltext

The only "qualification" to get PTS is to have a traumatic experience. It can be a car accident, sexual assault, a hostile work environment or a natural disaster. Remember - many combat Veterans have PTS but not everyone who has PTS is a combat Veteran.

Yes you can get it in non combat situations. I got it in GTMO Cuba for taking part in torture of detainees. Also female soldiers can get it when being raped or sexually assaulted.. In a civilian side as well for many traumatic events in life..

CPT Gurinder, Sir; I have no idea.. Non-combat situations ?? All I can say is that if you suffer from life-threating issues and all you get is denials, after denials... If you request help from our Government reference FOIA, and our own Government denies you this information.. Well this is a Non-Combat situation, however, this is VERY stressful, and Extremely depressing.. The FOIA information I requested was what type of aircraft I was on !!! This is NOT a threat to national security... They refuse to answer this !!! Is this how the government honors its Veterans ?? With Respect..