There has been a lot of research on why some people experiencing an event develop PTSD and others going through the same event do not, for example people who live through a devastating tsunami, or a plane crash. I think it's a combination of genetic and environmental factors. One thing I remember from the research on adults who went through a potentially traumatizing event was that being married was associated with resilience (not developing PTSD) for men and whereas women who were married were more likely to develop PTSD (than if they weren't married). That was kind of fascinating to me. Like marriage is a liability for women but protective for men. There are a lot of other factors they have identified too.

I think I am somewhat prone to being traumatized. I think some of it for me was early experiences growing up that sensitized me to potentially harmful events. My mom was very volatile and it was very scary to me to have to walk past her in a hallway or small space at home as she might lash out and hit me or I would get trapped where I couldn't escape from her. I would flinch walking past her even when she did not hit me. I think even to this day I am wary about being in small spaces with others and tend to flinch at times when there is no reason. We also had scheduled "spanking time" every Friday night, when my father would turn all of over his knee and give us a spanking for any possible bad things we might have done in the week prior. I do not feel traumatized by this at all, although I definitely feel it was unfair (one could have near perfect behavior and still get spanked). It was more the unexpected nature of my mom's blows accompanied by her rage that made me scared and has had some lasting impact.