Areas of focus
Military Sexual Trauma: what the evidence may show
Military sexual trauma, or MST, is an experience—not a diagnosis. An evaluation asks whether a mental health condition is present and whether it is linked to sexual assault or harassment during service.
01 / KNOW THIS FIRST
02 / WHAT IT MEANS
MST, IN PLAIN LANGUAGE
MST means sexual assault or threatening sexual harassment during military service.
MST can affect people of any sex or gender. It is an experience, not a mental health diagnosis. A person may later have PTSD, depression, anxiety, sleep problems, or other concerns—or may not have a diagnosis at all. Not every distressing experience meets the PTSD trauma criterion. An evaluation may identify PTSD, another condition such as Other Specified Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorder or Adjustment Disorder, a different diagnosis altogether, or no diagnosis.
THREE HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLES
Veteran Faulkner
A supervisor threatened Faulkner’s career while pressuring Faulkner for sexual contact.
Veteran Gerwig
Was assaulted by another service member, did not report it, then asked to leave the unit and began missing duty.
Veteran Huston
Faced repeated sexual threats and later had panic, poor sleep, and fear around coworkers.
03 / HOW A PSYCHOLOGIST THINKS ABOUT IT
What is a marker?
A marker is a change, record, or outside statement near the time of a claimed personal assault. It may help support that the event occurred. A marker is not a test result, and no single marker proves or disproves an assault.
What does a trauma-informed review look like?
The veteran should not have to repeat graphic details that are not needed for the clinical question. The clinician explains the process, gives the veteran room to pause, and asks only for the information needed to understand the event, symptoms, and timeline.
What else must be considered?
A change may have more than one possible cause. The clinician looks at timing, consistency, other stressors, earlier symptoms, later treatment, and the full record before giving an opinion.
04 / WHAT TREATMENT MAY LOOK LIKE
05 / KEEP LEARNING