Is there a DSM code for life?

My general practitioner recently left private practice to manage a primary care clinic whose clientele includes lower class minorities in the city.  The clinic is a fantastic resource, and it is nice to see quality care being given to those frequently labelled less fortunate.  As a patient of his, I've had to get used to differences in the clinic versus private setting; things are much more general and less patient-personalized, and everyone gets checked for the same suite of symptoms/issues, as well as whatever specific complaint brings them in.  So I was a little surprised when, as I waited to see him regarding the results of my latest cholesterol screening, I was presented with a small electronic box by one of the clinic employees.  She informed me that it was a "psychological screening tool," and that it helps the doctor identify problems that people usually don't like to discuss with their physician.  I happily played along, pressed the answer buttons as I was prompted to, and proceeded to forget all about it.

Fast forward one month, and I am waiting in line to "check out" at the clinic.  As I waited, I decided to flip through my chart; my main interest was to see if my weight had changed any.  I happened across the results of my "psych screen" that the box spat out.  It said I was borderline depressed.  No shock there - we always joked in grad school that the 12 signs of depression were pre-requisites for a Ph.D.  But the next line of the results sent me reeling.  According to the psych box, I suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Wikipedia reports the following regarding PTSD:

The diagnostic criteria for PTSD, per the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (Text Revision) (DSM-IV-TR), may be summarized as:

A. Exposure to a traumatic event

B. Persistent re-experience

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma (e.g. inability to talk about things even related to the experience. Avoidance of things and discussions that trigger flashbacks and reexperiencing symptoms. Fear of losing control.)

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (e.g. difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger and hypervigilance )

E. Duration of symptoms more than 1 month

F. Significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (e.g. problems with work and relationships.)

Notably, criterion A (the "stressor") consists of two parts, both of which must apply for a diagnosis of PTSD. The first (A1) requires that "the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others." The second (A2) requires that "the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror." The DSM-IV-TR criterion differs substantially from the previous DSM-III-R stressor criterion, which specified the traumatic event should be of a type that would cause "significant symptoms of distress in almost anyone," and that the event was "outside the range of usual human experience." Since the introduction of DSM-IV, the number of possible PTSD traumas has increased and one study suggests that the increase is around 50%.

Soldiers who witness war and death and people getting blown to a fine dice get PTSD.  Cult survivors have PTSD.  But me?  Academics aren't supposed to have it.  We are the educational illuminati, the professional thinkers who revolutionize the world one brilliant creative spark at a time.  We do not get PTSD.

Now obviously the next thought was the obvious one: what trauma was I exposed to?  My first guess was the violent car accident my parents survived in 2003 as I moved to my first real academic job.  But, my symptoms date back to when I was a teenager - panic attacks, bouts of OCD and depression, and the like.  But as I scanned my life for obvious traumas I was left wondering.  My life has been relatively easy for its entirety: a family that loves and accepts me; a good job; great friends; financial stability - the list goes on and on.  Sure there were rough spots; nobody grows up perfectly.  But PTSD?

My real concern shifted shortly thereafter to the other people in my doctor's clinic, sitting down for whatever condition they present, having to answer the questions in the little dark box.  I have the luxury of a college education in science, of understanding the medical issues that affect me psychologically, of being reasonable well read and self aware, of having worked in a pharmacy for over a decade in high school and college, and of my mom managing a psych clinic.  I understand why I have my panic attacks, the physiological goings-on in my body when they occur, and why my medicine keeps them in check.  I understand it all, and I don't need a box explaining it to me.

But take that patient in the next room over.  The clinic demographics suggest they are dark skinned, of below average income (which here tops out at ~$26k/yr), and have been taught at schools with few to no resources.  Many of them are middle-aged and older.  And they too have been presented with the box.  And many of them will come back with diagnoses of depression, PTSD, or worse.  What in their lives made the box decide?  Have their eyes seen civil rights change, have their souls known oppression that I can't imagine?  The box is silent, only letting the world know what number to assign to their condition, so they can be treated appropriately.  My guess is that they will respond like I did, that these things are just part of life.  But now life has symptoms, and treatments, and codes.  They probably won't understand all the medical terms being thrown at them, telling them why they are suddenly "sick."  They likely won't know what the pill the doctor told them to take does, just that it "helps."  They can't understand serotonin re-uptake inhibition any more than they can describe the workings of the Space Shuttle.  It's not in their experience.  But the box made it their life.

I asked the doctor this week about my PTSD diagnosis.  He laughed.  "Well of course you have PTSD, you went to graduate school."  A normal life gives you PTSD.  What does a real life give you?