PTSD. Something you can’t just get over.

June 27th is National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The amygdala is an almond shaped mass at the bottom of the human brain. When someone is danger the amygdala sends out an involuntary response called: fight or flight. When a traumatic event takes place a person’s mind might experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. This type of trauma becomes less than something that just happened in the past and becomes more of an imprint left by the experience it had on mind, brain, and body. This has ongoing consequences for how the victim survives and thrives in the present. Trauma reorganizes the way the mind and body perceptions of what is and isn’t safe anymore. (Kolk 21) Trauma is more complex than a painful event someone should just get over. People with trauma experience changes such as: being emotionally numb, loss of self-worth, nightmares, flash backs, uncontrollable rage from anxiety, being stuck in the feeling of fight or flight, etc. After trauma the world becomes sharply divided between those who know and those who don’t. People who have not shared traumatic experiences can’t be trusted, because they can’t understand it. This often includes spouses, children, families, and co-workers. (Kolk 18)
“Just get over!” “Stop living in the past!” “It happened six years ago!” “Don’t let your past control you!”
Have you heard this before? Maybe, this is something you’ve thrown at someone’s face before. Unfortunately, for those who don’t know trauma works they can make the victims feel worse about themselves and even slow the recovery process. Many victims are shunned by society. Their families have rejected them and their spouses may have left them.
“Just get over it!” That’s just not how trauma works. Trauma victims can’t just “get over it” and it doesn’t just go away with time. Chances are you or someone you know has PTSD. An estimated one in eleven people will be diagnosed with PSTD. Women are twice as likely to have PTSD than men. 30% of veterans are diagnosed with PTSD. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that one in five Americans are molested as a child; one in four was beaten by a parent to the point of a mark being left on their body; and one in three couples engages in physical violence. A quarter of us grew up with alcoholic relatives, and one out of eight witnessed their mother being beaten or hit. (Kolk 1)
Victims with PTSD might do things such as: excessively re-visiting their traumatic event, persistently avoid the stimuli associated with the event, have negative alterations in cognition and mood, and marked alterations in arousal and reactivity. (Biggs, Quinn M., et al 1) The traumatic imprint creates a lasting impression that won’t go away with time. Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D., is the founder and medical director of the Trauma Center in Brooklyn. He started studying PTSD before trauma was properly recognized as a cause for mental illness and all its symptoms where announced. He describes a study done by him and his fellow psychologists. The study went like this, they gave their participants a recorded script from their most traumatic events and the participants listened to their tapes while they were in a scanner. The participants trauma event could have happened anytime from five years to thirteen years before the study and they were all in a safe environment. However, the participants showed signs of frantic arousal: stress hormones, nerve impulses that drove up blood pressure, rapid heart racing, and less oxygen in take. The scans revealed how their trauma persisted and could be triggered by multiple aspects of daily experience. They continued to be more connected with experience of the traumatic event than they related to their present life experiences (Kolk 40–47).
When does trauma start healing?
In Kolk’s own words “Silence about trauma also leads to death — the of the soul. Silence about trauma reinforces the godforsaken isolation of trauma. Being able to say aloud to another human being,’I was raped’ or ‘I was battered by my husband’ or ‘My parents called it discipline, but it was abuse’ or ‘I’m not making it since I got back from Iraq,’ is a sign that healing can begin.” I personally believe that this form of communication can also be achieved through art and music as well.
The other step to healing can be by taking medication that helps controls triggered impulses and aroused thoughts. This isn’t reassuring to any person, but if you had diabetes would you refuse insulin?
The last step to healing is introducing the body to stimuli that contradicts the trauma. Yoga and exercise are both great examples of this. I happened to use swimming a lot when I was combating my trauma in high school.
Trauma can be a lonely journey and a journey that will be fought for years after the victim is attacked. My hope is to spread it’s awareness and bring hope into lives of people who struggle with it.