Trauma – 2

Fern Schumer Chapman

“Every traumatizing experience, if you survive it, can lead to one of three results,” Aghazarian writes. “Either you turn numb, without sensation; or you insist you have a monopoly on the suffering and no other suffering compares to yours. Or you become hypersensitive and hyperactive against anything that shows the slightest similarity to what you have experienced yourself. You must make up your mind.”

Aghazarian’s assumption is that there is some free will in choosing one of these options. Maybe a traumatized individual has some control over how much he or she talks about the experience, but the individual does not choose to be numb or hypersensitive or hyperactive to the experience. In fact, regardless of whether a traumatized individual is silent or speaks incessantly of the experiences, he or she will likely be hypersensitive and hyperactive to similar experiences. They are likely to be emotionally numb, too.

Those who suffer with PTSD relive the past in the present

These reactions of numbness or hypersensitivity are defense mechanisms and a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Those who suffer from PTSD attempt to mobilize coping responses to protect and insulate themselves from repeating the trauma. They have

the distorted belief, as professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University Dr. Robert M. Sapolsky writes in Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers, “that stressors are everywhere and perpetual, and that the only hope for safety is constant mobilization of coping responses.” Consequently, someone who suffers with PTSD can be unaware that he or she is in a constant state of vigilance.

In addition, Dr. Sapolsky reports in his book that research shows that “people with PTSD from repeated trauma (as opposed to a single trauma) – soldiers exposed to severe and repeated carnage in combat, individuals repeatedly abused as children — have smaller hippocampus, and in at least one of these studies, the more severe the history of trauma, the more extreme the volume loss.” He concludes that there is decent but not definitive evidence that this kind of stress can cause structural changes to the hippocampus.

What does the hippocampus do? It helps form conscious memory. Those people who suffer with a damaged hippocampus can remember the distant past but can’t form new memories. That is consistent with the symptoms of those who suffer with PTSD. For healthy people, memories are recalled as stories that change over time and do not evoke intense emotions and sensations. But those who suffer with PTSD relive the experience in the present and feel as if the trauma is happening all over again.

So I don’t believe that there are options and that an individual has a choice. The brain structure of those who suffer with PTSD is altered by this disorder. That’s why I take issue with Aghazarian’s assumption.

No tags