Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) used to be called “shell shock.” It’s a condition that occurs as a response to the horrors of combat on the battlefield. Most of out troops who fought the Viet Nam war were treated for
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) used to be called “shell shock.” It’s a
condition that occurs as a response to the horrors of combat on the
battlefield.
Most of out troops who fought the Viet Nam war were treated
for PTSD overseas. But hundreds of thousands of Viet Nam vets were sent from
jungle combat directly to their hometowns, without any treatment. Today, many
years later, some still suffer tremendously, both physically and
psychologically, from PTSD.
Benjamin Colodzin, Ph.D., who has worked
extensively with Viet Nam vets, and is a leading authority on PTSD, describes
the disorder as “a sane reaction to an insane situation.” He adds that having
‘strong reactions to ugly events doesn’t mean your crazy.” War is an extreme
and ugly event to experience.
Dr. Colodzin suggests that PTSD is “combat
mode” behavior, but that behavior which is necessary for survival in war may
become a hindrance in civilian life. A vet described his experience this way:
“There are reactions that sometimes go on inside of me-in my feelings, my
thoughts, my ways of acting-that have something to do with combat reflexes.
Sometimes I may react to situations happening now with a way of acting that is
meant to be used in survival situations, even when what is happening now isn’t
a question of survival.”
This description applies equally to the experience
of the “survivor of family violence,” specifically the people who were
continually abused, even when specific causal events are not totally remembered
or cannot be verbalized because they occurred before the survivor developed
language skills.
Unfortunately, much of the domestic violence in Hawaii and
specifically on Kaua’i can be directly traced to child abuse leading to
PTSD.
Our prisons are full of grown up survivors of child abuse, many of
whom suffer from PTSD.
Children and adult survivors of childhood abuse also
evidence PTSD behaviors, particularly when they begin to confront their early
experiences, either in re-emerging memories or sharing what happened with
someone else, such as a therapist.
As so often happens, in the course of
confronting and disclosing traumatic events of childhood, the survivor will
experience additional trauma as family members deny the survivor’s memories,
deny their own behaviors, and begin to scapegoat the survivor for being the
bearer of bad news.
Under these circumstances, PTS behaviors are likely to
increase, at least for a while.
Usually the coping behaviors of PTS develop
in late adolescence or young adulthood, when there is already a foundation to
the personality structure. Many adult survivors of child abuse live various
forms of dysfunctional lives, from alcohol and drug abuse to all the
unfortunate methods of domestic violence.
In the March 3, Garden Island
newspaper “police beat” it was reported that the nine days between March 21 and
29 there were seven family abuses, six sexual assaults and three regular
assaults investigated by the police. God only knows how many dozens more were
unreported. And this in only nine days.
Statistics prove that people who
are raised in loving homes with appropriate discipline, who feel good about
themselves usually do not grow up to be abusers.
Colodzin, in his book
Trauma and Survival, lists the following symptoms PTS:
* Vigilance
and scanning: Watching out as if something dangerous were about to happen to
you.
* Elevated startle response: Being jumpy when something
unexpected happens or when someone touches you from behind.
Blunted affect or psychic numbing: Reduction or loss of the ability to feel and
to be close to others, to experience happiness, love, creativity, playfulness
and spontaneity.
* Aggressive, controlling behavior.- acting with
violence (physical, mental, emotional, and/or verbal). Willingness to use force
to get your way, even when it is not a survival situation.
Interruption of memory and concentration: Difficulty concentrating and
remembering under certain conditions that activate survivor
stress.
* Depression: In PTS, the condition can reach an extreme and
is marked by exhaustion, negative attitude and apathy.
* Generalized
anxiety: Tension in the body, such as muscle or stomach cramps, headaches, etc.
Worried thoughts, such as the belief that someone is after you. Sustained
feelings of fear, guilt and low self-esteem.
* Episodes or rage: Not
to be confused by ordinary anger, this is a violent outburst marked with real
danger for all present. Often more likely to occur after use of drugs or
alcohol.
* Substance abuse: self-soothing with drugs or alcohol (use
of prescription drugs as directed not included). Many PTS survivors use no
chemical substances and do not drink.
* Intrusive recall: Probably
the most significant indicator of the presence of PTS. Old, usually ugly,
memories that come to consciousness without warning. Happens both awake and
asleep, in dreams. Night sweats often accompany intrusive recall in
dreams.
* Dissociative experiences: Memory of a traumatic event so
powerful that present reality fades into background and is perceived as less
real than the memory. In this state, one might believe that one is back in the
old situation and begin to act, talk, and feel in ways that helped one survive
in the past.
* Insomnia: Difficulty falling asleep or staying
asleep. Brought on by fear of intrusive recall in nightmares and high levels of
pain and anxiety.
* Suicidal ideation: Thinking about and planning
one’s death.
With society’s focal point of attention on child abuse, more
concentration needs to be on “grown up survivors of child abuse.”
This is
where parental education needs to be channeled, to break the brutal aspects of
family violence. And to alleviate society of the tremendous financial burden,
associated with drug and alcohol abuse, prison and court costs and all the
peripherals associated with this disorder.
Billy Whelan
Kapa’a
