Excerpts from David Baldwin’s Trauma Pages http://www.trauma-pages.com/trauma.php
This page briefly summarizes some of what we know about traumatic symptoms and responses, and includes links describing PTSD symptoms and coping strategies. Other links lead to more research-oriented issues, such as measuring treatment efficacy, etc. Succeeding pages at this site provide additional links to more detailed references, online articles, and web resources helpful in understanding trauma responses and treatment.
Traumatizing experiences shake the foundations of our beliefs about safety, and shatter our assumptions of trust.
Because they are so far outside what we would expect, these events provoke reactions that feel strange and “crazy”. Perhaps the most helpful thing I can say here is that even though these reactions are unusual and disturbing, they are typical and expectable. By and large, these are normal responses to abnormal events.
Trauma symptoms are probably adaptive, and originally evolved to help us recognize and avoid other dangerous situations quickly — before it was too late. Sometimes these symptoms resolve within a few days or weeks of a disturbing experience: Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will develop PTSD. It is when many symptoms persist for weeks or months, or when they are extreme, that professional help may be indicated. On the other hand, if symptoms persist for several months without treatment, then avoidance can become the best available method to cope with the trauma — and this strategy interferes with seeking professional help. Postponing needed intervention for a year or more, and allowing avoidance defenses to develop, could make this work much more difficult.
We create meaning out of the context in which events occur. Consequently, there is always a strong subjective component in people’s responses to traumatic events. This can be seen most clearly in disasters, where a broad cross-section of the population is exposed to objectively the same traumatic experience. Some of the individual differences in susceptibility to PTSD following trauma probably stem from temperament, others from prior history and its effect on this subjectivity.
Traumatic experiences shake the foundations of our beliefs about safety, and shatter our assumptions of trust.
In the “purest” sense, trauma involves exposure to a life-threatening experience. This fits with its phylogenetic roots in life-or-death issues of survival, and with the involvement of older brain structures (e.g., reptilian or limbic system) in responses to stress and terror. Yet, many individuals exposed to violations by people or institutions they must depend on or trust also show PTSD-like symptoms — even if their abuse was not directly life-threatening. Although the mechanisms of this connection to traumatic symptoms are not well understood, it appears that betrayal by someone on whom you depend for survival (as a child on a parent) may produce consequences similar to those from more obviously life-threatening traumas. Examples include some physically or sexually abused children as well as Vietnam veterans, but monkeys also show a sense of fairness, so our sensitivity to betrayal may not be limited to humans. Experience of betrayal trauma may increase the likelihood of psychogenic amnesia, as compared to fear-based trauma. Forgetting may help maintain necessary attachments (e.g., during childhood), improving chances for survival; if so, this has far-reaching theoretical implications for psychological research. Of course, some traumas include elements of betrayal and fear; perhaps all involve feelings of helplessness.
Risk Factors
As you might expect, risk for PTSD increases with exposure to trauma. In other words, chronic or multiple traumatic experiences are likely to be more difficult to overcome than most single instances. PTSD is also more likely if passive defenses, such as freezing or dissociation, are used — rather than active defenses such as fight or flight. Epidemiological estimates suggest that the incidence and lifetime prevalence rates of PTSD in the general population are around 1% and 9%, respectively. But these levels increase markedly for young adults living in inner cities (23%), and for wounded combat veterans (20%). There is also evidence that early traumatic experiences (e.g., during childhood), especially if these are prolonged or repeated, may increase the risk of developing PTSD after traumatic exposure as an adult. This may result from state-dependent learning, where previous responses to a terrifying event are repeated even though more appropriate responses (i.e., active defenses) may now be possible.
Several animal studies have suggested the possibility of permanent physical damage (including shrinkage) in the hippocampus and changes in the amygdala when severe or chronic trauma — and its symptoms — persists (see especially work by Robert Sapolsky and by Joseph LeDoux, respectively). Unfortunately, there is no easy way to compare the relative types or degree of trauma across species. The most recent human data, including Gilbertson et al’s (2002) twin study, suggest that response to trauma may be influenced by pre-existing individual differences in hippocampal volume. Perhaps both processes are involved.
There’s no clear evidence that susceptibility to PTSD varies for members of different ethnic or minority groups (given a traumatic experience). But individual differences clearly play some role. For example, younger children have less ability to predict, avoid, make sense of, or to actively defend against, upsetting events, and more introverted or shy individuals may experience stronger emotional reactions to such experiences.