Trauma and PTSD Reading and Excerpts

[rachelmanija]

If I get through all this tonight, I will go eat dinner and watch some Flashpoint. Really dense material below - but interesting.

Summary:- PTSD is largely a matter of conditioned physiological changes, which are very hard to change via insight and introspection alone

Comments

[nancylebov]

Peter Levine (Waking the Tiger, In an Unspoken Voice) has developed a theraputic system based on those ideas.

[rachelmanija]

Thanks! I think I have him on my to-read list.

[zornhau]

What about William"Battle for the Mind" Sargant's cathartic abreaction techniques? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sargant)

Is that old hat now?

I like the idea of teaching martial arts to survivors.

[rachelmanija]

I'm not sure about Sargent specifically, but cathartic abreaction by itself is considered insufficient for long-term healing, though it may create short-term improvement. You have to do more than that.

Question: Bullying and PTSD

[zornhau]

(Separate thread, since this is a question.)

Would it be possible for simple schoolyard bullying to add up to cause PTSD?

Re: Question: Bullying and PTSD

[rachelmanija]

Yes, it certainly can. PTSD is a phenomena defined by a trauma plus a set of symptoms, so if you have them, you have it, even if the cause isn't something widely recognized as being objectively traumatizing. (The DSM-IV says you have to fear for your life or "bodily integrity" during the trauma, but most trauma specialists think that's too narrow a definition.) Also, simple bullying is a common cause or at least major contributing factor to teenage suicide, so it can be very traumatic indeed.

That being said, PTSD is a fairly specific mental illness. A person can be significantly affected, traumatized, or harmed without having that particular set of symptoms which make up the phenomena.

[zornhau]

Not systematic, not out of the ordinary. Emergent patterns of monkey behavior directed at the individual lower down the pecking order, but not any extreme stuff - no blades or ducking in the toilets etc.

[nancylebov]

Do you know how the person was treated at home?

[zornhau]

I know many people who experienced this, myself included. I would say this is often the fate of children from nice homes where people behave with affection and consistency.

[fiveandfour]

Probably the best animal model for this phenomenon is that of ‘inescapable shock,” in which creatures are tortured without being unable to do anything to affect the outcome of events. The resulting failure to fight or escape, that is, the physical immobilization, becomes a conditioned behavioral response

This reminded me of something I came across while reading about serial killers. More than one of them commented (after-the-fact) about how some victims had opportunities to escape, but didn't take them. There was one in particular that has stuck with me a long time: one of them picked up his victims in a car that he had modified to disable the passenger-side window and door latch. He would leave the victims in the car and run an errand and the victims would stay in the car instead of taking the opportunity to try the other windows and doors in an attempt to escape.

That has always stuck with me as a curious type of response on the part of the victims, but I think I understand it a bit better now.

[rachelmanija]

If he'd only had them briefly, that's probably either a freeze response or them thinking he was lurking in wait for them to try to escape, and they'd have a better chance of survival if they cooperated. If he had them for a long time, it gets into the traumatic responses discussed above.

That's common among long-term victims of kidnapping, by the way.