Ozark Guidance – Torture is a Form of Trauma, Trauma Causes PTSD
Grief, interrupted: PTSD in the time of Tsunami and war
“The crayon on the wood took the abuse out of the present and put it into the past, properly, physically. The crayon marks told Sybil she no longer had to convince anyone of anything. It told her the therapist knew, and believed her and it validated her anger and pain.”
from The Internet Connects Trauma Survivors
The images, taken while patients remember a traumatic event, show how areas of the right hemisphere of the brain – those associated with emotional states and autonomic arousal – are lit up. The ‘imprint of trauma’ he says, ‘is located mainly in the limbic system, the part that interprets what is safe or dangerous in the world and in the brain stem that modulates arousal levels – sleeping, breathing, urinating and chemical balances. At the same time, parts of the frontal lobe that deal with the capacity to plan, to rationalise, to inhibit inappropriate behaviour – and specifically one area associated with speech – are shown to be shut down.’
What this suggests, says van der Kolk, is that ‘when people relive their traumatic experiences, the frontal lobes become impaired and as a result they have trouble thinking and speaking. They are no longer capable of communicating to others precisely what’s going on.’ Nor, he argues, are they capable of imagining how things could change. This ability is located in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, an area that needs to be engaged if someone is to have the possibility of transforming their experience and moving on.
Meanwhile, he says, research also shows the way in which the possibility to physically move at the time of the trauma is a key factor in a person’s experience. Movement, he points out, is organised in the limbic system where a part of the brain known as the amygdala acts as a ’smoke detector’, sending out alarm signals when a person is in a sensory situation similar to the trauma. The more immobile a person felt at the time of the experience when the original alarm was going off, the more sensitive this detector is likely to be in the future – and the more they are at risk of trauma.
The nature of this person’s ‘fight or flight’ response is also affected. For example, children – often less likely to be in a position to physically flee a traumatic environment – may well resort to freezing, numbing or dissociating as their only options for ‘leaving’.
from The Future of Trauma Work, British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal
