Called
PTSD since the Viet Nam War, this condition had a long and
interesting history. This stress syndrome has been called many
things in the 150 years since it was first recognized but
every definition had several characteristics in common,
including re-experiencing, numbing and physiological arousal.
The process of Darwinian "natural selection"
supported the evolution of people with highly developed stress
responses; those pre-historic people with the most effective
"fight or flight" reflexes became our ancestors.
Curiously, during the 19th Century, what is known today as
PTSD was called "Railway Spine" and was associated
with what we would today call "hysterical" physical
symptoms -- i.e. "anxiety" expressed as bodily
complaints -- seen in people who had been involved in railway
accidents but who suffered no bodily injuries.
It Becomes Part of the
Person's Life
After a trauma which fully confronts people with their
existential helplessness and vulnerability, life can never
be exactly the same. Sorting out exactly what
happened and sharing one's reactions with others can make a
great deal of difference in one's eventual adaptation.
Putting the feelings and cognitions related to the trauma
into words is essential in the treatment of post traumatic
reactions. After intense efforts to ward off reliving the
trauma, therapists cannot expect that the resistances to
remember will suddenly melt away under their empathic
efforts. The trauma can only be worked through when a secure
bond is established with another person; this then can be
utilized to hold the psyche together when the threat of
physical disintegration is re-experienced.
Need To Share
Failure to approach trauma related material gradually is
likely to lead to intensification of posttraumatic
symptomatology, leading to increased somatic, visual or
behavioral reexperiences. Once the traumatic experiences have
been located in time and place, a person can start making
distinctions between current life stresses and past trauma,
and decrease the impact of the trauma on present experience.
Talking about the trauma is not enough: trauma survivors need
to take some action that symbolizes triumph over helplessness
and despair.