Page 374 - Total War on PTSD

emergency responders. PTSD is a condition that will likely occur from the various examples described (American Psychiatric Publishing, 2013, 271–276). Personality or character disorders are often complicated by the presence of PTSD and the two diagnoses coexist.
Traumatic situations, although compartmentalized, will affect adaptation and development when trauma starts in youth. The brain’s structural developmental progression is interrupted, and all levels of development can be arrested; biophysical, emotional, and cognitive — due to overwhelming strain on the significant developing brain structures. Normal development can be arrested by the consequences of trauma. Although non-metabolized issues are compartmentalized and buried, they remain a major influence on development and adaptation.
Traumatic events and the resulting symptoms and character ramifications will surface in treatment; they can be notable or hidden and can be revealed or ferreted out as treatment deepens and the first phase hurdles have been cleared. Traumatic events can be retriggered by similar situations in one’s current life, as there is residual, emotional/ biophysical reactivity always available for re-stimulation. By working trauma through in therapy, a Veteran can develop a sense of what is being re-stimulated and triggered and can manage it better as integration is being worked on. Some events are so debilitating that they will always affect the individual, and the therapeutic work is to manage the reactions and lessen the charge.
Structures need to be in place so that life is well organized and structured, so that maintaining that, plus a healthy lifestyle, can help carry a Veteran as they confront the pain of difficult memories.
When I cover biophysical work, I explain how working directly with the body, the autonomic nervous system, and direct emotional expression helps get to the underbelly of the trauma and release effective amounts of charge so reactivity is diminished.
NOTE: (Frisch, P. R. (2018) Whole Therapist, Whole Patient – Integrating Reich, Masterson, and Jung in Modern Psychotherapy. New York, NY: Routledge; and Frisch, P.
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