Page 408 - Total War on PTSD

integration between visual and auditory signals can be as well. Peripheral retinal dysfunction often plays a key role in patients suffering from symptoms of concussion, vertigo, stroke and other brain injuries. It also has an effect on people who have learning disabilities that have not been resolved through standard therapies. When many of these patients are tested, they are found to lack synchronization between knowing where an object is located through their eyes and ears. This poor spatial awareness is also found in PTSD. Therapeutic eyeglasses can literally refocus their internal world and mitigate these brain-related symptoms.
Specific effects of PTSD vary by individual, but common symptoms including depression and anxiety, which can lead to changes in perception and cognition, causing abnormal reactions to various environments. For instance, seeing a car in a parking lot can trigger a memory of watching a fellow Soldier blow up in the same type of car. Sensory inputs link with emotional memories in an uncontrollable way. Awareness and attention are also adversely affected.
Some people with PTSD experience spatial dysfunction and disorientation. This phrasing means that the “Who am I” and “Where am I” pathways are disrupted. Those patients fail to pick up many surrounding environmental cues and expend more mental and physical energy to make sense of their perceived reality. They become exhausted or fatigued and eventually find it easier to “tune out” the peripheral surroundings. Their struggle to understand the environment can increase depression, anxiety, irritability, outbursts of anger, irrational behavior, and sleep problems, which can include vivid nightmares.
Biochemical changes also occur in response to disruptions in subconscious peripheral awareness. Stress chemicals reach higher levels, promoting a PTSD patient’s chronic state of “Fight of Flight”. Over time, this increase in stress chemicals can lead to adrenal fatigue, and a patient suffering from PTSD may actually lose the ability to produce
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