Page 309 - Total War on PTSD

Having PTSD then nourishes two additional identities, that of a trauma victim or survivor and that of a mentally-ill person. Both identities may be accompanied by self- stigmatization, shame and guilt (J. P. Wilson, Drozdek, & Turkovic, 2006), and thus increase one’s inclination to withdraw from social interaction. Such withdrawal amplifies the discrepancy between what is experienced within and what is outwardly visible. This ultimately increases one’s isolation and loneliness and drives him or her further away from necessary professional help and social support Michalopoulou, Welsh, Perkins, & Ormsby, 2017).
Furthermore, PTSD adds to this loneliness by the virtue of its constituting symptoms: intrusive re-experiencing, avoidance, alterations in mood and cognition, and hyper- arousal and hyper-vigilance (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). At first, Veterans face the challenge of figuring out what it is that they are experiencing. Indeed, it may take some time before they put the pieces together and realize that their symptoms have a name, and that they are not the only ones who are experiencing these symptoms. Until then, they may lack the words and knowledge to describe their PTSD and feel utterly ashamed that they cannot get their act together. As Canadian Lt. Colonel Stephane Grenier attests in the aftermath of his peacekeeping mission to Rwanda, “I thought that I was the only one feeling this way, and I was terribly ashamed that I was not coping” (Grenier, Darte, Heber, & Richardson, 2007, p. 263).
Doubtlessly, each of PTSD’s symptom clusters may contribute to the exacerbation of this isolation. A hallmark of the intrusiveness of trauma related thoughts are the flashbacks: the reliving of parts of the experience in an extremely vivid manner (e.g., Hackmann, Ehlers, Speckens, & Clark, 2004). These overwhelming experiences instantaneously take Veterans back to the battlefield, the noises, the smells, the dread
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