Page 426 - Total War on PTSD

We use the term PTSD to describe the sequela from events in a person’s life — such as neglect, deprivation, and physical, sexual, or emotional abuse — and from the variety of events that as a child, young adult, or adult cannot be metabolized and integrated in a way that allows the person to feel whole. The sympathetic half of the autonomic nervous system sustains a physiological/psychological state of fight, flight, or freeze. PTSD is frequently diagnosed in military personnel and Veterans originating in highly stressful combat situations. It can be diagnosed in first responders such as police officers and 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
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