POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER is believed by many experts to be the most common aftereffect of sexual abuse. PTSD itself has a subset of varying symptoms, which the Mayo Clinic says may include fearful thoughts and bad dreams; also depression, worry, intense guilt, panic attacks, and feeling emotionally numb (dissociation).
The most central feature of PTSD, however, is flashbacks. Persons find their minds constantly jumping back and forth between past and present. Anything — even something as minor as walking past a person with long hair, if the perpetrator had long hair — can be a trigger. Not just the memory itself comes back, but so do the emotions connected with that memory, a sort of persistent “re-experiencing” the traumatic events. Those with the disorder would like to be able to turn it off, but cannot. They have to find a way to deal with the constant onslaught of images and overpowering feelings. Those are often accompanied by the “fight or flight” response, a reaction of the autonomic nervous system to the visually invasive images in the mind.
PTSD actually changes the physical properties of the brain. That is, how the left side of the brain, which controls logical thinking, interacts with the right side that controls emotions. When the two sides work together as they are designed to, a person will feel strong emotions when a distressing event happens. But at some point the brain of a non-PTSD person moves those feelings and memories to the left hemisphere where they are “time-stamped.” After that, the memories aren’t felt as strongly when they come to mind again. But with PTSD, the memories stay lodged in the right side of the brain, so any little thing—a word, a smell, a place, an event—triggers the same emotions felt as when the event first happened. Persons with PTSD cannot simply “stop thinking about it” or “get over it.” Telling them to “let it go” is not only unhelpful, it lays another burden of guilt and failure on their shoulders.
Researchers are continually looking for ways to help people with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A few ways include cognitive therapy, medication, biofeedback, stress inoculation training, exposure therapy, and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Every person is different; therefore some may be helped by one method, and some by another.
Everyone who lives with PTSD eventually develops his or her own ways of coping. Some ways, like alcohol and illicit drugs, are obviously not good ways. But those with this disorder tend to be resilient, strong, and creative people. Over time, and if they have the love and support of people who care, they devise “mental tools” that enable them to function and even thrive, to help make their own little corner of the world a better place.
Resources for PTSD:
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs—National Center for PTSD:
American Addiction Centers—information on the link between PTSD and addictions:
National Institute of Mental Health:
If you feel you are in danger, call 911 immediately!
If you are in crisis, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All calls are confidential. http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
DISCLAIMER: The contents of this website (not including links to other sites which are the responsibility of those site owners) are based on the opinions of David Samarzia, and presented with the understanding that he does not intend to render any type of medical, psychological, legal, or any other kind of professional advice.
If you’ve been the victim of inappropriate sexual behavior, here’s my best advice: Tell someone. We are social creatures in that we need other people. Nothing is worse than going against the grain of our genetic makeup and locking away a painful secret in a place so deep inside we think no one will find out. It will become a voracious worm eating away at our mind, and it’s just a matter of time before we will cease to function. It isn’t far beyond that, that we will want to die—or even try to die. But that need not happen, if we unburden the deepest hurts of our hearts to someone who cares. David
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):