Trauma
This section provides a brief overview of what causes mass trauma and insight into the physiological experience of PTSD.
Mass trauma can occur due to several reasons.
1. Mass casualty situations can be overwhelming for people either due to direct hurt, pain, and injury or due to the grotesque visual elements associated with mass casualties.
2. Devastation of resources can impoverish a community or nation’s ability to respond to the traumatic situation.
3. Due to loss of territory due to a natural phenomenon or safety and security is no longer present due to violent conflict and combat (Hobfoll et al, 2007).
The events and experiences listed above are place a lot of stress on the brain function that impacts the outcomes of trauma – PTSD. Studies have shown that people in highly emotional states show intense emotions such as fear, anger or sadness. These emotional states cause increase brain activity in specific regions that are related to fear and self-preservation. They also contribute to reducing activity in other regions of the brain that are related to feeling fully present. These experiences cause people with PTSD live out their trauma in the internal environment of their bodies and memories. Essentially, it is as though time stops in people with PTSD, “making it hard to take pleasure in the present because the body keeps replaying the past” (van der Kolk, 2009, p. 1).
To learn more about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, follow the links.
This section provides a brief overview of what causes mass trauma and insight into the physiological experience of PTSD.
Mass trauma can occur due to several reasons.
1. Mass casualty situations can be overwhelming for people either due to direct hurt, pain, and injury or due to the grotesque visual elements associated with mass casualties.
2. Devastation of resources can impoverish a community or nation’s ability to respond to the traumatic situation.
3. Due to loss of territory due to a natural phenomenon or safety and security is no longer present due to violent conflict and combat (Hobfoll et al, 2007).
The events and experiences listed above are place a lot of stress on the brain function that impacts the outcomes of trauma – PTSD. Studies have shown that people in highly emotional states show intense emotions such as fear, anger or sadness. These emotional states cause increase brain activity in specific regions that are related to fear and self-preservation. They also contribute to reducing activity in other regions of the brain that are related to feeling fully present. These experiences cause people with PTSD live out their trauma in the internal environment of their bodies and memories. Essentially, it is as though time stops in people with PTSD, “making it hard to take pleasure in the present because the body keeps replaying the past” (van der Kolk, 2009, p. 1).
To learn more about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder, follow the links.