"It takes two things to blow down a tree: a heavy wind outside and rot and decay inside. So it is with man. The winds of adversity may cause him to bend, but if he's strong and vigorous within, he will arise and grow to new heights after the storm passes."

McLellan; Wise Words and Quotes

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder evolves from the body’s response when survival is threatened

When Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) is viewed with awareness that nature designs humans so that survival takes precedence over all other bodily functions (as it does in mammals and other species), the symptoms that result from exposure to traumatic incidents are understandable and even seem logical and predictable.  The response of your body to threats to survival almost always take precedence to all other responses, for, understandably, if you do not survive nothing else matters.  Therefore, when survival is threatened the body quickly initiates a variety of responses designed to increase the chances of survival and dealing with threat.

For example, if you get a large splinter in your arm, white cells in your blood immediately surround the splinter to fight infection, platelets move to the break in your skin to prevent excessive bleeding, and skin cells increase in growth to close the break in your skin where the splinter entered.  If bacteria cause an infection, your body often increases in temperature because this can destroy the offending bacteria.  Your body’s response to injury is designed to insure that you continue to survive.

Your body also responds quickly to threats to survival that take the form of attacks as those typical in muggings, rape and combat: your heart rate increases significantly, blood in your body moves from your internal organs (like your stomach) to your muscles increasing their strength; your hunger is turned off, pain sensation decreases, eyesight and hearing change, as a number of hormones are released which increase attention, speed of response, focus, and other body responses that increase survival.  You may have heard stories of a mother or father who moved an extremely heavy object off a child in order to save their life…something they could never pick up on a normal day.  Perhaps this has happened to you.

When threats to your survival are encountered, the responses of your body increase your chances of surviving…they are positive.

In addition, your body has been designed to give you reminders of these threats to survival so that you can avoid them in the future.  If you were attacked by a fox, seeing a fox in the woods, or on the television or in a picture might bring back the same feelings and thoughts and the way your body felt when you were really attacked by the fox.  Although this is unpleasant, your body is trying to protect and help you through this response.  However, rather than help you, your body’s reminders of previous threats may become disturbing and a problem in and of themselves.  For example, dogs might also begin to remind you of the attack of the fox.  Since dogs are a prevalent part of our environment, and most dogs are not dangerous, responding to dogs as if attacked by a fox would cause significant distress.  To avoid this response, you might refuse to leave your house or dramatically change the way you live your life.  Although your body was trying to increase your chances of survival by associating dogs and foxes and the response of your body, this hurts rather than helps you.

Sometimes memories of things that were dangerous or painful can become stuck rather than moved to past memory so that we think of them all the time.  When we have these types of memories, our bodies often have the same feelings and thoughts as when we were in the dangerous or painful situation.  For example, if you were attacked by a fox, you might have a “flashback” of this attack many times a day.  When this happens, your body thinks it is still being attacked so it continues to respond in the way it did when you were attacked.  Your heart beats faster, your muscles are stronger, your blood pressure goes up, you pay attention to everything around you to protect yourself, and you don’t feel safe.  A flashback and other systems designed to protect that should have “turned off” is stuck in the on position.  It won’t turn off and as a result is causing you problems rather than helping you.  When survival systems won’t turn off, you will have problems sleeping, concentrating, learning, enjoying life and wanting to be close to your loved ones.  You may get angry very easily and drink too much.  You may be diagnosed as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

When the body continues to respond as if survival is threatened although the threat is long passed, it is as if the switch that turns the survival response on and off is stuck in the “on” position.

Given that our bodies respond to threats to survival by multiple and often dramatic change such as increasing heart rate and blood pressure, the release of numerous hormones that cause the body to become more alert and strong and interfere with sleep, decreased pain and hunger, focused attention, increased aggression and anger, a deadening of emotions,  and a multitude of other responses, it is understandable that serving in combat has been found to lead to soldiers no longer in battle to have more problems turning off these protective responses than individuals experiencing other dangerous and/or traumatic incidents.  A tour of duty may last from six months to a year and even longer if the soldier “re-ups” or is ordered for additional tours.  The threats to survival in combat are on-going and multiple.  These include multiple threats of being killed or seriously injured, experiencing the death or violent injury of fellow soldiers, civilians, children and animals and/or having to kill enemy soldiers and sometimes, civilians.  Combat turns on survival mechanisms and keeps them turned on to increase survival.  Problems sleeping are the most common complaint of individuals experiencing PTSD; deep sleep could be dangerous for soldiers in combat since they must always be aware of approaching enemies.  Anger helps to motivate aggression, necessary for survival in combat.  Feelings are shut down to increase survival as is laughter and humor; laughter relaxes and relaxing decreases defenses.  When the combat soldier’s tour of duty is over, it is no wonder that the survival responses that served to protect them won’t turn off.  These responses kept them alive month after month and their body does not believe that the danger and threats are in the past.  The length of exposure to a traumatic event dramatically impacts the development of PTSD and the body’s inability to understand that the threat is in the past.  Combat soldiers experience traumatic incidents that are measured in weeks and months rather than in minutes, as are most traumas.

Because survival is so important, nature also wants to ensure that the traumatic incident or the survival threat is remembered because this will increase survival if attacks take place in the future.  Sometimes nature cannot program into a human every possible traumatic situation, therefore, the brain is set up to record the traumas that actually happen and imprint them in the memory in a protective way.  The memory of the trauma is often very vivid and explicit including not only visual memories, but feelings, thoughts, body sensations, smells, sounds making the memory very similar to what was experienced when the trauma actually occurred.  Furthermore, nature in an additional attempt to protect us links the memory to things associated with the trauma.  Nature believes that if you remember this you will have learned from it and you will avoid it.  For example, someone who was car jacked when driving a yellow Volkswagen Beatle might find that seeing this car triggers a survival response.  Then, all yellow cars may become a trigger or all Volkswagen Beatles.  The car is not the cause of the traumatic incident, but somehow its association to this incident is inappropriately used by the body as a trigger of danger.  However often neutral links bring up the trauma memory, causing more problems than protection.

Memories of dangerous situations that happened in the past that bring the same feelings and body sensations and thoughts as the real danger did are signs that your body is trying to keep you safe from harm…however, the system that should be protecting you just doesn’t remember to turn off. 

In addition to threats to one’s own survival, adults often experience the same type of symptoms when the safety and survival of a child is observed, particularly if the adult is a parent.  Again, nature understands that children require protection from adults if they are to survive.  Many adults also respond as if their body is being attacked when the safety of any child is threatened.  Nature seems to make sure we care about and protect children, even when they are not our own.

Threats to the survival of a child, family members, close friends and work buddies involving exposure to danger, injury or death often causes an adult to develop PTSD symptoms…their bodies continue to leave their survival response in the “on” position.

Furthermore, PTSD symptoms are common when family members, close friends and work buddies are exposed to danger, hurt or killed.  Perhaps nature understands that being surrounded by people who care about our safety is protective, so that when their safety is threatened, so is ours.  Again, the body’s response to traumas and threats to survival has been designed to protect us.

If a child lives in a violent and/or abusive environment where he or she is constantly beaten or attacked or is a witness to violence, their bodies also respond to protect them.  Their survival responses becomes frozen or stuck in the “on” position.  These children know the world is not safe.  Their brains and bodies even develop in a “use-dependent” way to protect them…the part of their brain which observes and responds to their environment becomes stronger than the part that thinks and reasons.

As children who grew up surrounded by violence become adults, their bodies are clearly different that a child who grew up without traumatic incidents in their lives.  These adults are aware at the deepest levels that the world is a very dangerous place and at the smallest hint of danger, their body responds as if attacked.  An adult from a childhood untouched by trauma would not have a body that responds so quickly to the same threats; these individuals have not experienced the world as dangerous so they have a much lower set point for turning on their survival response. 

Children growing up in violent and/or abusive environments have brains which develop to protect them and their bodies are in a constant survival mode.

Guilt or shame experienced during and following a dangerous threat also seem to increase the likelihood that survival responses will remain “on” when the threat is over.  Perhaps this happens because guilt and shame link to a belief that if we are responsible for threats to our own safety, we have become a threat to ourselves…and our body therefore turns on our survival responses to protect us.

Guilt and shame increase PTSD symptoms

In summary, the way in which our body responds to threats to our survival or to the survival of children, family members, friends and peers is a protective response.  Nature uses these responses to increase our chances of living a long life.  However, when nature leaves these responses turned on long after they are protective…they can even interfere with our ability to survive, especially if they involve sleep difficulties.  These are often diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

When our bodies response to threats to survival becomes stuck in the “on” position, the symptoms which result can become disabling and life changing.

Therapy to reduce the symptoms of PTSD or job-related trauma will not be successful if you or the person experiencing these symptoms remains in danger or does not feel safe.  This makes sense because the primary focus of your body is to make sure you survive.  If your survival continues to be threatened, your body is  trying to protect you in the way it responds and will not turn off the survival response because it is appropriate in these situations.

There are several therapies that can decrease PTSD symptoms and turn off the switch, but you must feel safe in order for them to be successful.

Nancy Davis, Ph.D.
©2007; 2008