Arrrrr emotions... a very topical subject and one that is very near the root of a sufferers ability to heal or not.
My two cents into this. We can throw parts of solutions around in regard to symptoms and emotions, but the core root to the problem as I see it and know it, is
Black & White thinking. People think that black and white thinking is only related to thought. Well, emotions are part of the thought process, and that is where they become clouded. Do I feel, don't I feel. If I feel, how much pain will it cause me now? The thoughts are fast and instant, and often made without really reviewing the entire scenario.
Those without PTSD look outside the box (the box being black and white thinking) because they are not limited to two styles of thinking, instead they have the open forum of range and effect to choose, view and decide. Involve PTSD, you then involve black and white thinking, do I, don't I; Yes, No; If I, Will I; etc. Reasoning along the normal spectrum looks more like: I am angry at that person, because they are making me very frustrated at the moment; or, that person scared me then, which isn't a very nice thing to do; etc. You can see the difference between black and white thinking vs. using the entire thought spectrum to analyse emotions.
IraqVet raised an interesting point though about being a veteran.
IraqVet said:
As a veteran, I guess I have a very different idea of what makes a person sad, angry, upset etc. It might sound arrogant, but I almost feel like I have that right - to feel like their problems are nothing. And to protect myself, I try not to feel apathy because then I will be hurt along with the other person. It is better just to feel numb to it. Distrust is your best protection in the world against being betrayed.
You see, a veterans emotional state has nothing to really do with the actual impact of war itself, because their emotional reasoning was stripped already at basic training. You are taught to hate the enemy, feel nothing, walk, talk, run, climb, swim, tie your shoe laces, etc etc. You as an individual are removed during Army training and replaced with an instinctive thought of team. A group does not have emotions, only individuals have emotions. Soldiers aren't even aware of this at the time, and most never aware of it even after.
The battlefield is never left at the battlefield, it is carried within. Being a soldier is never left when you sign off your military service, as it still continues with you because it proved effective in saving you and seeing you return home, hence to the solider this is more important than emotions which where stripped during basic training. You see, this thought pattern is acceptable and required on the battlefield, it is not however an effective means of life after the battlefield though, and seeing that, and changing that is as big as healing trauma itself.
This is why deprogramming as such is becoming more topical now within the military to ensure soldiers are deprogrammed to some extent when leaving the military. The Australian military do it to a small degree now on discharge with mandatory courses and lectures, bringing you from military thinking to civilian thinking, though they never complete it because if they need you again, it is easily achieved for them to have you combat ready again.
Anyway, I could write a novel on this topic alone, but maybe some may see some scope in the above, maybe not, it is an individual choice. What you must know though, is that its not ok to be emotionally numb, its not ok to not feel anymore, regardless whether it saved you before, because emotions are the very backbone to why we carry PTSD itself, in that we failed to process them when they where presented, instead we pushed them aside, hence obtaining PTSD itself from suppressing emotions. Being vulnerable is not a weakness, it is a human trait. If you do not accept you are vulnerable, then you are trying to not accept that your human.
