Why Do Only Some Traumas Create Ptsd?

[braggle]

@theshadowoftheliving that is really interesting as I have done the opposite. I think I became more skilled at leaving my body so in effect the later trauma didn't happen to me.

 

[Chava]

Any life-threatening trauma or sexual assault has potential to lead to PTSD. Any of it is considered "trauma" and is horrible. But not everyone develops PTSD. As noted above, dissociation at the time of the trauma increases risk of developing PTSD. But other factors matter as well, such as the context of the trauma...who was there to support you, or who hurt you, how resilient you were to begin with, etc. '

I have multiple traumas. Any one of them could lead to PTSD in a person. But also, I believe any one of them could also be survived without developing PTSD if there was good support and healthier attachments to begin with (oh, that's another thing...stronger PTSD link for those of us with negative attachments to primary caregivers, such as in neglectful or abusive situations). I was hit with major trauma day 1. Eventually able to leave the hospital and go home with an unstable, detached, abusive mother. Pile more medical problems and abuse on top of that. I start self injuring. Then I'm assaulted a couple times (one that I sort of remember) and try to kill myself.

Someone else could maybe find support and pull through the horrible feelings after an assault. I tried to kill myself because I didn't even have the resilience or inner resources for small stresses. I just snapped.

Adult traumas have maybe been easier to recover from, but I wouldn't say I've become desensitized. I think I just entered freeze type states and numbed out very often and easily. But it's also hard for me to separate any of them because of how they are piled together and stored in my body and patterns of disconnection from my self and others.

 

[braggle]

@Chava I don't think you lacked resilience, maybe just didn't know the skills at the time to deal with what you were going through. I agree with you that people can process traumas with the right support system with much greater outcome.

 

[SeaQuel]

What I've noticed having had this happen is that it does not necessarily cause as much distress as what happened the first time but over time emotional or body memories link. Sometimes when something triggers me a long while past when it happened a small memory from that experience will join in with the others.

This has been my experience - some traumas have become conflated in my mind. Guess that's why it's complex?

 

[anthony]

Why is it that someone can be witness to horrific things and not all of them have the same effect?

Biology at play, to put it as simple as possible. Amygdala, Hippocampus, Pre-Frontal Cortex -- between the three, that is PTSD and its effect. Biology is unique per person, DNA, along with psychological makeup.

 

[Friday]

Was talking with someone the other day, who is like me and has the same primary trauma stuff... And then a whole bunch of unrelated later traumas. No matter what it is, we both revert to our "primary" trauma stuff in times of stress. Even when the later traumas kind of mess us up in their own unique ways... What has teeth (and legs!) is the first stuff. What set the bar. And, whenever I get stressed out, what I head back to. Seems like what I'm hard wired for. Everything else seems to get its "place" on my list of f*cked up things from that first period of my life.

In my own head, I split it out 3 ways... Primary, secondary, & tertiary. Primary guts me. Secondary can seriously mess me up -at least for a time- but I can manage it. Tertiary is no big thing. It might suck or might not. I may learn lessons from it, I may not even need to. Whatever it is, whether it affects me or not, is very short lived.

Don't know if that makes sense to anyone, or if it's useful or not. It helps me, though, in understanding my own head, and being able to predict reactions / identify patterns. In the whole 'predictable is preventable' ideal. Not always true, but helps when it is.

 

[joeylittle]

My PTSD trauma involved rape. I was raped again over 20 years later - and I distinctly remember thinking, 'oh this again, I know what this is'. My PTSD symptoms didn't come on til later. I might find out that I have unresolved feelings about that second rape, but if anything, I was only remembering aspects of the earlier one, and so it seems to me that working on the first one is somehow taking care of the second, in some way.

 

[Chava]

I don't think you lacked resilience, maybe just didn't know the skills at the time to deal with what you were going through.

No, I really did lack resilience. And skills would be like rewiring my nervous system. I was already totally dysregulated. My "skills" for dealing were getting black-out drunk. Therapy for the regulation stuff is helpful though.

 

[anonymous]

Not so, not just any old trauma can cause ptsd. It must be a criterion A trauma. Forget this important bit and soon you have people screaming ptsd for being cheated on.

 

[Tesseract]

Some researchers believe that PTSD is more likely to occur if the victim is unable to fight or flee. This can be literal, for people who were tied up/held down, or a social construct, as in domestic violence. Either way, the brain goes on the fritz when stripped of the agency needed to protect itself, and the result can be PTSD.

Other researchers have said that social support is a major predicting factor. If a rape survivor is believed and embraced, he or she is much more likely to recover. Same is true of soldiers with strong bonds to their comrades and families.

Finally, people who believe themselves complicit in their own trauma suffer the most. Soldiers who commit atrocities are very likely to develop PTSD. Incest victims forced to participate in the abuse of their siblings experience agonizing shame. People do all sorts of things they regret to survive: this is a huge risk factor in whether a trauma leads to PTSD.

 

[anthony]

tied up/held down, or a social construct, as in domestic violence

Kept captivity and domestic violence, already meet criterion A... so I would think that logic is sound based on existing psychological evidence.

 

[ms spock]

Biology at play, to put it as simple as possible. Amygdala, Hippocampus, Pre-Frontal Cortex -- between the three, that is PTSD and its effect. Biology is unique per person, DNA, along with psychological makeup.

Do you think it is also the attachment in the family of origin? If people have attachment that is strong they are kind of PTSD proofed? My psychiatrist once said to me that people are primed for PTSD by their families. That attachment has a role to play.