Post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) is a disorder that occurs after physical harm has taken place or the threat of harm occurred to an invidiual. Although it is typical for the humans fight or flight response to kick in during times of extreme stress and threats, individuals with PTSD are not able to turn this off and can begin to feel the same stress when danger is no longer present. What victims of PTSD deal with, what parts of the brain are associated with PTSD and why memory loss may occur are important fundamentals of understanding PTSD.
Victims of stressful and dangerous situations can often experience Post-traumatic stress disorder. In fact, nearly 7.7 million American adults have PTSD. This disorder can cause a number of symptoms including flashbacks, frightening thoughts, memory loss of the event, depression and much more. Clear emotional and mental responses are present in these victims.
Research has shown that individuals who experience extreme danger such as sexual abuse or war soldiers have physical changes to the hippocampus. This is a part of the brain that is associated with memory and learning as well as stress. This would explain why many individuals with PTSD are unable to recall the event or many details of the event that triggered the PTSD. The Hippocampus can be stressed to a point of not only forgetting the triggering event, but impair new learning. New research has shown that the hippocampus is capable of regenerating nerve cells and under extreme stress can slow down or even stop this ability. Other areas of the brain are also associated with PTSD, which include the medial prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain deals with emotional and fear driven reactions.
With the hippocampus playing a role in PTSD, it is quite clear why memory loss is reported for many PTSD victims. The hippocampus is associated with memory and can be damaged under great stress such as trauma and fear. Some scientists believe that the memory loss is to protect the victims from reliving these events, however most PTSD victims will still feel a huge sense of fear around similar situations whether that be dark halls or the place the trauma took place. Thus implying that even without exact memory, these victims still go through agony and torment over the traumatic event.
In conclusion, PTSD occurs in a number of victims of trauma each day. Individuals who seek counseling and family support after trauma may reduce their risk of PTSD. Victims of PTSD experience many real and frightening responses to fear. These are believe to be associated with brain activity from the hippocampus and the medial prefrontal cortex. Memory loss is a symptom of many PTSD victims both of the event and even future learnings.
http://www.pandys.org/articles/invisibleepidemic.html
Works Cited
Thank you for choosing this topic! I never linked memory loss and difficulty creating new memories with PTSD, I never even considered it. My husband had some signs of PTSD but not to the extent of having memory issues. I on the other hand have lots of issues that originate with growing up in a very stressful environment. It’s bad to the point of being unable to handle confrontational situations and any stress at all, I completely melt down and just cry most of the time. My issues aren’t physical, more mental than anything (verbal abuse). Even now as an adult, although I have a better relationship with my parents, if I see, hear, and feel tension between them and my younger sisters I immediately get anxious and agitated. I haven’t exactly figured out a way to deal with it and I’m going to therapy for it. I feel that not many people are educated well enough when it comes to PTSD and it is a disadvantage to people who need help getting through it. My case is nothing compared to other situations people have gone through that have led to divorce, alcoholism, drug addiction, and even suicide.
When I first read the title of your post, I was intrigued. Post-traumatic stress disorder is one that hits close to home in my family, as my husband Tim is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and served overseas at the start of that war. He came home, like so many of his veteran sisters and brothers, with clear symptoms of PTSD. He sought treatment, made tremendous progress and over a decade later, still uses many of the techniques he learned to work through lingering (though much less severe) anxiety.
Many of the symptoms that Tim experienced were mentioned in the article, but neither he nor I ever considered memory loss among his troubles. Perhaps that is because the other symptoms of PTSD being far more obvious and alarming. The fear and panic that is characteristic of the disorder can truly wreak havoc on the lives of sufferers and those around them. In the wake of these very clear problems, it is very possible that something like memory loss could go overlooked because it is less evident.
That said, my husband claims very regularly that he has the worst memory. Between a crazy job, kids and life I had never given that statement any deep thought. If I’m being honest, part of that likely also has to do a certain amount of irritation when he forgets things we talk about. After reading this blog, however, I truly wonder whether some of it has to do with brain changes (reduced hippocampus size) resulting from his PTSD. It is certainly possible. I also wonder if the stress and fear that PTSD sufferers experience exacerbates these memory effects. Between the resulting anxiety and an inability to fully attend to things as a result of the symptoms it is hard to imagine that it doesn’t.
The things that Tim forgets are not long term memories or episodic memories but short term memories. I wondered if the memory loss was specific and what I found was that Vietnam and Croatian war veterans with PTSD did have short term memory deficits. (Bremner et. al) (Lidija et. al) Knowing this information about PTSD and memory loss, maybe the next time Tim forgets plans we have together or something from the grocery store, I’ll take it easier on him!
WORKS CITED
Bremner JD, Scott TM, Delaney RC, Southwick SM, Mason JW, Johnson DR, Innis RB, McCarthy G, Charney DS. (July 1993) Deficits in short-term memory in posttraumatic stress disorder. Am J Psychiatry. 150(7):1015-9. Web. 26 April 2014.
Lidija Šodić,1 Vesna Antičević,2 Dolores Britvić,2 and Natalija Ivkošić. (April 2007) Short-term Memory in Croatian War Veterans with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Croat Med J. 48(2): 140–145. Web. 26 April 2014.
This is a very interesting topic; I have never considered what mental injury caused PTSD, but am familiar with the occurrence following military service. As you mentioned extensive trauma can cause a lasting impairment to the brain, specifically the hippocampus and amygdala.
I found an article that provided an excellent description of the inner workings of the brain and how PTSD is developed. They described the hippocampus as a cool “cognitive, complex system (the thinker)”, it gathers data, creates memory and stores it in a database (LTM). The amygdala is the hot system, the “emotional-fear system (the trigger finger). It filters emotional content and checks in with the hippocampus for top-down processing of prior knowledge to select the appropriate action. (Howard and Crandall, 2007, p. 12) I relate this to having a friend that is level headed and thinks things through and a hot headed friend that tends to overreact, together they are balanced. Very simply stated, in the case of PTSD the emotional friend stays highly stimulated and doesn’t give the level headed friend a chance to interject logic or file the bits of memory properly. So the traumatic bits of memory just linger in what feels like a constant state of now, creating more stress and stimulating a greater reaction. It turns into a cycle where the hippocampus isn’t allowed to do its job so then the amygdala can’t rely on top-down experience processing and can’t determine if the body is in danger or safe.
I can’t imagine what it feels like to live in this mental state of flux and am happy and interested to see that the cause and treatment for PTSD is currently being researched.
References
Goldstein, E. Bruce, (2011). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Bremner, Dr J. (2006, December). Traumatic stress: effects on the brain. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181836/
Howard, S and Crandall, Dr M. (Fall 2007). Post Traumatic Stress Disorder What Happens in the Brain?. Washington Academy of Sciences. Retrieved from http://www.washacadsci.org/Journal/Journalarticles/V.93-3-Post%20Traumatic%20Stress%20Disorder.%20Sethanne%20Howard%20and%20Mark%20Crandalll.pdf
I found your post very interesting. Thank you so much for sharing. I currently work as a Residential Child Care Worker with deaf children that are mentally/emotionally challenged. Quite a few of them are experiencing Post Traumatic Syndrome Disorder and there is one in particular whose symptoms are best explained with this disorder. She seemingly cannot learn new things and she, at times, sees things that are not there. She apparently is reliving these moments time and time again. The facial expressions she makes from smiling to being absolutely frightened. She obviously doesn’t have the support she needs from her family nor has her family seeked counseling for her which, from what I see, is why she hasn’t gotten better. So reading this post gives me a better understanding of how her mind is functioning right now and it hurts me to core to see her suffer the way she does. I hope, from what I’ve said here, that you get to see this is something that’s part of reality every single day. As you said, over 7 million people have it including the girl and the other children I work with. I hope to make a difference in their life, give them the support they need and deserve which is why I worked hard in getting this particular job. Thank you again.