Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complicated mental disorder that can develop after a traumatic event or experience. It can severely impact people’s lives and alter the way that they respond to daily life.
PTSD can come from a variety of traumatic events, including childhood trauma, natural disasters, and domestic violence. Not all trauma survivors will develop PTSD, but those who do experience many neurological changes that affect how they react and relate to the world around them.
Here are some parts of the brain and body that can change as a response to traumatic events:
Central Nervous System
Traumatic events can affect how your central nervous system operates. PTSD can lower your window of tolerance – the amount of stress you can manage before it becomes unbearable. You may not be able to handle as much stress and may become incredibly sensitive to events that others may not perceive as overly negative.
PTSD can also trigger the release of a large amount of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. It can cause an overactive adrenaline response, which creates new neurological pathways in the brain and increases sensitivity to stressful or fearful situations.
Stress response memory can live within the nervous system. In response to triggers, your body automatically releases adrenaline and cortisol, which help your body to prepare to flee danger. This can lead those suffering from PTSD to experience higher levels of anxiety.
Amygdala
PTSD changes how the amygdala (the part of your brain that produces feelings of fear) works. Experiencing traumatic events causes the amygdala to go into overdrive, even after the event, so that even minor occurrences such as a door slamming or a car backfiring produces a fear response.
This is your brain attempting to protect you and increase your chances of survival. The amygdala doesn’t know there is no reason for fear – but one of the effects of PTSD is that it rewires the brain to respond differently.
Prefrontal Cortex
Trauma can also affect how the prefrontal cortex operates. The prefrontal cortex is the section of the brain that regulates the emotional responses that the amygdala sends. However, traumatic experiences can slow the prefrontal cortex so that it can’t do its job, and the amygdala is free to send fear responses with little to no regulation.
The prefrontal cortex contributes towards many essential functions of the body, including decision making, planning, and predicting consequences. However, as PTSD suppresses and slows this part of the brain, it can impact all of these functions and lead to negative consequences.
Hippocampus
The hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for memories, ensuring that they’re in the correct context. However, for individuals experiencing symptoms of PTSD, the hippocampus is suppressed, and people may have problems with memory and problem-solving.
The suppression of the hippocampus because of traumatic experiences may be responsible for flashbacks as the memory was not recorded properly. Traumatic events can overwhelm the hippocampus and impact memory recall, which may cause people to forget details of the event or dwell on it often as the hippocampus tries to make sense of what happened.
When a person experiences similar stimuli to other traumatic events, the body thinks that the event is happening again as the hippocampus has suppressed the memory.
PTSD in Daily Life
These neurological changes can impact how people live their daily lives. PTSD can sometimes be difficult to diagnose, but symptoms include:
- Flashbacks
- Nightmares
- Panic attacks
- Memory issues
- Difficulty concentrating
PTSD can make people especially sensitive to outside triggers, which may prompt a flashback or panic attack. Because the brain and nervous system have changed so much, it can be difficult for those with PTSD to process events without the lens of trauma.
However, there are many treatments available for those struggling with the long-term effects of PTSD. Therapy can help people to confront the causes of these effects, with treatment including:
- Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) – This form of therapy helps to identify negative thought patterns and focuses on interrupting them to create new thoughts and behaviours.
- Prolonged exposure therapy (PET) – Exposure therapy treats clients by exposing them to triggers in a safe, controlled environment and aiding them with self-soothing techniques and building tolerance.
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) – EMDR focuses on helping clients relive traumatic events while a therapist directs their eye movements. This helps with emotional responses as the attention is diverted.
At Vitalis Wellbeing, we are specialists in EMDR therapy, which has been proven to aid with trauma and PTSD. Each client completes a personal health questionnaire and a post-trauma checklist to assess their individual needs. We then pair the client with a qualified therapist who will work with them to ensure they receive the most relevant and best treatment possible.
