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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Victims and Survivors of Abuse

Uploaded 8/6/2010, approx. 4 minute read

My name is Sam Vaknin. I am the author of Malignant Self-Love, Narcissism Revisited.

Contrary to popular misperceptions, post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, and acute stress disorder, or acute stress reaction, are not typical responses to prolonged abuse. They are usually the outcomes of sudden exposure to severe or extreme stressors, stressful events.

Yet some victims whose life or body have been directly and unequivocally threatened by an abuser do react by developing these syndromes. Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, therefore, is typically associated with the aftermath of physical and sexual abuse in both children and adults.

This is why another mental health diagnosis, C, PTSD, complex PTSD, has been proposed by Dr. Judith Herman of Harvard University to account for the impact of extended periods of trauma and abuse. Someone else's looming death, one's violation, personal injury, or powerful pain, are all sufficient to provoke the behaviors, cognitions, and emotions that together are known as PTSD.

Even learning about such mishaps may be enough to trigger massive anxiety responses in listeners and viewers.

The first phase of PTSD involves incapacitating an overwhelming fear. The victim feels like she has been thrust into a nightmare or a horror movie. She is rendered helpless by her own terror. She keeps reliving the experience through recurrent and intrusive visual and auditory hallucinations. This is what we call flashbacks.

Some patients experience the same distress in dreams. In some flashbacks, the victim completely lapses into a dissociative state and physically reenacts the event while being thoroughly oblivious to her whereabouts, sometimes during sleep.

In an attempt to suppress this constant playback in the attendant exaggerated startled response, jumpiness, the victim tries to avoid all stimuli associated, however indirectly, with a traumatic event.

Many develop full-scale phobias, agoraphobia, claustrophobia, fear of heights, aversion to specific animals or objects, to specific modes of transportation, to certain neighborhoods, to buildings, to occupations, to the weather, and so on.

By avoiding these triggers, they are trying to avoid the recurrent flesh lips.

Most PTSD victims are especially vulnerable on the anniversaries of their abuse. They try to avoid thoughts, feelings, conversations, activities, situations of people who might remind them of the traumatic occurrence. These are the triggers that I've aforementioned.

This constant hyper-vigilance, this repeated arousal, the sleep disorders, mainly insomnia, the irritability, short fuse, and the inability to concentrate and complete even relatively simple tasks erode the victim's resilience.

Utterly fatigued, most patients manifest protracted long periods of numbness, automatism, and in radical cases near catatonic posture. Response times to verbal cues increase dramatically in PTSD patients.

Awareness of the environment decreases, sometimes dangerously so.

The victims are described by their nearest and dearest as zombies, machines, or automata. The victims appear to be sleepwalking, depressed, dysphoric, unhedonic, not interested in anything, and they find pleasure in nothing.

PTSD patients report feeling detached, emotionally absent, strange, and alienated.

Many victims say that their life is over and they expect to have no career, family, or otherwise meaningful prospects or future.

The victim's family and friends complain that she is no longer capable of showing intimacy, tenderness, compassion, empathy, or of having sex.

This kind of post-traumatic emotional and sexual rigidity is typical of PTSD sufferers.

Many victims become paranoid, impulsive, reckless, and self-destructive. Others solidify their mental problems. They develop psychosomatic disorders, complain of numerous physical ailments. They all feel guilty, shameful, humiliated, desperate, hopeless, and in extreme cases hostile.

PTSD need not appear immediately after the harrowing experience. It can and often does take a long time. It is delayed by days or even months. It lasts more than one month, usually much longer.

Sufferers of PTSD report subjective distress. The manifestations of PTSD are egodystonic. People don't like themselves. And they're functioning in various settings, like their job performance, grades at school, sociability. Their functioning deteriorates, marketeers. They're no longer the same person, so to speak.

The diagnostic and statistical manual criteria for diagnosing PTSD are far too restrictive. PTSD seems to also develop in the wake of verbal and emotional abuse, providing it is acute and loner, and in the aftermath of drawn-out traumatic situations such as a nasty divorce.

Hopefully the text of the diagnostic and statistical manual will be adopted to reflect this sad round.

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Abuse and torture have long-lasting and frequently irreversible effects on the victim's body, including panic attacks, hypervigilance, sleep disturbances, flashbacks, intrusive memories, and suicidal ideation. Victims experience psychosomatic or real bodily symptoms, some of them induced by the secretion of stress hormones, such as cortisol. Victims are affected by abuse in a variety of ways, including PTSD, which can develop in the wake of verbal and emotional abuse, in the aftermath of drawn-out traumatic situations such as domestic divorce.


Effects of Abuse on Victims and Survivors

Repeated abuse leads to severe psychological effects, including panic attacks, hypervigilance, and complex PTSD, which reflects the long-term impact of sustained trauma. Victims often experience a range of negative emotions such as shame, guilt, and depression, which can be exacerbated by isolation and loss of support. The consequences of stalking and abuse extend to financial instability and impaired work performance due to both direct interference and mental health challenges. Cultural perceptions of abuse and the presence of supportive networks can influence the severity of trauma experienced by victims, highlighting the complexity of their situations.


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Emotional numbing, a core feature of PTSD, is a phenomenon where trauma survivors experience restrictions in their emotional experiences. Recent developments in understanding trauma have led to the reconceptualization of personality disorders as post-traumatic conditions. There are two types of PTSD: externalizing, where trauma is projected, and internalizing, where trauma destroys the ability to emote, leading to emotional numbing. Emotional numbing can be a temporary defense mechanism against overwhelming anxiety, but if it becomes a permanent state, it can lead to psychiatric disorders and dissociation.


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High-conflict Divorce and Custody: Children Pay the Price

Divorce is often underestimated in its psychological impact, ranking as one of the most traumatic life events, particularly when it involves high conflict. This type of divorce creates cognitive dissonance in children, leading them to employ dissociative defenses as a coping mechanism, which can hinder their emotional and psychological development. The trauma associated with divorce is compounded by adverse childhood experiences, resulting in long-term effects such as emotional dysregulation and impaired cognitive functioning. Ultimately, high conflict divorce can stunt a child's growth and lead to the development of maladaptive personality traits, making it crucial for parents to consider the potential consequences before proceeding with such separations.


Psychology of Torture Victim

Torture causes victims to lose their mental resilience and sense of freedom, leading to alienation and an inability to communicate or empathize with others. The victim may identify with the torturer, leading to traumatic bonding and a craving for pain. Torture is an act of deep, traumatic indoctrination that can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and other psychological sequelae. Victims often feel helpless and powerless, and bystanders may feel guilty and ashamed for not preventing the atrocity. The victim's attempts to repress memories can result in psychosomatic illnesses.


Drama Bond or Trauma Bond?

Drama bonding is a bidirectional attachment where both participants collaborate to create and sustain a dramatic relationship, contrasting with trauma bonding, which is unidirectional and involves a victim and an abuser. While trauma bonding is characterized by unpredictability and power asymmetry, drama bonding thrives on a structured narrative and the anticipation of loss, leading to anxiety rather than dissonance. Both forms of bonding are self-harming, as they distract individuals from personal growth and development, but drama bonding often involves a shared need for drama and emotional intensity. Ultimately, both dynamics create unhealthy dependencies, but they manifest through different relational patterns and emotional experiences.


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Trauma bonding is characterized by a strong, unidirectional attachment formed through unpredictable and abusive reinforcement, leading to a power imbalance between the abuser and the abused. The dynamics of trauma bonding involve the abused person confusing intensity with love, often mistaking abusive attention for genuine affection, and experiencing extreme separation anxiety that drives them to remain in the relationship. The abuser creates a dependency by isolating the victim and instilling feelings of helplessness, while the victim internalizes the abuser's negative beliefs, leading to a distorted self-perception and a cycle of self-deception. Ultimately, trauma bonding can be seen as a collaborative process where both parties fulfill their psychological needs, albeit in a destructive manner, making it difficult for the victim to break free from the relationship.


Betrayal, Trauma, Dissociation: Roots of Cluster B Personality Disorders (Compilation)

Betrayal trauma theory posits that trauma is often linked to betrayal by trusted individuals, particularly in situations where the victim is dependent on the betrayer for survival, leading to denial or repression of the trauma to maintain the relationship. This theory highlights the concept of "betrayal blindness," where individuals may consciously ignore or forget the betrayal to avoid the pain of confronting it, especially in cases of childhood abuse or intimate partner violence. The theory also connects to broader psychological concepts, such as dissociation and attachment theory, suggesting that the inability to integrate traumatic experiences can lead to various mental health issues, including personality disorders. Ultimately, betrayal trauma theory emphasizes the social context of trauma and the complex interplay between trust, dependency, and psychological responses to betrayal.


Physical Abuse, Rape, Battering: Victim, Perpetrator, Society Collude

Physical abuse has profound and lasting effects on victims, fundamentally altering their relationship with their own bodies and identities, often leading to feelings of alienation and mistrust. The abuser's manipulation creates a power dynamic that fosters dependency, where the victim may internalize the abuser's negative perceptions, leading to self-blame and diminished self-worth. Society's response to physical abuse is often inadequate, with many professionals failing to recognize the signs and misclassifying incidents, which perpetuates the cycle of violence and trauma. Ultimately, the psychological and emotional scars of physical abuse can be as debilitating as the physical injuries, leaving victims in a state of ongoing distress and vulnerability.

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