PTSD Poll/Question Results for Do you have problems with visual recognition eg: faces, places etc or with memory as a result of your PTSD?
PTSD Poll/Question Results for Do you have problems with visual recognition eg: faces, places etc or with memory as a result of your PTSD?
The results are now in for our latest PTSD Poll/question on whether you have problems with visual recognition, eg: faces, places etc or with memory as a result of your PTSD?
Once again the Poll received a great response. This was an anonymous poll and I would like to thank everyone who took part :)
The results are as follows:
30.6% of those who took part in the poll said Yes, I have trouble remembering what I see
36.1% of those who took part in the poll said Yes, I have trouble recalling and recognizing faces
13.9% of those who took part in the poll said Yes, I have trouble recognizing places
16.7% of those who took part in the poll said Yes, I have trouble remembering anything but details
16.7% of those who took part in the poll said No, I have no trouble recognising or remembering faces, places, objects, or animals etc
8.3% of those who took part in the poll said No, I have no problem with memory recall
16.7% of those who took part in the poll said Other eg: Recognition and memory recall only affected when having a flashback, ptsd episode, due to dissociation, or only affected sometimes, doubting own abilities, recall and memory due to invalidation due to trauma etc
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after exposure to terrifying and life-threatening events including witnessing horrors in worn torn countries, whilst serving in the miltary, being in a motor-vehicle accident, and suffering physical, psychological and sexual abuse, natural disasters, acts of terrorism etc The emotional experience of psychological trauma can have long-term cognitive effects. The hallmark symptoms of PTSD involve alterations to cognitive processes such as memory, attention, planning, and problem solving, which comes from the impact that trauma can have on cognitive functioning and through PTSD.
Recent studies have shown that victims of childhood abuse and other individuals who have suffered trauma actually experience physical changes to the hippocampus. This part of the brain is involved in learning and memory, as well as being instrumental in the handling of stress. The hippocampus works closely with the medial prefrontal cortex, which regulates emotional responses to fear and stress. PTSD sufferers often have impairments in one or both of these brain regions. Studies of children have found that these impairments can lead to problems with learning and academic achievement. It is very common for children who are suffering childhood abuse to struggle academically at school.
Other typical symptoms of PTSD including fragmentation of memory, intrusive memories, flashbacks, dissociation (or the unconscious separation of some mental processes from the others, e.g., a mismatch between facial expression and thought or mood. Damage to the hippocampus, which processes memory, may explain why victims of childhood abuse often seem to have incomplete/delayed recall of their traumatic experiences, and go on to suffer with problems with memory as adults.
Memory problems play a large part in PTSD. PTSD sufferers report problems with declarative memory (remembering facts or lists), fragmentation of memory and dissociative amnesia (gaps in memory lasting from minutes to days that are not caused by ordinary forgetting).
Psychiatric Symptoms Associated with Childhood Abuse
PTSD
* Nightmares
* Flashbacks
* Memory and concentration problems
* Hyperarousal
* Hypervigilance
* Intrusive memories
* Avoidance
* Abnormal startle reponses
* Feeling worse when reminded of trauma
Dissociative
* Out-of-body experiences
* Derealization
* Amnesia
* Fragmented sense of self and identity
Anxiety
* Panic attacks
* Claustrophobia
Substance Abuse
* Alcoholism
* Drug addiction
Many abuse Survivors report that they remember seemingly random or minor details of the abuse event, while forgetting more central events.
PTSD also causes problems with non-declarative memory (subconscious or motor memory, such as remembering how to ride a bicycle, how to complete a task that perhaps they have done previously but now can't). This can show up as abnormal conditioned responses and the reliving of traumatic experiences when something happens to remind the sufferer of past abuse. These types of memory disturbance may also be related to physical changes in the hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex.
Memory is the ability to store, retain, and subsequently retrieve information. When an individual experiences a traumatic event, whether physical or psychological, his or her memory can be affected in many ways. For example, trauma might affect his or her memory for that event, memory of previous or subsequent events, or thoughts in general.
PTSD affects a persons emotions, and recent research indicates that PTSD affects the ability to recognize facial expressions. The inability to recognize facial expressions is significant because factual knowledge that is associated with certain types of facial expressions is lost when the ability to recognise these expressions is decreased. Studies show differences in the ability of individuals with diagnosed PTSD and their ability to recognise different facial expressions, specifically expressions of fear and sadness. Current research also seems to indicate a difference in PTSD in adults and children and its effects on their ability to recognise facial expressions of emotions.
Many Survivors of trauma describe problems with derealisation - where the individual feels separated from the outside world, such as a sensory fog, pane of glass, or veil. Individuals may report that what they see lacks vividness and emotional coloring. Emotional response to visual recognition of loved ones may be significantly reduced. Feelings of déj vu or jamais vu are common. Familiar places may look alien, bizarre, and surreal. Survivors may describe feeling lost and afraid. Other issues those with ptsd may experience also extend to the senses of hearing, taste, and smell. The degree of familiarity one has with their surroundings is among one's sensory and psychological identity, memory foundation and history when experiencing a place. When a person is in a state of derealization, they block this identifying foundation from recall. This "blocking effect" creates a discrepancy of correlation between one's perception of one's surroundings during a derealization episode, and what that same individual would perceive in the absence of a derealization episode.
Many of the above scenarios are also experienced by those with ptsd, who experience other forms of dissociative disorders including dissociative fugue amnesia, depersonalisation, DID etc.
It is accepted that when under stress, suffering ptsd, with high levels of anxiety and fear, to name just a few symptoms experienecd by those suffering with PTSD, that this has a profound effect on memory and visual recognition.
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#PTSD #traumasupport #trauma
i do, but im not sure if its related to my trauma or an other neurological condition/disability that i was born with.
@dancingRainbow45
I can with memory recall.
I do not say this to be difficult rather because the underlying message of it lacks hope, the implication is therefore abuse will result in problems for the rest of your life. I do not believe that it will, the message of hope I give to myself and hopefully in part here, is that recovery is possible. No one is damaged for life because they went through abuse, if possible something positive must come out of it. No one can change the past, it has been done so we need look forward to value even negative experiences and reframe them in a way which makes us strong and more capable. Take for example me, the abuse I suffered recently stopped, in has been a matter of months, still being on 7Cups and having positive people around has shown me that I do not need to lose any part of me or in fact lose hope.
Hope is an interpretation of the facts; this though extends to the interpretation of what has been said here. So I will use the lectures my mommy has given and the books I have read. I am not saying for a moment that I am correct, far from it but I have benefited by parents education. The hallmark symptoms of PTSD does involve alterations in cognition, it would. So does depression, grief or any other mental distress. Children will struggle at school because they are faced with cognitive difficulties, their minds like mine are forced to deal with things they should not. From my perspective adults have these impairments because they still are yet to deal with the legacy of abuse. Although I could be wrong about that, I am not one of them yet.
I do not believe that PTSD or trauma will ever damage anyones hippocampus, it is not for me to prove that it does. So let me offer an interpretation that is akin to scientific studies rather than a misinterpretation. The studies mentioned above sound like correlation investigations, this will never link cause and effect. The problem with using correlations is they require thousands of participants due to individual differences still even then it is almost impossible to form strong conclusions using this method. That is not what psychology does, it works off a mathematical logic differing from the hard sciences. Some recent research has shown a difference in the volume of the hippocampus in terms of size, again the number of participants is small because MRIs are expensive.
Still it is not that simple, Gurvits et al (1996) did link PTSD with reduced size hippocampus, as did the research of Bremmer et al (1998) but Bonne et al (2001) found after six months of receiving the PTSD diagnose there was no reduction in the hippocampal volume after six months. I will introduce you to confounding variables these are unaccounted for things within research and when you are doing such a complex thing as trying to determine the effects of trauma on the hippocampus it simply means it is impossible unless you do something unethical. Bremmer et al methodology was to compare adult survivors of abuse with matched controls, as in those who were not abused. If you think about the impact abuse has had on your life can you determine within yourself how you might be different with certainty? Gurvits et al offered an alternative explanation for the reduced size of the hippocampus in those with PTSD in their past, to say it could be a pre-existing risk factor for the development of PTSD. It is known that not everyone who goes through trauma develops PTSD. This is complicated further by Bonne et al who said reduction might occur. ‘might – that is not science which is why it is not claimed to be true but it is a throwing out an idea so others can test it.
The Hippocampus is part of many theoretical systems in the brain although most link it to one system being that the Limbic System. The hippocampus is in three other systems again theoretical and only in one does it link with the amygdala which primary emotional response unit, itself within two systems. There are two points here first the research presented above uses single disassociation and is theoretical because the brain is so complex and we know little about it. The second is that my amygdala can be overridden by my prefrontal cortex, my amygdala can tell me I am in danger but my more evolved part of my brain can say ‘No you are not, cancelling it out. Things like CBT can change the relationship and the way that both my amygdala and hippocampus work together. Not only that they both more on-demand parts of the brain processing responding to what is going on right now but still a part of a more complex system never working alone (consider emergent properties to confuse yourself even more). Science itself knows very little about our brains, they are to complex and wonderful like every individual.
Memory problems, delay of recall of traumatic experiences, inability to recognise faces and facial expressions, other problems with visual recognition, feelings of déj vu or jamais vu, alternations in hearing, taste and smells can all be explained by one thing derealization a learnt trick that your brain did so it did not have to stay with your body while the abuse was happening. It just your brain needs time to know it is not necessary anymore. One piece of research was interesting and I cannot remember the name of it now but it found the emotion you are feeling right now impacts you recognise others emotional expressions. If you are feeling sad and the other person is not, it is more difficult to interpret the other persons emotion. If they are also feeling sad it is quite easy.
Neurological plasticity is also important; it normally refers to physical damage but can be applied to psychology trauma. If you brain has been changed by abuse, then by PTSD that is not issue because it would be presumptuous that neuroplasticity does not apply in both directions. Those changes can be reversed although it very difficult nothing is beyond the grasp if it is worked at. Language is really important to me for many reasons but mostly because of Foucault said, nothing has meaning outside the discourse we use. How you think in your head is so important because it creates the world you live in. If you tell people they have damaged brains or bad memory they are likely to then have a false and wrong negative view of it, therefore belief no matter how wrong can result in confidence dropping, this could well then mean reduced volume in the hippocampus because people avoid cognitive tasks.
The problem I have with the notion of PTSD being applied to me is that yes it can tell me what might happen, it might give an explanation so it aims to be helpful but it does not have an end in itself. Foucault talks about the language we use positioning us, placing power and knowledge. I do not ability to explain that further at the moment so I will use an example. If I am talking to a listener for the first time and they say ‘can I help you? It puts me in a difficult position as it limits my reply, it takes power away from me. The assumptions are they can help me and if I go away from that conversation feeling no better it then is my fault. So hope, yes. Do not ever see yourself as damaged because you are not even when you are experiencing all symptoms of PTSD at the same time (if that is possible). The way you think about yourself, about your brain, the abuses you went through is important because has changed you but it can be change by you, so it is important how you interpret it. Plus, you have a lovely hippocampus and I would not do a thing to change it!
Update of sorts, from a new review on this topic.
The review article was about developing better treatments for PTSD, while also looking at the research that had been conducted so far. Although it helps reduce the certainty known, in my opinion a good thing in science since it should never be read as absolute truth, rather the produced knowledge. Abdallah et al (2017) looked at the stress effect of trauma, although it still largely an unknown some rough conclusions can be made from a number of animal studies and pilot data in humans. The reason so few human studies have taken place is due to the cost of an MRI, also perhaps the diagnose issue such as if you receive the label of PTSD, treatment should follow which in turn will contaminate any research. Still, the suggestion here is not of damage as described above of the hippocampus, this should not be the case as Abdallah et al points out the brain works in unison and by methods of its 86 billion neurons (an approximate number) and a vast number of connections.
Neurons are the cells in our brains that are responsible for processing and transmitting information, whether it to a cognitive function such as language or to other actions of movement. There is a direct link between the number of connections and the volume of any brain region, this does not mean impairment at all (Abdallah et al). In fact, at the age of 2 years and 8 months we all go through a purge as we become more efficient at doing the things we need to, there is a lot in our brains that becomes unnecessary. Payne (2006) argues this purging interpreted both at this time and at others is the result of poorly connected and superfluous neurons interfering or diluting the process of communication of neurons that are carrying out the necessary functions, the brain overwhelmingly benefits when seen in this way. This is important as Abdallah et al point out our behaviour and cognition are dependent on the adequate connection between neurons and these connections change all the time which is referred to as synaptic plasticity.
During trauma the experience itself leads to a chronic state which reduces the number of synapses in various parts of the brain (Abdallah et al). That is to say when trauma goes on for a long period of time your neurons stop connecting to and sending messages to each other. Abdallah et al suggests that this is adaptive behaviour and in highly connected brain regions like the limbic circuit, that include the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala and the hippocampus it causes the limbic circuit to become imbalanced. In animal studies, it was the region of cognitive control of behaviour that was affected, whilst in human it indicated fewer neurons and deficient synaptic integrity. Hippocampal size was an indirect measure of this supposition. Again Abdallah et al state clearly that not all individuals with PTSD have reduced hippocampal volume, but more interesting that such neuronal deficits are not specific to PTSD, anxiety and depression share a similar imbalance which is why there is perhaps a comorbidity between the three.
So trauma over the long-term does two things, first it reduces the limbic circuit by producing an imbalance. The brain the purges itself of the unnecessary neurons it no longer needs, with the possibility of the hippocampus being affected the most. Still, I would not write such as to suggest this was stuck position, we have synaptic plasticity, which presents no matter how old you are (neurological aging disorders it will not). Although Abdallah et al do not talk about therapies, it is completely possible with time to remove your brain from the chronic state. Your brain will then do what it does best, it will learn and create new connections, in essence it will change. Although Abdallah et looked very much at medication in particular monoamine antidepressants which is believed to increase synaptic plasticity and reverse the stress-induced connections [faster than talking therapies]. [1.] The fact is that your brain, our brains are amazing things. Remember though that trauma outside your brain caused this, so there is a connection between mind & brain. That is a larger issue still, things can change from what was necessary during trauma to what you want to become. You have that ability within you.
There is just one more thing, but I will not mention it because it is so dangerous to do outside of test conditions still if you are interested, there is a TED talk by Rebecca Brachman titled ‘Could a drug prevents depression and PTSD? This is a new area looking at the role of glutamate and it should only be in a hospital setting under test conditions.
Ame
Main reference:
Abdallah, C.G. Southwick, S.M. and Krystal, J.H. (2013) Neurobiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): A path from novel pathophysiology to innovative therapeutics. Neuroscience Letters, 649, 130-132
1. There is evidence to suggest that PTSD can be sub-divided in to avoidance and hyperarousal, these have differing presentations both behaviourally and in theory in the limbic circuit.
@dancingRainbow45 wow was very informative
Thank you for sharing this post!
