PTSD Damaging Identity

PTSD Damaging Identity Many people have heard about PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, a mental health illness that roughly 8 million people experience in a given year. This is not only a serious illness surrounding the military. PTSD could be from any traumatic event. Ranging from sexual abuse to serious accidents to military combat. PTSD can change whom a person is after an event that leads to the illness. Not only can identity alter at times, but according to the article “Post Traumatic”, other conditions such as depression are also experienced with PTSD. There is also a form of fragmentation of identity, where someone takes on multiple identities due to PTSD. Disassociation, depression, and fragmentation will all take a toll on someone’s
identity as a response of PTSD. PTSD can change who a person actually becomes after a certain traumatic event.
Depending on the type of event that had occurred whether the event had been witnessed or experienced, will determine the type of stress that may be experienced. One stress response that the author of “PTSD: National”, a website that provides valuable information about PTSD, mentioned was the severe dissociation. This is where someone feels unconnected to their body, has lost a sense of identity, or has taken on a new identity (PTSD: National). What this means is that people are experiencing actual losses of who they are or becoming someone they were not before. Not only is this a personal illness, but it also affects their families who end up having to adapt to this persons new identity. This is just one minor experience when someone is dealing with PTSD. There are three symptoms involved cause disassociation of identity in PTSD. The three symptoms are the re-experiencing symptom, avoidance and numbing symptom and symptoms of increased arousal (PTSD: National). With re-experiencing symptoms, a person relives the traumatic event through memories or other triggering methods (Post Traumatic). In the “Post Traumatic” article, the author states that, “avoidance and numbing symptoms are both ways for people to try to avoid the traumatic event, and the arousal symptom is always being on alert”. An example of what the author is attempting to get across is that people are always looking for ways to look over what happened and always being fearful of possibly walking into a room full of strangers not knowing what may
happen. In addition to the three main symptoms, other conditions can also arise while experiencing the illness. Many people may experience depression (Post Traumatic). Depression has multiple roots of having its own way of changing who a person is. This secondary condition can cause substance abuse whether its drugs or alcohol, the person abusing these are going to completely have a different attitude and mindset on things (Post Traumatic). Not only that, but who they are will change because of what they are putting into their body to cope with any depression involved from the traumatic event. Depression overall is a serious condition of PTSD that takes a toll on someone’s identity. According to can put someone into an emotional spiral, either causing other symptoms or worst, suicide. “Fragmentation of identity also known as dissociative identity disorder is considered to be a severe form of PTSD”, according to Medical Doctor, David Spiegel, who wrote the article “Coming Apart: Trauma and the Fragmentation of the Self”, along with more than 400 other scientific journal articles. This form of PTSD is a person having a split personality. David Spiegel reported, “a patient had carved a phrase into her arm as she took on one identity, and her other identity was frightened and unsure about the injury”, his patient had a form of memory loss and did not even know who had cut into her arm due to the multiple identities from PTSD. With the memory loss, one identity may be aware of certain things while in that identity, whereas these memories remain unknown to their other identities (Spiegel). PTSD greatly affects identity with this form, by literally changing the brain into thinking there are multiple different people.
The identity of someone suffering from PTSD is definitely at risk. The person may go through a disassociation stage where they just have no sense of connection to their own body anymore. This is dangerous when it comes to protecting who they are as a person before the traumatic event. Depression is also a symptom of PTSD, which causes other issues and conditions making the person just spiral downhill eventually losing their sense of identity. The case of someone actually having fragmented identity is a true sense of loss of identity. Someone affected by PTSD no longer can control what their real identity may be anymore and the other identities that are not really theirs pop up causing harm to not only their body but, their entire being.