Emotional inteligence
404/661friends and family to form a buffer between her and herstalker, and was able to get the police to intervene.The sense in which PTSD patients feel "unsafe" goesbeyond fears that dangers lurk around them; their insecuritybegins more intimately, in the feeling that theyhave no control over what is happening in their bodyand to their emotions. This is understandable, given thehair trigger for emotional hijacking that PTSD creates byhypersensitizing the amygdala circuitry.Medication offers one way to restore patients' sensethat they need not be so at the mercy of the emotionalalarms that flood them with inexplicable anxiety, keepthem sleepless, or pepper their sleep with nightmares.Pharmacologists are hoping one day to tailor medicationsthat will target precisely the effects of PTSD on theamygdala and connected neurotransmitter circuits. Fornow, though, there are medications that counter onlysome of these changes, notably the antidepressants thatact on the serotonin system, and beta-blockers like propranolol,which block the activation of the sympatheticnervous system. Patients also may learn relaxation techniquesthat give them the ability to counter their edginessand nervousness. A physiological calm opens awindow for helping the brutalized emotional circuitryrediscover that life is not a threat and for giving back to
405/661patients some of the sense of security they had in theirlives before the trauma happened.Another step in healing involves retelling and reconstructingthe story of the trauma in the harbor of thatsafety, allowing the emotional circuitry to acquire a new,more realistic understanding of and response to thetraumatic memory and its triggers. As patients retell thehorrific details of the trauma, the memory starts to betransformed, both in its emotional meaning and in itseffects on the emotional brain. The pace of this retellingis delicate; ideally it mimics the pace that occurs naturallyin those people who are able to recover from traumawithout suffering PTSD. In these cases there oftenseems to be an inner clock that "doses" people with intrusivememories that relive the trauma, intercut withweeks or months when they remember hardly anythingof the horrible events. 19This alternation of reimmersion and respite seems toallow for a spontaneous review of the trauma and relearningof emotional response to it. For those whosePTSD is more intractable, says Herman, retelling theirtale can sometimes trigger overwhelming fears, in whichcase the therapist should ease the pace to keep thepatient's reactions within a bearable range, one that willnot disrupt the relearning.
- Page 354 and 355: 354/661As we were leaving the exam
- Page 356 and 357: 356/661home—a progressive step th
- Page 358 and 359: 358/661effects would be to impart m
- Page 360 and 361: patients to go elsewhere for care,
- Page 362 and 363: 12The Family CrucibleIt's a low-key
- Page 364 and 365: 364/661There are hundreds of studie
- Page 366 and 367: 366/661instance, use bargaining and
- Page 368 and 369: physiological indicators of emotion
- Page 370 and 371: 370/661The difference between the t
- Page 372 and 373: 4. Self-control. The ability to mod
- Page 374 and 375: 374/661efforts to get solace will m
- Page 376 and 377: opportunity at all, let alone equal
- Page 378 and 379: learned, and how grim the costs for
- Page 380 and 381: 380/661distress of a child nearby w
- Page 382 and 383: 382/661of the brain's limbic center
- Page 384 and 385: 384/661In ensuing months, the Purdy
- Page 386 and 387: 386/661disorder, or PTSD. At the co
- Page 388 and 389: endured semistarvation, the slaught
- Page 390 and 391: 390/661overwhelming terror. 4 While
- Page 392 and 393: and dying—or for a teacher there,
- Page 394 and 395: 394/661ceruleus—alerting the body
- Page 396 and 397: All these neural changes offer shor
- Page 398 and 399: of calm—the amygdala never relear
- Page 400 and 401: 400/661better outcome: sometimes in
- Page 402 and 403: ex-lover. The man brought them to a
- Page 406 and 407: 406/661The therapist encourages the
- Page 408 and 409: 408/661Aftereffects or occasional r
- Page 410 and 411: 410/661cannot keep it from reacting
- Page 412 and 413: 412/661habits of the heart learned
- Page 414 and 415: 414/661different pattern of brain a
- Page 416 and 417: 416/661monsters. Though he has felt
- Page 418 and 419: 418/661five infants falls into the
- Page 420 and 421: 420/661These sensitive children are
- Page 422 and 423: 422/661to help her up, and as I did
- Page 424 and 425: 424/661or the other type, says Davi
- Page 426 and 427: 426/661parents, and so how they lea
- Page 428 and 429: 428/661When the encounter takes pla
- Page 430 and 431: 430/661spontaneously outgrew their
- Page 432 and 433: 432/661was reopened, the animal was
- Page 434 and 435: The remarkable finding, though, was
- Page 436 and 437: 436/661switch for distress. The inf
- Page 438 and 439: 438/661emotional habits are malleab
- Page 440 and 441: 15The Cost of Emotional IlliteracyI
- Page 442 and 443: example, heroin and cocaine use amo
- Page 444 and 445: 444/661While any of these problems
- Page 446 and 447: both parents work long hours, so th
- Page 448 and 449: 448/661themselves as victims and ca
- Page 450 and 451: 450/661But studies that have follow
- Page 452 and 453: 452/661attracted to their defiant s
404/661
friends and family to form a buffer between her and her
stalker, and was able to get the police to intervene.
The sense in which PTSD patients feel "unsafe" goes
beyond fears that dangers lurk around them; their insecurity
begins more intimately, in the feeling that they
have no control over what is happening in their body
and to their emotions. This is understandable, given the
hair trigger for emotional hijacking that PTSD creates by
hypersensitizing the amygdala circuitry.
Medication offers one way to restore patients' sense
that they need not be so at the mercy of the emotional
alarms that flood them with inexplicable anxiety, keep
them sleepless, or pepper their sleep with nightmares.
Pharmacologists are hoping one day to tailor medications
that will target precisely the effects of PTSD on the
amygdala and connected neurotransmitter circuits. For
now, though, there are medications that counter only
some of these changes, notably the antidepressants that
act on the serotonin system, and beta-blockers like propranolol,
which block the activation of the sympathetic
nervous system. Patients also may learn relaxation techniques
that give them the ability to counter their edginess
and nervousness. A physiological calm opens a
window for helping the brutalized emotional circuitry
rediscover that life is not a threat and for giving back to
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