Overcoming Trauma and PTSD Associated with Physical Spaces

This article is reposted from the Pepperdine university website. It was posted May 15, 2019 Here is the link to the story: https://onlinegrad.pepperdine.edu/blog/ptsd-trauma-physical-spaces/

Just two weeks after one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, 3,000 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to class. Roughly 95 percent of students returned to the campus where they witnessed 17 classmates shot to death and 14 others seriously injured.External link:open_in_new The first week, they were eased back into a school routine with half-day schedules, and were greeted by therapy dogs, mental health counselors and heavily armed police officers. Candles and teddy bears were placed in the seats of students whose lives were claimed by the gunman.

For many of those students, and those of the 102 other schools that experienced gun violence in 2018,External link:open_in_new school will never be the same. It will forever be associated with this traumatic incident. Although the building where the tragedy occurred remains closed, students who spoke about the incident one year laterExternal link:open_in_new say they continue to experience recurring dreams about the shooting, feel nervous when they hear loud sounds in the hallways, have panic attacks, and are simply not able to make it through the school day.

Traumas can be brought on by any emotionally disturbing or distressing event, and each person recovers uniquely because they process the event through their own lens of personal experiences. For some, returning to a space where trauma occurred can evoke intense emotional and physiological reactions, so avoiding it may seem like an intuitive safeguard from further harm. 

“People avoid other people, places or things that remind them of trauma, which is a result of feeling powerlessness, hopelessness and terror,” said Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis, faculty member with the OnlinePsychology@Pepperdine program.

However, avoiding those spaces may not be healthy in the long term, especially for those who are obligated to visit these places regularly—like a workplace or a campus—because it inhibits survivors from leading a full life. Working with a mental health professional to reenter physical spaces associated with trauma can be an important part of healing from the experience.

To read the full article: https://onlinegrad.pepperdine.edu/blog/ptsd-trauma-physical-spaces/