Why does War Trauma have a lasting affect?
The brain encodes and stores traumatic experiences much differently than it does normal experiences. As a result, trauma does not go away over time, but stays with a person and impacts their world—sometimes for a lifetime. These events may be conscious or subconscious, repressed or forgotten. Unfortunately, emotional problems, destructive behaviors and relationship difficulties seem impossible to overcome when fueled by the ongoing influence of traumatic past events. War survivors often realize that if they could change the way they feel, think and act, the quality of their life would improve. However, despite this realization, without eliminating the cause of these past ghosts, the problems continue. Many experts agree that conventional treatments do little to help. Psychiatric drugs can dull or numb PTSD symptoms, but drugs have side effects and do nothing to address the disorder’s underlying cause. Conventional therapy may even make the problem worse by reinforcing traumatic memorie
