Shame and
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can have long-lasting and devastating
consequences. Shame can include these facets: a feeling of dishonor,
unworthiness, embarrassment and regret.
Persons who bear the ill effects of PTSD vacillate between avoidance and
denial, coupled with a psychic numbness. They can experience serious reactions
to triggers tied with past trauma. These
reactions may include, but are not limited to, disassociation, fears, phobias,
insomnia, and intrusions in the form of chronic or acute intense emotions and
thoughts. Shame and PTSD can lead to the impairment of everyday functioning.
Individuals
who are suffering from PTSD can also experience a feeling of detachment; lose
interest in life, daydream, and display a constricted effect and oftentimes
abuse drugs and/or alcohol. The constricted effect involves an individual not
letting anyone get close to them because they are having difficulty with
intimacy. These individuals become
hypervigilant, on edge, and are usually exposed involuntarily to intrusive
mental images and thoughts. Inability to concentrate and/or sleep may befall
these individuals. They may obsess about a specific stressor, cry with little
or no provocation, and can be startled or aroused negatively by the slightest
reminder of the trauma.
They have difficulty distinguishing
feelings of guilt, shame and anger, and often go through stages associated with
grief without resolution. The severity of the disorder is lessened if the
trauma was caused by nature.
Intentionally imposed human traumas are considered to be the most
damaging.
Many Indian
people have been inflicted with intentional acts of violence and abuse as
adults and children. The boarding and
residential schools were laced with episodes of such harmful acts. Harold said he was glad he was not a big boy.
The larger boys were often hauled off during the night to satisfy the lustful
urges of the caregivers at the residential school he attended in Canada. Sexual
abuse can have long lasting devastating effects on one’s psyche. Indian people
were referred to as “dirty savages.”
They were perceived as being less than human, deserving of no respect or
kindness.
During a
tour of the Algoma University Site, formerly the site of the Shenwauk
Residential School in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, it was reported that children
who lost peers to illness or other causes were required to haul the bodies of their
dead peers to the grave site. Children
were beaten and punished severely in front of their peers at the residential
and boarding schools. Yulanda stated the
hair on one side of her head is thinner, because she was not good at math and
was severely punished by having her hair pulled in front of the class for not
knowing how to solve math problems correctly at the blackboard. Yulanda has
refused promotions within the tribe that she is employed at because she would
have been expected to manage budgets. Anything to do with math has caused
Yulanda concern and she refuses to place herself in positions in which she may
be expected to work with math problems of any kind.
Other causes related to PTSD
include additional intentional human actions such as combat; witnessing
physical, emotional and sexual abuse; a hostage situation; terrorism;
witnessing a homicide; participating in violence/atrocities; death threats;
witnessing parents’ fear reactions; and criminal assault. Other sources of
stress are related to unintentional accidents and disasters, such as fires,
explosions, nuclear disasters, and building collapses. Acts of nature and
natural disasters can also be a cause of PTSD. Shame can produce many of the
same characteristics as PTSD and some dissimilar symptoms. Shame is not a natural state and is a
representation of moral conflict strongly associated to fear. Remaining in a constant influx of fear deters
one from moving past the moral dilemmas he or she may be facing. Circumstances such as when someone feels as
if they have behaved immorally or are deficient as a human being can lead to
feelings of shame, which sets the stage for fear. Facing fears can be scary, to
say the least, and most people would rather avoid those unpleasant feelings.
Kent reported
he was locked in the basement at the Holy Childhood Boarding School when he got
into a scuffle over a chair with another child. It was Saturday evening and the
children were about to watch a movie. A child, who was favored by one of the
nuns, wanted a specific chair, and Kent wanted to sit on the same chair. Ultimately, the favored child got his wishes
met, and Kent was sent to sit on the basement stairs alone in the dark while
the others watched the movie. This event had a twofold outcome, not only associated
with his fears, but also contributing to his sense of worth. Because he was not the favored one, he may
have considered himself worth less than the other child. Additionally, he
stated he now has a fear of the dark and attributes this fear to the basement
incident and being forced to sit in the dark.
Kent has developed his sense of
self through his experiences at the boarding school, as well as time spent with
his grandparents when he was released from the boarding school for the summer.
He somehow managed to keep a foothold in two worlds, the traditional and the
Euro-American worlds. Other individuals were not as able to hold onto part of
their Native American culture and developed false identities to appease the
dominant culture.
A great number
of individuals struggle daily with feeling something vital is missing from
their lives, and they just cannot put their finger on it. The children who
attended the boarding and residential schools were issued uniforms or wore
donated clothing. This created a sense of sameness. They lost the individuality
they possessed when they resided with their parents and other tribal
caregivers, who often fostered their individuality. They lost their given names
and were given Euro-American names. Their hair was cut short because long hair
was considered to belong to savages. Eventually, they lost all semblance of who
they were before entering the boarding and residential schools. They became
strangers to themselves, without any hope of a bright future.
Individuals develop
false identities when they change themselves to what they think others want or
have forced them to be. They define themselves by the roles and positions in
their lives. The children who were placed in these schools were forced to live
under the care of strangers, some very cold and cruel. The role and purpose of
many Indian people was determined by the Euro-Americans. How the individual has chosen to adjust to
the losses affects the redefinition of their lives.[i]
Some people believe that many
individuals use the past as a crutch and an excuse to associate problems such
as alcoholism to the hardships they have faced and continue to face today.
However, contrary to that belief, these substances have been used as a means of
dealing with the pain surfacing in their lives as a result of past and current trauma
experienced by them and their predecessors. Oftentimes, substance abuse and
PTSD go hand in hand.
One
common denominator exists in regards to addictive behaviors. Addictions are
used to achieve detachment from feelings. Detachment lessens the feelings of
pain. In other words, individuals were
and continue to be self-medicating. With the progression of their addictions,
individuals feel more and more detached from their feelings of shame and other
uncomfortable feelings. The use of alcohol and other substances can help with suppressing
anxiety. People oftentimes experience inhibition towards behaviors that may be
construed as immoral while they are under the influence of alcohol and
other substances and thus are
subjected to more feelings of shame when they are sober if they are made aware
of their actions.
PTSD rates have
revealed a strong correlation to health and social problems, which permeates
both tribal and other veteran groups. The number of Indian people suffering
from substance abuse was vastly similar to other veteran populations. Alcoholism rates in tribal communities can be
consistently related to the level of combat experience of tribal people. During
recent studies, it was confirmed that at least 60 percent of all Vietnam combat
veterans suffer from a variety of symptoms of PTSD to some extent. Vietnam
veterans have reported that they have had frequent headaches with no
explainable reason, acute and/or chronic bouts of depression, extreme
nervousness, anger and rage, heightened startle responses, sleep intrusions and
flashbacks of traumatic events. [ii]
Problems
associated with their combat experience have manifested in antisocial
behaviors, substance abuse, and an inability to sustain close personal
relationships with friends, spouses, or family. Divorce and suicide rates
associated with Vietnam veterans are above average in comparison to the same
age group of nonveterans. During the
Vietnam War, two percent of the troops who served in Vietnam were Native
Americans. At that time, Native
Americans encompassed less than one percent of the entire U.S. population. The
number of Native American veterans in combat doubled the number of the general
population. Enlistment rates for tribal members who have resided on the
reservations have proven to be twice the national average, and these recruits
have often served on the front lines. [iii]
“Being a
warrior in Vietnam involved performing a large number of duties, as well as
numbing oneself to the overwhelming fatigue, the drudgery, the almost
unbelievable filth of living in the bush, the shock of seeing horrible wounds
and looking upon dead bodies, and one’s own fear of becoming a casualty… Their
ancestors had been correct in viewing warfare as a mysterious disruption in the
natural order and that without proper spiritual preparation, the horrors of war
would certainly scar their very souls forever… Military training had not really
prepared them for the total experience of Vietnam.”[iv]
As a result, many tribal men who fought in Vietnam are suffering from PTSD and
many are not receiving treatment for this disorder.
PTSD
can lead to strong feelings of anxiety, which can be reactivated by external
and internal triggers associated with overwhelming events. The overwhelming
event will be played out in restless sleep patterns, irritability, outbursts of
anger, difficulty concentrating, memory deficits, hypervigilance, feelings of
vulnerability, fear of repetition of harmful events, looking over one’s
shoulder due to the anticipation of disaster, and being overprotective of loved
ones.
Along
with these symptoms, the person suffering from PTSD may also demonstrate
avoidance techniques to escape all reminders of the trauma. Impaired social and
occupational functioning may occur as a result of avoiding people, specific
situations, or by bouts of anger. These symptoms can lead to physical ailments,
such as elevated blood pressure, sweating, cold and sweaty hands, and elevated heart
rate, which can take its toll on an overly sensitive nervous system.
Treatment
of PTSD may include systematic desensitization involving gradual exposure to
the terrifying event or item. Other
methods involve the development of positive coping strategies,
cognitive/behavioral treatment, psychodynamic psychotherapy, hypnosis,
pharmacotherapy, group and various forms of individual therapy, in-patient
treatment, psycho-social rehabilitation techniques and creative art therapies. A host of treatments for PTSD exist, and many
of these can be provided with results occurring within six to 12 weeks. The first order of business is to recognize
and bring to the forefront the possibility that many Indian people may be experiencing
untreated PTSD and shame issues. The issues tied with PTSD and shame is often
overlooked and goes untreated.
Individuals
living in a state of imbalance must get to the bottom of things to address any
unresolved issues. For example, worth may have been determined by how much a
person does for others. Often this belief was instilled by parents and was
passed down from one generation to the next. Hence, the individuals inflicted
with shame issues do not see themselves as worthy unless they are doing
something for others, and as a result they seriously neglect taking care of
themselves in the process. Once these individuals get to the bottom of why they
feel unworthy most of the time, they can heal from the shame these faulty
beliefs have caused. A massive amount of
tribal people have been exposed to or have experienced sexual, physical, and
emotional abuse. The long-lasting
negative consequences of shame and PTSD can lead to an inability to carry out
everyday activities.
[i] Steffen
described seven sources of shame. These
included faulty learning, excessive negative feedback, poor decision-making,
being a victim of circumstance, false identity, inaccurate perceptions, and
loss of social status or recognition. In
regards to faulty learning, sometimes the wrong information was received or
untrue information was believed to be true.
Excessive negative feedback referred to being told on several occasions
that they, as children and adults, were unworthy or incompetent. An inability to believe in one’s capabilities
may lead to difficulty of making sound decisions. Being the victim of
circumstance referred to someone whom expected bad circumstances to continue
because they have occurred in the past. This state of affairs has been tied
with the feelings of constant gloom and doom about the future and is closely
tied with shame. Steffen, C.
(1999). Dancing Through the Darkness: The Cognitive Treatment of Shame. Illinois:
Reaching Potentials Press.
[ii] Holm,
T. (1996). Strong Hearts Wounded Souls:
Native American Veterans of the Vietnam War. Texas: University of Texas,
8-11.
[iii] Ibid,
8-11.
[iv] Ibid,
139.
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