PTSD and Art Therapy

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety caused by very stressful or

frightening events.
They may include military combat, terrorist attacks, assault, natural disasters,
road accidents or witnessing violent deaths.
PTSD can develop immediately after a disturbing event, or can emerge months or
years later.
It's thought that one in three people who have a traumatic experience are affected
by PTSD, NHS Choices say.
Veterans who have been physically or psychologically injured through service are
the responsibility of NHS. Currently, one of the ten NHS England regions offer art
therapy as part as Specialist Veterans Services.

UK researchers have discovered evidence for PTSD dating 3,000 years ago. They
consider that soldiers experiencing horrors of the battlefield is not just a
phenomenon of modern warfare. The earliest mention has been depicted from the
Battle of Marathon, 490BC. A Mycenaean Vase decorated with Bronze Age
warriors reflects an episode of Battle of Marathon. One of the first historians who
depicted the battle of Marathon and provided one of the first description of the
PTSD was the greek Historian Herodotus. In year 490 BC he described during the
Battle of Marathon an Athenian military personal who suffered nu injury but
became blind after witnessing the death of a fellow soldier. This is the first
depiction of PTSD case describing how the invisible traumatic events and the
invisible wounds’ effects.

“Traumatic memories typically exist in our minds and bodies in a state-specific

form, meaning they hold the emotional, visual, physiological, and sensory
experiences that were felt at the time of the event,” says Erica Curtis, a
California-based licensed marriage and family therapist. “They’re essentially
undigested memories.”
Art therapists consider a compassionate, creative method to deal and heal the
hidden wounds of trauma.

Traumatic memories are often stored in images or other sort of sensations such as
panic attacks, social dissociations, withdrawal, combat alert where verbalization
is often blocked. Art therapy is a bridge that allows those who suffered traumatic
experience to express what they feel.

Veterans such as U.S. Air Force veteran Amber Corcoran use adult coloring books
as a form of art therapy to cope with their combat related post traumatic stress
disorder. “People’s ability to find language shuts down when processing trauma so
image making and play are easier forms of expression,” said Rebecca Bloom, art
therapist and owner of Seattle-based Bloom Counseling. “We process trauma in a
visual manner, think about a traumatic incident that happened to you, you
probably remember it visually as opposed to describing it in words.”

“I THOUGHT THIS WAS A JOKE,” recalled Staff Sgt. Perry Hopman, who served as a
flight medic in Iraq. “I wanted no part of it because, number one, I’m a man, and I
don’t like holding a dainty little paintbrush. Number two, I’m not an artist. And
number three, I’m not in kindergarten. Well, I was ignorant, and I was wrong,
because it’s great. I think this is what started me kind of opening up and talking
about stuff and actually trying to get better.”
Walker, is art therapist and healing arts coordinator with the National Intrepid

Center of Excellence at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he runs a

successful art therapy program in which service members that served in Iraq and

Afghanistan and suffer from PTSD or a traumatic brain injury (TBI) are creating

papier-mâché masks to express their feelings. This is a very successful program

and has had a positive impact on the healing process of the service men and

women.

“It’s actually the first art directive they’re introduced to as they come through the

program,” Walker stated “These are service members that sometimes have trouble

verbalizing what they’re struggling with and these masks, along with all the

artwork [they] create, help to make their invisible wounds visible.”

Some studies have found that PTSD develops in about:

● 1 in 5 firefighters.
● 1 in 3 teenage survivors of car crashes.
● 1 in 2 female rape victims.
● 2 in 3 prisoners of war.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that PTSD afflicts:

● Almost 31 percent of Vietnam veterans

● As many as 10 percent of Gulf War (Desert Storm) veterans
● 11 percent of veterans of the war in Afghanistan
● 20 percent of Iraqi war veterans

A study run by Combat Stress in the United KIngdom in 2014 indicates the
serious increase in PTSD cases was a “matter of concern” and came at the same
time as an unprecedented outburst in demand for military mental health help
required.
The veterans’ mental health charity has stated that a 57 per cent increase
demand in health therapy and mental health treatment was needed by former
soldiers, sailors and airmen after serving in Afghanistan.

In 1947, the U.S. Army released a documentary named Shades of Gray, about the
causes, effects and methods of dealing of mental illness during WWII. This
documentary indicates the consensus at that time that no one is immune to mental
illness, and that environmental factors play a crucial role in the evolution of
psychological issues. Trauma can be easily triggered during war due to the
hostility of the environment produced by it.
I tell them how PTSD has affected me: I avoid elevators, crowds and July 4th
fireworks; I’m claustrophobic from the 12 days I spent in a lightless cell at the
Luftwaffe interrogation center in Germany, and I won’t fly unless I have an aisle
seat.- 94 years old WW2 veteran Norman Bussell states.

“Clearly, art therapy is helping US veterans and serving personnel who are
recovering from PTSD. It could prove invaluable to offer an equivalent service in the
UK” –Janice Lobban- Janice Lobban, Senior Art Psychotherapist at the UK
veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress.

“Art expression is a powerful way to safely contain and create separation from the
terrifying experience of trauma,” writes board-certified art therapist Gretchen
Miller for the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children. “Art safely gives
voice to and makes a survivor’s experience of emotions, thoughts, and memories
visible when words are insufficient.”

Though currently art therapy is not used to its full potential and recognized in
the medical industry , art therapy has clearly shown solely positive results in those
seeking therapy after any sort of trauma experienced. The wounds, deeply hidden
at a subconscious level, are like a prisoner in a dark room with no access to
daylight, art therapy creates a window for those suffering for trauma to express
their feelings, hurt, to process their emotions and help them heal.