Neurospecialist Discusses PTSD

The effect of trauma on the brain and how it affects behaviors | John Rigg | TEDxAugusta

This Ted talk was done in 2015 by Dr. John Riggs, a brain injury specialist in Augusta, Georgia. At the time of this talk, Riggs specialized in PTSD, helping veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at Fort Gordon. As an interesting aside, Dr. Riggs spent many years as a professional musician before he earned an MD in his forties.

As someone with Complex PTSD, I am driven to understand the seemingly incomprehensible, to fill in the unknown. Accordingly I found Riggs’ comments about the brain and trauma to be illuminating.?

And now his insights into PTSD:

First, Riggs talks about how only the primitive animal brain reacts to danger. In contrast, the thinking part of the brain—the cerebral cortex—goes completely offline during traumatic events. After all, if a saber tooth tiger is about to eat you, it’s hardly the time to write a treatise.?It should also be said that the same holds true for triggers of those events after the fact, when one is constantly on guard for risk.

Expanding on triggers, Riggs tells the story of a veteran who was a patient of his. The two of them would be doing nothing particularly memorable,?just walking down a hall and speaking?casually about everyday topics. The veteran in question, however, would reach the end of the hallway and remember absolutely nothing about the conversation. When asked about his experience, the veteran explained that as he and Riggs were talking he had been obsessively focused?on watching all of the closed doors, as he waited for a man to storm?through with a gun. Riggs then comments that there was no problem with the veteran’s actual ability to remember things. Rather, the challenge was that his surroundings did not register because he was so intent on defending himself from war. Or, more aptly in this case, the memories of war. Riggs doesn't pursue the difficulties with memory beyond this example, but I found his story fascinating, as it points to the brain's facility at protecting itself during a traumatic event or, as in the case of the veteran, when one is triggered later. Which would explain why some lose their memory of traumatic events entirely and therefore might experience powerful feelings of dread when triggered, even though they don't?recall the precipitating trauma.

Secondly, Riggs talks about another veteran who was in attendance at a concert in Atlanta, enjoying himself until some fireworks suddenly boomed over the venue. Terrified of a possible explosion—memories of IED’s ever vigilant in his brain—he immediately fell to the ground, cowering. Riggs remarks that someone who is not traumatized might initially react with fear, but with the help of the thinking brain, they would rapidly realize that there was no threat—no terrorist event, for example. But this would only be true for someone without the PTSD that arises from combat. This story reinforces?the agony of living in two halves of reality: that of trauma and that of a world that exists without trauma.

After exploring the medical basis of PTSD, Riggs shifts toward an up note. He points out that even though the thinking brain becomes nearly crippled at rationally assessing potential risk, it can in fact be trained to use logic in order to lessen the impact of triggers. PTSD is not fate; rather, it is a terrifying sequence of events that have a natural outcome of dis-ease. Thankfully, these events can be rethought, rewritten. In celebration of that hope, Dr. Riggs ends by playing a blues solo on his guitar, by way of illustrating that those with PTSD can return to good lives infused with meaning.

Riggs’ talk is well worth the 25 minutes or so of watching. For me personally, I gained some much-needed perspective about my experience with PTSD, in addition to the reminder that none of us are alone.?