cleclerc-sherling _additional litterature 03192016

Running head: CHEMICAL AND HEALTH EFFECTS 1

Chemical and Health Effects of Trauma and Related Emotional Responses

Christine Leclerc-Sherling

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology

CHEMICAL AND HEALTH EFFECTS 2

Abstract

The mood and the thoughts of a traumatized brain are likely to lead individuals to fear, anger,

blame, pessimism, or negative attribution. This paper explores the areas of the brain likely to be

impaired by trauma and contrasts the neurological and chemical responses of positive emotions

with negative emotions. If negative emotions seem to logically follow trauma, positive emotions

such as empathy, forgiveness, gratitude, optimism and compassion are likely to balance some of

the health and social negative impacts of trauma. Therefore, for an individual with a history of

trauma who is experiencing positive emotions is going against the odds. Posttraumatic growth is

not a logical outcome of trauma, but the result of a transformation. Consequently, learning again

to experience those positive emotions to gain some of the health and social benefits associated

with them demonstrate strength and dedication. The negative and the positive emotions are not

always mutually exclusive and often, in the case where both can be present, a balance of those

emotions is more beneficial than the absence of positive emotions.


Chemical and Health Effects of Trauma as They Relate to Posttraumatic Growth

The chemical changes in the brain after a traumatic event demonstrate that there is a

long-term learning component involved in the posttraumatic equilibrium (Fairbanks et al., 2003).

Some chemical dysfunctions resulting from under or over-activation of certain areas in the brain

(Weiss, 2007) can be the causes for the reenacting, hypervigilance, and dissociation or numbing

posttraumatic symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Miscoding new information

as well as reacting to trauma-like triggers can find their explanation in a posttraumatic chemical

reorganization (Bonanno, Pat-Horencyzk, & Noll, 2011; Elizinga & Bremner, 2002; Smith &

Vale, 2006; Van der Kolk et al., 2006; Weiss, 2007). This paper first introduces the areas in the

brain impacted by trauma. It contrasts then the positive and negative emotions with those areas.

Trauma, Emotions, and Chemicals

Traumatic events associated with “actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual

violation can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)” (American Psychiatric Association,

2013, para 1). As a result, an individual’s system of understanding about the world, others, and

themselves is challenged (Bonanno, Pat-Horecyzk, & Noll, 2011) and connected with strong

emotional responses (Van der Kolk et al., 2006). As a result, areas in the brain dedicated to

emotions, memories, and learning are impacted.

The hypervigilance, startle, and perception of threats may find their source in the

amygdala, where the brain is preparing the motor response based on the intensity of the

emotional stimulation (Elizinga & Bremner, 2002). Hypoactivity in that area of the brain can

reduce the ability of the brain to respond adequately to external events and be responsible for

“hypervigilance to trauma-related cues, exaggerated startle, flashbacks, intrusive memories, and

misinterpretation of innocuous stimuli as potential threats” (Weiss, 2007, p. 115). Conversely, an


overactivation of the thalamus may harm the encoding process of stimuli and lead individuals to

overestimate the information related to the trauma, contributing to hyperarousal symptoms.

Finally, the hippocampus may be responsible for the avoidance and numbing symptoms. After

exposure to trauma, individuals show less neural activities in that area, possibly explaining recall

issues, potential dissociation, and even amnesia for the trauma.

In a traumatized brain, experiencing emotions without perceived threats, processing new

information without a connection or a dissociation with the traumatic event, and making new

relationships can be challenging (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). This next section

investigates the chemical implication of positive and negative emotions. Finally, it discusses

whether those systems are mutually exclusive, complimentary, or overlap.

Empathy vs. Fear

Social interactions involve various regions in the brain: “medial prefrontal cortex,

superior temporal sulcus, temporo-parietal junction, temporal poles, amygdala and insula”

(Happe & Frith, 2014, p. 554). Empathy would have its own network, involving the insula and

the amygdala regions that detect and respond automatically emotionally to others (Kennedy &

Adolphs, 2012). Simultaneously, the amygdala network, including the amygdala and the

orbitofrontal regions, are responsible to detect threats, to assess them emotionally assessment,

and to adjust to them. Fox et al. (2000) found in 45 undergraduate students that they were more

likely to recognize angry faces than happy or even neutral faces. Earlier studies from Hansen and

Hansen (1994) suggested that participants would also not likely move their attention away after

detecting an angry face. Those studies would suggest that the amygdala network would take over

the empathy network in an individual with a history of trauma (Elizinga & Bremner, 2002).

Forgiveness vs. Anger


Regulation and modulation of emotions are dependent on two separate systems: the

Behavioral Activation System (BAS) based on positive emotions and goal directed behaviors and

often associated with positive emotions and the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS), regulating

threats (Hirsh, Webb, & Jeglic, 2012). Anger is a complex emotion that can be found in both

systems, where anger expressed in the left prefrontal cortex would be connected to goal-directed

anger with a positive emotion when released. However, emotions associated with the BIS are

anger toward self and associated with negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, frustration, and

sadness (Gray, 1972; Gray, 1990). BAS is therefore associated with physical anger whereas BIS

is related to self-harm and suicidal behaviors (O’Connor & Forgan, 2007; Smits & Kuppens,

2005).

Worthington, Berry, and Parrott (2001) argued a link between anger and forgiveness

where the latter would offer a better long-term resolution of the problem that expressing anger

temporarily resolves. Empathy and forgiveness activate the left superiori frontal gyrus,

orbitofrontal gyrus, and precuneus parts of the brain (Farrow et al., 2001). Therefore, it seems

like anger and forgiveness could be on a continuum without being mutually exclusive, but where

an individual has to make a cognitive decision to let go of anger as a strategy and adopt

forgiveness as a strategy bringing him or her a better return on investment.

Gratitude vs. Blame and Judgements

Gratitude is key in posttraumatic growth and involves prosocial behaviors such as

perspective taking, morality, and connection with others (McCullough, Kilpatrick, Emmons, &

Larson, 2001; Wood, Froh, & Geraghty, 2010). Gratitude has also been shown to lower

depression symptoms (Wood, Maltby, Gillett, Linley, & Joseph, 2008), to increase a sense of

coherence (Lambert, Graham, Fincham, & Stillman, 2009), and lower materialistic attachment


(Lambert, Fincham, Stillman, & Dean, 2009). Moreover, gratitude is linked with more enduring

relationships (Lambert, Clark, Durtschi, Fincham, & Graham, 2010). When paired with positive

reframing and positive emotion functioning, gratitude tends to lower significantly the symptoms

of depression, more so than when used on its own (Lambert, Fincham, & Stillman, 2012).

Social judgements, however, involve the amygdala, regions of the prefrontal cortex, and

regions related to somatosensory cotices (Harris, 2003). The area of the brain associated with

social judgements are overlapping the area for fear and anger (Adolphs, Tranel, & Damasio,

1998). Hostility and anger have been shown to have harmful effect on physical health (Affleck,

Tennen, Croog, & Levine, 1987; Miller, Smith, Turner, Guijarro, & Hallet, 1996; Tennen &

Affieck, 1990; Williams & Williams, 1993) in lowering the immune system and negatively

impacting the cardiovascular functioning (McCraty, Atkinson, Tiller, Rein, & Watkins, 1995).

Consequently, if gratitude and social judgements can happen simultaneously, they have

opposite effects on the body and on the mind. Gratitude tends to start a virtuous process toward

posttraumatic growth. Social judgement and blame, however, tend to keep individuals within a

vicious emotional cycle associated with the traumatic event.

Optimism vs Pessimism

If some risks can be associated with extreme optimism (Lovallo & Kahneman, 2003),

health benefits are associated with a moderate optimistic illusion (Taylor & Brown, 1988;

Scheler & Carver, 1987). The amygdala is responsible for the emotional modulation including

memory and decision making (Sharot et al., 2007). For an optimistic outlook, individuals’

amygdala is reducing the negative emotion related with the negative future thought. However,

for a pessimistic outlook, individual’s amygdala charges emotionally the negative thoughts

related with the future event. There is then a reciprocal connection with the rest of the three other


areas of the brain dedicated to optimism and pessimism: rostral anterior cingulate cortex, ventral

medial prefrontal cortex, and the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. This suggests that it is likely

for a traumatized brain with changes on the amygdala that the negative emotions would take over

the positive emotions associated with thoughts of future events.

Compassion vs. Negative Attribution

Developing compassion has many reported health benefits such as improved immune

system (Klimecki et al., 2012; Lutz et al., 2008), lower blood pressure and cortisol release

(Cosley et al., 2010), reduced paranoid ideation (Lincoln et al., 2012), and improved general

well-being (Neff & Germer, 2012). Negative attributions can be an obstacle to forgiveness

(Fincham & Beach, 2002; Fincham, Paleari, & Regalia, 2002; Weiner, Craham, Peter, &

Zmuidinas, 1991), where rather than focusing on external mitigating circumstances for the

transgressions, individuals focus on internal and personal causes (Bono & McCullough, 2006).

Moreover, negative attributions are more likely to persist when individuals perceive their

transgressors as still having control over them and are likely to be paired with anger (Weiner,

1986). Compassion allows individuals to progress toward forgiveness and posttraumatic growth,

whereas negative attribution is maintaining the anger, the helplessness associated with the

traumatic event, and encourages demonization of the aggressor.

Conclusion

Empathy, forgiveness, gratitude, optimism and compassion are not the weak outlet for a

traumatized brain, but an active and counterintuitive decision, where health and social benefits

can be the primary motivation. Fear, anger, blame, pessimism, and negative attribution seem to

be having their own vicious cycle, justifying and maintaining the new traumatic equilibrium but

ultimately with costly health outcomes. Fear, anger, blame, pessimism, and negative attribution


are a logic and understandable response to the traumatic event, but an unhealthy long-term

strategy. Any behavior, emotion, or cognition promoting empathy, forgiveness, gratitude,

optimism and compassion are therefore not a luxury for a brain with a history of trauma, but a

necessity.


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