Is PTSD Contagious?
“Brannan Vines has never been to war. But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers.”
- Who is Brannan Vines and why is it important that she has never been to war?
- What attributes really describe a warriors skills? Hyperawareness, hypervigilance, etc.? Or instead a steady-hand, clear thoughts, and adaptability.
- Why is she being triggered? Is it sparked by situations that are stressful or is she always like this. Perhaps she is just having a rough day and this only happens from time to time. (Personality Trait)
“Like Brannan’s symptoms. Hypervigilance sounds innocuous, but it is in fact exhaustingly distressing, a conditioned response to life-threatening situations.”
- The author is referring to the disposition of Brannan as a symptom of something. Its then described to be a conditioned response, which means that the cause of these symptoms must have happened countless times.
- The situations were described as life threatening. What made the situations life threatening? There were no stories to describe the life threatening decisions.
“You can hear the cat padding around. The air conditioner whooshes, a clock ticks.”
- Descriptive phrases and words help give an eerie feel to the house and make it seem as if their living in a tomb.
“Their German shepherd, a service dog trained to help veterans with PTSD, is ready to alert Caleb to triggers by barking, or to calm him by jumping onto his chest.”
- The severity of Brannan’s disorder is again stressed now in the visualization of a service dog. Further implanting the idea that PTSD is serious illness and needs to be treated as such.
“Sometimes I can’t do the laundry,” Brannan explains, reclining on her couch. “And it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m too tired to do the laundry,’ it’s like, ‘Um, I don’t understand how to turn the washing machine on.’ I am looking at a washing machine and a pile of laundry and my brain is literally overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to reconcile them.”
- The effects of the PTSD encompasses anything and everything. Even day to day tasks are stressful for Brannan and are to the point of being over-whelming.
- Moments spent on the couch reclining back seem to be few and far between.
- Normal tasks that require little to no cognitive abilities are now too much to handle.
Rowan Counterintuitive 