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Art Therapy in PTSD for Military Veterans

By Anmol Prithani

Extra Blog Post

I was recently watching a news piece by The Guardian called ‘Fight or Flight: The Veterans at War with PTSD’. The video focussed on army veterans having anxiety, paranoia and recurrent flashbacks which prevented them from leading a normal life post their service. According to the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health, 22 military veterans commit suicide in the United States every day and the number is climbing. While many therapies have been tested to combat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the complexity of the disorder makes it extremely difficult to treat. (Marmer, 1996) Therefore, in my article, I will be exploring an emerging therapy for PTSD — art therapy and will list why it is considered meritorious in the treatment of certain symptoms of PTSD.

The video starts with a veteran, Andy Price, saying, “I think about taking my life every single day.” According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms of PTSD include recurrent flashbacks, avoidance of situations and people that serve as reminders of the trauma, negative feelings such as anxiety, paranoia and suicidal feelings, and emotional numbing.

One of the main reasons Art Therapy is considered meritorious is because it allows the victims to face uncomfortable situations through a pleasurable distraction. (Johnson et. al, 1997) This helps in combating the symptom of avoidance. In fact, Johnson and his colleagues also discovered that it was easier to confront their past through drawing and visualising it, rather than verbal therapy or talking about it.  This is because there is a shutdown in the Broca’s area, which is the speech-language area of the brain, when a person experiences trauma. (Walker, 2016) Art therapy allows service members to express their trauma without having to use the Broca’s area thereby helping in solving avoidance.

Art Therapy also allows for the reconstruction of memories. It emphasizes the usefulness of the art expression in the reconstruction of the trauma narrative. (Ballou, 1995) Thereby helping in alleviating the negative recurring memories — nightmares and flashbacks. In a study by Morgan and Johnson (1995), victims who drew after being awakened by nightmares had fewer and less intense nightmares and those who did not. Walker also found in her study that among painting, drawing and other art forms, mask-making was the most beneficial as patients can give a ‘face’ to their fears. According to her, those who made a mask about their fears and nightmares, had very few of those flashbacks or none at all. Additionally, when they did see these faces again, they could replace them with the image of the mask and not feel anxious.  Therefore, the symptom of recurring symptoms that causes anxiety can be healed by reconstructing those memories through art.

Art Therapy also addresses emotional numbing by making the victim arouse pleasurable feelings since most people find creative expression pleasurable and satisfying. (Collie et. al, 2006) The therapy allows patients to feel something through drawing and art, instead of not feeling anything.

The other benefit of Art Therapy is that it allowed the negative content to be processed without the immediate side-effects such as anxiety, paranoia and suicidal thoughts. Patients can think about their past and trauma, and process and reproduce it in a safe and pleasurable context. They can become creative with their trauma and view it differently. “Art expression is a powerful way to safely contain and create separation from the terrifying experience of trauma,” writes Gretchen Miller, art-therapist at National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children. This separation and containment of the experience which elicits negative feelings helps the individual in facing the trauma without anxious, depressive or paranoid feelings. For instance, even in Walker’s studies, the patients were able to separate themselves from their trauma through art and create masks about their visions without feeling anxious.

In conclusion, Art Therapy addresses a variety of symptoms that are interlinked with each other.  While Art Therapy does not take any guarantees for curing the disorder, it helps in alleviating many symptoms of it. Therefore, it is a growing and meritorious style of therapy  that is worth a consideration.

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