Veterans of the Vietnam War have sadly raised our awareness of the existence of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).   PTSD is a chronic, sometimes lifelone condition resulting in pathological changes in mood, thinking and behavior  It can be incapacitating and lead to job loss, family turmoil and dissolution, poor quality of life and often suicide.  We now understand that the development of PTSD has its basis in enduring alterations of brain function that helps to explain the chronic and persistent nature of this disorder  Treatment can be helpful but frustratingly inadequate.  Unfortunately, there is no “magic bullet” medication.  Research has supported the use of specific psychotherapeutic protocols but community availability can be a problem.

While PTSD’s origins stemmed from war related trauma, we now understand that a wide spectrum of life stressors can result in this disorder.  The 21st century has brought terror attacks to the world stage.  “Lone wolf” attacks, Islamic terrorism and most recently violence against the police has become a national proccupation.  In previous decades, our awareness of PTSD was based on either or familiarity with individuals suffering from this disorder or the occasional print news article.  However, the media technology revolution of our current century has brought us both the blessing and curse of 24/7 connectivity to world and national events.

For several years I have been terribly concerned about the repetitive exposure to traumatic life events that the Internet and television promulgate.  Recent terror attacks around the world are cases in point for one cannot avoid the persistent replaying of the visual imagery and dramatic accounts by the newspeople of these human tragedies.  Before the media revolution we learned of traumatic events through the newspaper, 6:00 pm news or news hour on the radio. One only has to recall the steady calm recitation of bad news by the likes of Walter Cronkite and compare it to the present day dramatic and horrifying presentation of such news.  Clearly horror sells and is profitable.  We have become captive audiences for this traumatic exposure.  To make matters worse, we are captivated by it and have difficulty “unplugging” ourselves from the TV set or Internet.

This brings me now to my greatest clinical concern.  Repetitive exposure to graphic trauma has an imapact on our central nervous systems.  Even though we may not be the victim of the terror we are passively being terrorized.  Adults have a greater capacity to process such horror but imagine the difficulties this creates for our children whose immature nervous systems and reasoning ability pose significant obstacles for coping with this type of daily non-stop life stress.  I fear that we are all becoming victims in our own way of the “madness” we are being exposed to.  This is why I titled this paper, “Media-Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”.

We have a responsibility to control our children’s exposure to traumatic media and prevent the damage that can result.  As adults we should heed this advice as well.  Ultimately, we must change the way that public media communicates traumatic events.  I wish that this was easier said than done.