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patrickSwayzeNU t1_iv5h23t wrote

Reply to comment by ruesselmann in Has PTSD due to trauma and/or violence affected humans for centuries or is this a more recent phenomenon? Have there always been long-term effects when an individual experiences trauma and/or violence? by shooflydont

I’m riffing here - intrusive thoughts could be the work of a second, long term focused system that works to “refresh” the trauma.

With respect to over generalization - that’s simply a natural outcome of a discrimination model working with asymmetric costs. False negatives have higher cost here than false positives.

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ruesselmann t1_iv5jc0h wrote

Interesting thoughts.

Yes I'd agree that overgeneralization sustains avoidance behaviour which short term can be with your cost/benefit reults. On the other hand it hinders more diverse behaviour long term and that would be (or at least could) a negative evolutionary fit. Which would not make it (ptsd) a positive evolutionary trait but just something where it stayed in spite evolutionary pressure.

The intrusive thoughts are often seen as refreshing the actuality of the trauma, but not as purpose but more as a unconscious attempt of integrating the emotional "short-curcuit" of a experience

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