There are a few things society agrees “warrant” Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder — combat experiences, rape, violence of any kind.
If someone attributes their PTSD to those things, pretty much everyone nods and says, “I understand. God bless you. That sounds tough. There but for the grace of God go I.”
But then other victims talk about their PTSD from more pedestrian things — like a bad public speaking performance, or a brief moment you felt neglected as a child because a parent raised her voice and it frightened you.
Thirty years later, victims still claim to be haunted, unnerved — their lives altered.
But, unfortunately, lots of Christians look at them and say: “Come on. You had a little scratch and you’re still whining about it?”
We’re just giving them tough love, right? No, actually, we’re unwittingly being cruel.
Researchers have shown that PTSD from what society calls “a scratch” is just as real as PTSD from someone who almost had their face blown off by a bomb.
And now a new study shows one powerful reason why some people face life-long trauma from a “scratch of an experience,” while others move on quickly.
It’s not because one person is choosing to be tough and the other traumatized.
It has to do with the regulation of a gene called NTRK2. And how our body regulates that gene is beyond our control.
In the large study, researchers found that stronger regulation of NTRK2 by methylation reduced memory formation and the power of memories.
Therefore, traumatic experiences just didn’t have the same oomph in these individuals.
Meanwhile, participants whose bodies had weaker regulation of the gene NTKR2 had weaker memories, and those memories didn’t become entrenched to nearly the degree or severity as the first group.
In other words, a key difference between those who Laugh Off a Bomb vs. Those Who Crumble When They Remember Something A Parent Said 50 Years Ago has to do with how our bodies regulate the gene, NTKR2.
It has nothing to do with guts, it has nothing to do with a “snowflake generation.” It has nothing to do with any of the things popular culture (and Christians) tend to attribute it to.
This is why it’s so so important for the Christian church to actually take the lead in, as Dr. Matthew Stanford writes, showing “grace for the afflicted.”
The writer of Hebrews reminds us to show compassion to the hurting “as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.” Even if we don’t understand their pain.
We should be the last ones to hurl insults like “snowflakes” at those undergoing any kind of pain — no matter how American Individualism has lied to us about it, both scientifically and theologically.
Romans 12:15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”
