summary: New research reveals that fear of emotions may explain why individuals with PTSD symptoms struggle to communicate with romantic partners. This study found that people with higher symptoms of PTSD were more likely to fear strong emotions, which led to constructive, conflict-driven communication styles.
These emotional fears contribute to patterns like draw behavior in which one partner puts pressure on and another retreat strengthens both the tension and symptoms of PTSD in the relationship. Researchers emphasize that dealing with emotional fear along with symptoms of PTSD can improve communication and support recovery.
Important facts:
- Emotional fear link: Symptoms of PTSD are associated with fear of strong emotions and affect communication.
- Destructive Pattern: Fear of emotions increases the draw dynamics that are in demand for couples.
- Treatment Opportunities: Addressing both PTSD and emotional fear can improve relationships and healing.
sauce: Pennsylvania
Previous research by Stephanie Fredman, an associate professor of human development and other family studies in Pennsylvania, found that people with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often have trouble communicating and solving difficulties in relationships with romantic partners.
In a new study, Fredman and others found that some of these issues could be attributed to people’s fear of their emotions.
The researchers collected data from 64 heterosexual couples whose members of the couple had experienced traumatic living events. The researchers analyzed PTSD symptoms data from each member of the couple for negative outcomes when they felt strong emotions and how they and their partners tend to communicate.
Results published in Behavioral research and treatment We demonstrated that people with higher levels of PTSD symptoms had greater fear of emotions. This was related to constructive communication and more counterproductive communication with partners.
“This study was trying to understand why people with symptoms of PTSD struggle to solve the difficulties in relationships with romantic partners,” Fredman said.
“In general, people with PTSD view themselves and others negatively, resulting in distrust, avoidance, withdrawal and emotional paralysis that creates tension in romantic relationships.
According to Fredman, PTSD can create a vicious cycle. Behaviors caused by PTSD symptoms such as aggression, avoidance, withdrawal, and paralysis can strain relationships, and relationship inconsistencies can maintain symptoms of PTSD. This cycle continues as long as something doesn’t change.
Fredman co-developed a couple-based treatment for PTSD to disrupt this cycle. Individuals with PTSD often experience emotions as dangerous, triggers, or trauma reminders.
Romantic relationships evoke many strong emotions, allowing people to engage in actions that threaten emotionally stimulating interactions with their partners and neutralize this perceived threat, such as becoming aggressive or retreating.
When one or both partners develop unhealthy coping skills, tensioned romantic relationships can enhance symptoms of PTSD. Meanwhile, the relationships where people can express and hear themselves can promote recovery from PTSD, she said.
In the current study, the researchers recruited people with a wide range of symptoms and severity of symptoms of PTSD. Studying people with a wide range of severity allowed the researchers to understand how more or less severe symptoms are likely to affect relationship communication.
The researchers interviewed participants about symptoms of PTSD and asked participants if they were afraid of emotions. They also asked whether they would normally communicate constructively. Whether to request while the partner is withdrawing. And whether their partners request while they are withdrawing when relationship issues arise.
In demand/retract communications, one partner may complain or attempt to request a response from a nag or partner. Other partners respond by withdrawing and avoiding interactions. Usually, Fredman said the more one person leaves, the more demands the other partners will.
This type of communication does not facilitate problem solving and often leaves the problem unsolved. An unproductive and unresolved conflict can maintain symptoms of PTSD by strengthening perceptions of interpersonal threats and negative views of yourself and other partners, Fredman continued.
Study participants who reported higher levels of PTSD symptoms were more likely to report fear of emotions. Furthermore, those who reported greater fear of emotions were less likely to report constructive communication, more likely to report requests while their partner was withdrawing, and what their partner would request during withdrawal.
According to Fredman, the study meant that it was the first to identify fear of emotions that has interpersonal consequences.
“When we look at only the symptoms and communication of PTSD without considering a person’s fear of emotions, there are relatively few direct connections that we can identify,” Fredman said.
“When we looked at the relationship between symptoms of PTSD and emotional fear and the relationship between emotional fear and communication style, the connections became clear.
Previous studies by Fredman and colleagues demonstrated that individuals with elevated PTSD symptoms have difficulty regulating their own emotional arousal during laboratory-based conversations with their partner about relationships.
More specifically, they responded to their own emotional awakening, and emotional awakening was transmitted through their partner’s voice in a way consistent with emotional awakening that acts as a trauma cues.
The current study extended this previous study by demonstrating that catastrophic thoughts about the individual’s PTSD symptoms feeling strong emotions are rewarding, and that such thoughts tend to cause couples with one or both partners raising PTSD symptoms to struggle to communicate constructively.
“Other studies we have conducted have shown that couples therapy can effectively reduce symptoms of PTSD and improve relationship communication, even on just one weekend,” Fredman said.
“This latest study reveals more nuances about how PTSD symptoms, fear of emotions, and communication difficulties are associated with them, and why they should be treated simultaneously.”
Jeesun Lee, graduate student in human development and family studies in Pennsylvania. Yunying Le, who received his PhD in Human Development and Family Studies in 2019 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in Pennsylvania, is currently an assistant professor of research at the University of Denver. Emily Taverna received her PhD in Psychology from Pennsylvania in 2023 and is currently a Senior Fellow of Women’s Health in the Department of Women’s Health Sciences at the PTSD National Center. Virginia Tech professor Amy Marshall also contributed to this research.
Funding: The National Center for Translation Science, Carl R. Fink, Early Career Professor for Research in the Diane Wendle Fink Family, Edna P. Bennett Bennett Funship in Prevention Research, and Graduate Fellowships of Joseph and Jean Britton, the University of Health and Human Development in Pennsylvania, funded the study.
About this PTSD and communication research news
author: Christine Yu
sauce: Pennsylvania
contact: Christine Yu – Pennsylvania
image: This image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original research: Open access.
“Relationship between PTSD symptoms, fear of emotions, and difficulty in communication in couples: a human dyadic analysis“Steffany Fredman et al. Behavioral research and treatment
Abstract
Relationship between PTSD symptoms, fear of emotions, and difficulty in communication in couples: a human dyadic analysis
This study investigated the perception of couples’ communication difficulties in binomial contexts among mixed-gender community couples exposed to PTSD symptoms, fear of emotions, and 64 trauma (n = 128 individuals) Use the interdependency mediation model of actor partners.
People with higher PTSD symptoms supported greater fear of emotions (βmale = .72; βwoman = .49), and those who were afraid of their emotions reported lower levels of constructive couple communication (βmale = -.19; βwoman = −.21) and higher levels of self-demand/partners and draw communication (βmale = .20; βwoman = .25) and partner demand/self with Draw communication (βmale = .26; βwoman = .33) With a partner.
Furthermore, women whose partners had higher symptoms of PTSD supported greater fear of emotions (β=.30).
The most robust indirect PTSD communization link recognizes (a) that it tells the relationship between partner/self-withdraw communication when considering the association between individual PTSD symptoms and emotional fear, and the relationship between male PTSD symptoms and female perceived partner symptoms/female communication.
Men with higher symptoms of PTSD reported greater self-demand/partner-partner communication (β=.28) independent of fear of emotion.
Couple-based treatment of PTSD, which promotes emotional tolerance and is sensitive to gender differences in how PTSD symptoms are related to each partner’s perception of male demand/female communication patterns, may improve the relationship function of trauma survivors and increase the likelihood that they will serve as a conduit for recovery from PTSD.
