Is Blunted &/or Flat Affect in Sz Actually PTSD?

DX'd - Other
1

From Wikipedia on blunted affect:

"Blunted affect is a clinical term to define a lack of emotional reactivity (affect display) in an individual. It manifests as a failure to express feelings either verbally or non-verbally, especially when talking about issues that would normally be expected to engage the emotions. Expressive gestures are rare and there is little animation in facial expression or vocal inflection.[1] Blunted affect can be symptomatic of schizophrenia, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, depersonalization disorder,[2][3][4] or brain damage.[5] It may also be a side effect of certain medications (e.g., antipsychotics and long-term use of SSRI antidepressants).[6] Individuals with blunted or flat affect show different regional brain activity when compared with healthy individuals.

“Blunted affect is a lack of affect more severe than restricted or constricted affect, but less severe than flat or flattened affect. ‘The difference between flat and blunted affect is in degree. A person with flat affect has no or nearly no emotional expression. He or she may not react at all to circumstances that usually evoke strong emotions in others. A person with blunted affect, on the other hand, has a significantly reduced intensity in emotional expression’.[7]”

I was grinding through Peter Levine’s In an Unspoken Voice (a very hot book on PTSD these days) when it dawned on me that blunted and/or totally flat affect in negative symptom sz may well be a manifestation of Levine’s “folding” (and my own “flopping”) vs. “fight,” “flight,” “freeze,” or “freak” and (as in positive symptom sz) “fry”. It may be another way of dissociating from the “intolerable feelings” that often energize the “voices,” as well as the anxiety, mania and depression commonly co-morbid with sz.

If this is somewhat, largely or entirely the case, it opens a very big door to treatment in terms of both medicinal and therapeutic approaches.

I admit I may be re-inventing the wheel, of course. But having seen almost zip on this in my 2ndary research, so I gotta ask the question: Does anyone here resonate with this idea?

2

I think that it could be. After traumatic experiences it is a common reaction to attempt to depersonalize or dissassociate from the pain of trauma. This often from my own experience results in an attempt to isolate myself emotionally from the pain and even attempt to rationalize by attempting to forget which often results in blocking memories and long term memory loss. To avoid the traumatic experience replaying over and over again in your head you attempt to block out the experience and move on but that does not usually work and the impact comes out in negative behavior that is sometimes passive but could result in aggression.