Writing Reference: Trauma Aging the Appearance
For my fellow angsty and whumpy writers who are writing characters that have been through a lot.
Does trauma actually speed up one's aging?
Yes, and no. Studies show mixed evidence, that requires more looking into as it's more complex than initially thought.
We mostly know that some people do seem to age faster during trauma like violence or some abuse, but not as much so for poverty or neglect. Genetic factors might play a role. People who seemed to age faster would have puberty earlier than others and even show signs of accelerated aging at a cellular level.
We're still doing ongoing research about what this means and what decides this.
The general theory behavioral scientists and biologists are leaning on is that aging faster during in dangerous traumatic times serves an evolutionary advantage.
As for adults, significant results show that depression can be a damper of lifespan, especially for elders, but there's a lot outside of trauma that influences this.
Graying Hair
Stress, not even just trauma, but stress alone can gray your hair. Genetics can play a role of course, but you've ever seen a single mom you know that they have to buy lots of hair dye.
Many hormones and chemicals activate when stressed, and double so when entering a form of shock, adrenaline rush, or total despair. One of those chemicals is norepinephrine.
Norepinephrine actually affects your melanocyte stem cells, the exact cells that stand at the base of each string of hair, and if these melanocytes die off they can't be replaced and the hair happens to lose pigment.
People typically start to gray around their forehead, sides of their faces, and central scalp. It takes a long time for someone's whole head of hair to completely gray, and usually someone will rock half-grayed hair for a long while before aging catches up if their gray is caused from stress. Facial hair can also gray.
Wrinkles and Tear Troughs
Dark eye circles, stress wrinkles, deep tear troughs, heavy eye bags... We've all heard it. Do these actually happen though?
Yes, absolutely. I can even vouch anecdotal evidence, as a severe abuse survivor myself, if you pull up old pictures of me I look like I was just pulled out of someone's back shed that had a magical portal to a world war.
Stress Wrinkles
Stress causes tenseness, and that includes in the face. This tenseness for long periods of time can cause wrinkles, especially in individuals past their late twenties. Some common stress wrinkles we see is between the eye brows known as frown lines, forehead lines, bunny lines that are between the nose and cheeks often near the nostril area, and smile lines that around the mouth.
Tear Troughs
Those lines you typically see right at the top of the nose and underneath the eyes are actually deep tear trough lines, I have these myself.
They can sometimes give the appearance of sunken eyes, dark circles, and heavier eye bags due to lighting on your face. Deep ones are referred to in the cosmetic industry as tear trough deformities. They can be caused by genetics of course, but also heavy sleep deprivation, dehydration, stress, and significant weight loss.
Many would describe their appearance as making a person always look extremely tired. They can also have a sort of darker hue to them as they leave the skin thin against your sockets. They can help eye bags form as well.
Eye Bags & Dark Circles
When you're always tired or experiencing a lack of sleep the muscles around the eyes can become strained, leading to puffiness and color tinting. Fatigue, depression, and lack of sleep messed with your blood flow. We can the see the results of so in places with thin skin such as the eye area.
Inflammation, dehydration, malnourishment, and weight loss cause these areas to discolor as well.
Sunken Eyes
One day I found an old picture of my brother and I. We looked mostly like normal kids besides our eerily sunken eyes.
Sunken eyes look different from eyebags and dark circles, and you typically know when you see them because they leave you feeling chilled or spooked. Something just looks so very very wrong in them. They are dramatic, really really dramatic, and can even be frightening depending on their severity.
Dehydration is a major player in causing sunken eyes, as well as damage to the facial structure from physical trauma. Sleep deprivation can cause it. Pair this with all the other above stress agers, and one can walk out into the world with a sunken appearance.
Sunken eyes can appear very dark, red, purple, or black even, and leave deep grooves underneath the eye. They can cause the eyelids to appear droopy, and the eyes intense and bulging. The eyes are literally deeper into the socket and they truly are best described as sunken.
Sunken eyes can also cause eye dryness, give the face a sense of asymmetry in eye positioning, cause double vision, difficulty focusing, and a sagging look to the skin around the eyes and eyelids.
Thousand Yard Stare & PTSD Eyes
I'm sure you've seen the famous artwork by Thomas Lea going about capturing an American soldier looking to the perspective with these horrific eyes.
PTSD eyes and the thousand yard stare are two completely different things.
Thousand Yard Stare
The thousand yard stare is a biological response people can have due to extreme violence and danger such as war. Wikipedia describes the stare as blank and unfocused. It is a reaction to shellshock or CSR which are both really terms for active PTSD while still under extreme duress such as in war combat.
In fact there are plenty other reactions that can happen alongside the thousand yard stare or in its stead, including...
Catatonia
Hypervigilance
Dissociative Amnesia
Uncontrollable Laughter
Tremors
Headaches/Migraines
Tinnitus
Neurasthenia (Sudden Muscle Weakness)
Mutism
Fugue
Sensory Overload
Screaming
Paralysis
Fear Response
Dissociation
And many many more
This is shellshock/combat stress reaction, and these things actually aren't limited to those in war. Anyone experiencing any kind of extreme shock in traumatic situation such as sexual assaults, murder, sudden death of a loved one, torture, kidnapping, and more.
These things very much often develop into PTSD, and although a rare reaction to returning extreme stress, those with PTSD can sometimes mimic these reactions during a flashback episode.
PTSD Eyes
Then what is PTSD eyes?
PTSD Eyes is a term coined to describe that sort of unique look in the eyes that those with PTSD can exhibit. This is caused by a lack of pupil reaction to threatening or upsetting imagery compared to the average person, and meanwhile an exaggerated reaction to nonthreatening imagery.
People with PTSD eyes can actually have a harder time focusing on things with their sight. This can also give people with PTSD a general unfocused sort of look.
In a series of pictures showing soldiers before, during, and after war we can see this very often in the after image.
Weight Loss
Malnutrition and starvation is extremely hard on the body, and very dangerous. It will show in every facet on your appearance. Your face can grow sunken and sharp, your arms and chest boney and gangly, and the muscles and bone structure underneath starts to show.
Often times trauma and weight loss can go hand in hand, not even through relation, but just due to circumstance.
Pale Complexion
Pallor, or medical paleness, can be a result of fatigue and stress, giving the skin a paler or grayer appearance.
Other causes can be shock, malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, anemia, recent blood loss, and even low blood sugar. After some time and care to the body people will eventually brighten back up.
Extra Sources & Farewell
Here's some awesome sources if you want to look into things even more!
Researchers found that the body’s fight-or-flight response plays a key role in turning hair gray.
Boston University is a leading private research institution with two primary campuses in the heart of Boston and programs around the world.
Cardiff University study finds pupils of people with PTSD respond differently to emotional images
Photographer Lalage Snow, who is currently based in Kabul, Afghanistan, embarked on an 8-month-long project titled We Are The Not Dead featu
Combat stress is a common response to mental and emotional strain from dangerous and traumatic situations. Learn about combat stress and PTS
Trauma-induced paralysis, or tonic immobility, is an extreme trauma response often associated with severe trauma. Click here to learn what c
