A Built Environment with Architectural Parameters in Sustainability That Mitigates the Onset of PTSD in High Armed Conflict: Physiological, Cognitive, Psychoanalytic, And Social/Behavioral Stimuli to Induce Cognitive Processing for Self-Healing

Abstract

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was first recognized in veterans of war and called shellshock, and in later years defined by numerous other names. Since 2001 the rate of PTSD within Veterans has increased to the same percentage as that found in the Vietnam War, and I’ve questioned, “what is being done for them on an environmental level”? How is the built environment benefiting them by reducing forms of stimulation that “triggers” or induces unstable behavior? With extensive research the clear answer was that nothing is being done within our built environment, aside from a few guidelines to design to lessen negative impacts. Equally, nothing out in high armed conflict nor in overseas installations that provide rehabilitation care units to wounded warriors are bridging therapy done out there to that done in the United States. The fact is that there is a lack of connection and familiarity with a “sanctity” out in warfare for those with PTSD and this is what inspired this thesis and the innovative design it discusses. A built environment with sustainable architectural parameters will not only allow a “sanctity” to be undetectable and a secure unit for self-rehabilitation as a parallel helper to other forms of therapy for PTSD in conflicted areas, but will equally create an intimacy with the built environment that leads to personal security to enable one to take the necessary steps to continuing rehabilitation after returning home to the United States.