The intransigence alone of PTSD symptoms has shown how very important it is to learn how and when biological responses best might be interrupted in order to mitigate the effects of a second traumatic event or to circumvent persistent re-experiencing of the primary event (Armony & LeDoux, 1997; Blank, 1993; Delahanty et al., 2003; Orr, 1997; Orr et al., 1997; Pynoos, Steinberg, Ornitz & Goenjian, 1997; Roozendaal, Quirarte, & McGaugh, 1997; Spiegel, 1997; Tryon, 1999; van der Kolk & Fisler, 1995). Used frequently as an adjunct to dialogue between therapist and client in cognitive therapies for PTSD, personal writing or memoir writing is believed to help somewhat in alleviating some of the most disturbing symptoms; however, as yet, researchers do not know why therapies that include writing are effective for some but not for all. One possible explanation that seems central to the thesis of this essay involves the shame that PTSD can induce in victims of traumatic events—shame not only about the event that precedes PTSD, but also about the PTSD symptoms themselves (Andrews, Brewin, Rose, & Kirk, 2000; Farber, Berano, & Capobianco, 2004). Because shame has been shown to arouse the sympathetic nervous system (Gerlach, Wilhelm, & Roth, 2003)—and persistent arousal of the sympathetic nervous system is associated with PTSD maintenance, these feelings of shame associated with having been traumatized may exacerbate the PTSD cycling of avoidance, re-experiencing, and arousal symptoms (Andrews et al.; Buchbinder & Eisikovits, 2003; Herrald & Tomaka, 2002). Investigating these feelings of shame and their effects may provide additional important clues about why not all memoir writing contributes to healing from PTSD—especially memoirs read by people who have not earned the trust of the writer—and why asking first-year students to write in the memoir genre is so risky.