Emotional Trauma and the Adolescent Brain Essay example

Childhood and adolescence is a crucial time for humans- a time full of physical, emotional, and cognitive development. Upon observing the significant impact that trauma induced stress can have on adults following time in combat or an injury, when adults have fully matured in all areas, it raises the question of what influence post-traumatic stressors can have on development in children. This issue was so significant that in the DSM-5, the psychologists introduced a new, and separate, section of criteria for PTSD that specifically relates to the preschool subtype, or those individuals six years and younger. The first age specific sub-type for this disorder is important due to the rising number of studies and cases of PTSD in children.

Trauma is perceived as a physical or psychological threat or assault to a person’s physical integrity, sense of self, safety and/or survival or to the physical safety of a significant other; family member, friend, partner. (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003). An adolescent may experience trauma from a variety of experiences, including but not limited to: abuse (sexual, physical, and/or emotional); neglect; abandonment; bullying; exposure to domestic violence and/ or community violence; natural disasters; medical procedures; loss/grief due to a death of a family member(s); surgery; accidents or serious illness; and war (Kilpatrick, Saunders, and Smith, 2003).

Sixty percent of adults report experiencing abuse or other difficult family circumstances during childhood. (Mental Health Connection, N.D.). This shocking statistic exemplifies the high prevalence of childhood trauma. Furthermore, twenty-six percent of children in the United States will witness or experience a traumatic event before the age of four. (Mental Health Connection, N.D.) Trauma is an extremely common and complex phenomenon. But what is trauma? According to Merriam Webster, trauma is defined as, “a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury.” (Merriam Webster, 2017). Dr. Lenore C. Terr from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of America further describes trauma as unique to each individual. It can be caused by a series of events or one severe incident. Unfortunately, childhood trauma is usually experienced repeatedly. For example, many children endure sexual abuse, bullying, and severe family problems over and over again. Children may experience a variety of traumas that have lasting consequences on their mental health. Those who experience childhood trauma are more likely to develop psychological disorders. This occurs because their brains lack neuroplasticity, which inhibits their ability to adapt to various stressful circumstances.

The world that we live in is perilous and full of danger. During those times of danger, traumatic events can occur. People from all walks of life have had trouble dealing with this kind of trauma and can be either scarred or changed by it. This is especially true for children. We tend to overlook children and try to focus on adults when it comes to traumatic events. However, studies have shown that even children are affected by these problems and need assistance in getting over them. Mental health therapists and psychologists have been doing research and developing techniques on this age group that is adolescence. This essay will exhibit several professionals that are studying this matter and developing which technique is best for the children in regards to their treatment.

“American Psychiatric Association defines trauma as an event that represents a threat to life or personal integrity. Trauma can also be experienced when children are faced with a caregiver who acts erratically, emotional and /or physical neglect, and exploitation” (Maltby, L., & Hall, T. 2012. p. 304). Trauma comes in many different forms including: war, rape, kidnapping, abuse, sudden injury, and

Trauma occurs when a child has experienced an event that threatens or causes harm to her emotional and physical well-being. Events can include war, terrorism, natural disasters, but the most common and harmful to a child’s psychosocial well-being are those such as domestic violence, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, maltreatment, and witnessing a traumatic event. While some children may experience a traumatic event and go on to develop normally, many children have long lasting implications into adulthood.

Adolescents face a conundrum of developmental challenges as they navigate through traumatic experiences and make positive use of healthy coping skills. Self-awareness and self-regulation are two important skills

“Currently, for a diagnosis of PTSD, the student must experience a traumatic event in which he/she perceives a threat to either self or others, and must experience distress (horror, fear, helplessness)” (Kataoka et al. 2012). Traumatic events can range from childhood trauma, an assault, a medical trauma, natural disasters, school bullying, a mugging or robbery, an attack by an animal, a major car accident, and more. “The three symptom clusters for PTSD include reexperiencing (for children, this can be repetitive play or reenacting the trauma in play), numbing and avoidance (such as avoiding traumatic reminders and talking about [the] trauma, not participating in activities previously enjoyed), and

When examining at a broad scope, traumatic events are often linked to PTSD (Cepeda, Saint Onge, Kaplan & Valdez, 2010), but this is generally examined at the adult level. Hurricane Katrina took its psychological toll on adolescents as well. Just as adults turn to substance use in stressful situations, adolescents follow this same pattern (Beaudoin, 2011). Adolescents are particularly vulnerable in the wake of a disaster (Wagner, Brief, Vielhauer, Sussman, Keane & Malow, 2009). The exposures of this disaster on adolescents lead to the development of destructive health behaviors. After disaster adolescents, namely female adolescents, suffer interpersonal victimization (Wagner, Brief, Vielhauer, Sussman, Keane & Malow, 2009). Young females are

“It's often said that a traumatic experience early in life marks a person forever, pulls her out of line, saying, ‘Stay there. Don't move.’ (Eugenides).” Trauma can occur at any age and can affect any: race,gender, ethnicity, socio-economic group, community, or workforce. It can occur from: Being in a car accident or other serious incident, losing a loved one, being in a fire, hurricane, flood, earthquake, or other natural disaster, witnessing violence, experiencing emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.

Earth is consisted of billions of humans who differentiate emotionally, physically, culturally, and mentally. Humans are characterized by their experiences and not everyone has the same experience. Where we are born, how we are raised, and how we interpret life varies. However, once in every few generations, a stressful and disturbing event happens in a child’s life that could have a great impact on him and his future. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that results from experiencing or witnessing an extremely traumatic or tragic event that extends beyond one’s coping capacity. People with PTSD usually have frightening thoughts or vivid memories or dreams of that event. How a child reacts to a tragic event

According to Cook and colleagues (2005), children who are exposed to any of the traumas could result in a loss of core capacities for both self-regulation as well as interpersonal relatedness. Furthermore, these effects are putting them at risk for additional trauma and other impairments that generally extend from childhood on, throughout the rest of their life. One of the impairments that may result due to trauma also includes behavioral control which can then lead to substance abuse.

Trauma or traumata as described in Rycroft (1995) ‘are experiences which disrupt or pervert development.’ They define it as ‘any unexpected experience which the subject is unable to assimilate.’ Developmental, or as it is sometimes called, complex trauma, is concerned with a child’s prolonged exposure to traumatic events such as, neglect, abuse, abandonment, violence and

With my degree, I plan on working with adolescents. It is a group that I feel I can be successful working with. I have some background in teaching younger children. They are a group that can be viewed as difficult, but I believe I will be very successful with the knowledge I will have under my belt. While working with this group, there will be numerous of issues and presenting problems that I will have to understand and learn how to help these clients work with these issues. One issue in particular is trauma. There are several ways to experience trauma. Many people experience trauma so it is important that I understand what trauma is and how it can be experienced. Once I understand trauma, I can find ways to provide appropriate treatment to those that come to me because they are experiencing some sort of trauma.

There are many different ways that children can experience trauma. Some of these include domestic violence, medical trauma, neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, traumatic grief, and school violence(http://www.nctsn.org/trauma-types). A professional that works with a child that has been involved in some sort of trauma needs to know what to do with that client. They need the competency to