The Journal Of Traumatic Stress

Chapter 10 examines various forms of abuse. Kanal (2011) sets forth that stress as it relates to abuse can cause Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. The author describes PSTD as a psychological disorder that is brought on by an event that occurs in a person’s life. PSTD is usually associated with military people returning from the combat but that is only one of many demographics that can be effected by the disorder; this chapter underscores in addition to PSTD abuse can manifest itself in a number of different ways. The author begins the discussion with child abuse. From a crisis professional’s perspective, dealing with children is complicated because depending on the age of the child, communication can be difficult. In addition, the child may

Post-traumatic stress is a psychological reaction that occurs after experiencing a highly stressing event (as wartime combat, physical violence, or a natural disaster) outside the range of normal human experience and that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of reminders of the event—abbreviation PTSD . (Post-traumatic stress disorder, n.d.)

These experiences taught added more to the brave person I am today. Being able to overcome the fear that came with the traumatic experience taught me to be more open to experience even if they harmful. It taught me to see the brighter side of an experience; now I am in America a place where I am no longer fleeing for my own safety. I also learned that facing a problem is the only way to make sure you defeat it and making sure it does not become an obstacle in the future as well.

Trauma is defined as “Any event (or events) that may cause or threaten death, serious injury, or sexual violence to an individual, a close family member, or a close friend” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These horrifying experiences leave individuals scarred and mentally shaken for an extensive period. However, what happens when it occurs in one of the most influential periods of mental development? Childhood development is a critical time in a person’s

This paper discusses how therapeutic group work with children who are devastated by violent abuse from family members must entail the child’s paradigm so that the practitioner can comprehend what the child and/or children have endured in order to build a trustworthy rapport. Amazingly, a healthy established relationship with the children, will allow the practitioner the opportunity to mend their over-all well-being. Also, it presents details about what to do and what not to do practices for practitioners to follow. These detailed practices will guide them on how to successfully manage therapeutic groups with children who are subjected to and traumatized by violence from loved ones. Furthermore, this article focuses on developing reliable and

Across the nation there are children, both male and female, who suffer from symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) each day. These children are victims of a variety of trauma, such as “natural disasters, war, sexual abuse, witnessing violent behavior on another person, serious life-threatening illness, and community violence” (Sauter & Franklin, 1998). For years, “studies have been done to understand the relationship [of] the prevalence of PTSD in children who experience trauma” (Sauter & Franklin, 1998). Children who have experienced war-like conditions, natural disasters, or nuclear accidents have been found to experience symptoms of PTSD (Avery, Massat & Lundy, 2000). Approximately thirty percent of children who have “survived a major trauma” develop PTSD (Hizli, Taskintuna, Isikli, Kilic, & Zileli, 2009). It has been found that “children exposed to traumatic events have much higher incidence and prevalence of PTSD than do children in the general population” (Hizli, Taskintuna, Isikli, Kilic, & Zileli, 2009). Unfortunately, out of a sample of children who witnessed domestic violence, ninety-three percent were able to be diagnosed with PTSD (Hizli, Taskintuna, Isikli, Kilic, & Zileli, 2009). Children who are in situations dealing with emigration or economic problems also are at risk for developing PTSD (Hizli, Taskintuna, Isikli, Kilic, & Zileli, 2009).

When reading “The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog,” I gained a greater insight into the effect in which traumatic experiences have on a child as well as on their physical and mental development. According to “Disorders of Childhood Development and Psychopathology” (Parritz and Troy, 2014), “slowing down the development of the brain during times of adversity, leading to reduced brain volumes in adulthood, stress in early life could modify the developmental trajectory of the brain” (Parritz & Troy, 2014, p. 247). The impact of an individual’s traumatic experience is based on the type of traumatic events that take place, the amount of exposure the child is exposed to, and how the children as well as their parents are personally affected by the event such as hurricanes, earthquakes, accidents, or natural disasters (Martorell, Papalia, & Feldman, 2014). Throughout each and every case presented by Dr. Perry, we see the importance of early experiences and the effect in which early experiences have on an individual’s growth and development. The stories and situations

. . questioned parents and guardians of over 95,000 U.S. children [ages] birth to age 17 about children's exposure to nine types of incidents . . . The experiences they tracked included: exposure to violence, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, deprivation, neglect, family discord and divorce, parental substance abuse, mental health problems, sibling or parental death, and social discrimination. To understand the effects of such traumatic events, the researchers looked for medical and behavioral problems . . .

Trauma can be described in many ways physical, sexual, emotional or mentally. For children and adolescent’s trauma and being victims of trauma can come for three different factors such as genetic or biological factors such as a DNA, problems with chromosomes, age of the parents during conception, or anything that may have affected the fetus/infant’s prenatal or post-natal care; environmental factors include surrounding areas both inside and outside of the home; and lasting their social or personal relationships, thus can include bullying, or assault (D’Andrea, Ford, Stolbach, Spinazzola, & Van der Kolk, 2012). Interpersonal trauma can affect a child/adolescents social, psychological, cognitive and biological development (D’Andrea, Ford,

Post- traumatic stress disorder often get looked over by doctors and people go untreated. With passing time the fear might go away, but what happen when the constant fear take over. That was the case for a student in a psychology class I was taking. The instructor was going over anxiety and a young man told the class about how when he was in the army. The car he and some of the other soldiers was driving, they were doing the daily drive they accidentally drove over a bomb that explode the front of the car. The explosion all most took off his leg, he had to have about two surgeries, and go through physical therapy to learn to walk again. Know that he was discharged from the army for about two years, he still cannot drive over a bump, whole, a patch in the road, and fell overwhelm when driving. He took longer routes that he feel are safe and that have little to no flaws in the road. All this time he went without any kind of treatments or testing to see if he even have post- traumatic stress disorder. He did not even think that he might even have post- traumatic stress disorder. I feel like American society do not offer enough support to people suffering from post- traumatic stress disorder in the family is not ready, lack of treatments, and lack of information about how to find a cure for post-traumatic disorder or how it occurs.

Strategies for coping with traumatic stress: There are several specific ways of psychological coping. One of the most common coping methods for reducing stress and a sense of chaos is to reinterpret the traumatic event, perhaps by trying to find some positive aspect to it. This strategy allows the person to find meaning in an otherwise meaningless catastrophe. Another strategy is to reinterpret the role one played in the trauma itself. The coping strategy of self-blame is commonly used by victims, even when their role in the trauma was minimal, as a means of restoring order and predictability to the world. The third common coping mechanism is engaging in some action that reduces the likelihood of a similar event, actively pursuing rehabilitation,

There are many types of trauma that can effect an adolescent and without the proper treatment of the traumatic event the adolescent can have difficulty adapting and developing into adulthood. Kathleen J. Moroz, of the Vermont Agency of Human Services, defines trauma as a physical or psychological threat or assault to a child’s physical integrity, sense of self, safety of survival or to the physical safety of another person significant to the child. She goes on to list the types of trauma a child may be exposed to. Abuse of every kind, domestic violence, natural disasters, abandonment, serious illness or an accident are just a few traumatic events that can effect the development of a child. (2) When these events occur as an acute event

American Psychological Association defines traumatic event “as one that threatens injury, death or the physical integrity of self or others”(American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Childhood trauma is the experience of traumatic event or events which creates a substantial and long term damage to the mental and physical growth and development of a child(National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2013). National prevalence of childhood trauma indicates trauma is a frequent occurrence in which majority of Americas have witnessed or experienced a single or multiple traumatic events before adulthood. A 2013 study by National Survey of Children’s Health reported about 35 million children in the United States, almost half of the nation’s children population, have experienced one or more serious traumas().According to National Center of Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence report, almost 26% of children witness or experience a traumatic event before the age of four. Reports from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHS) in 2011 found 60% of adults report witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event as a child. The Great Smoky Mountain study found 67% of participant had been exposed to one or more traumas before the age of 16().

One-hundred and thirty-six children from the state of Florida were referred by parents, physicians and counselors as having traumatic stress symptoms. The children had experienced either Type 1 (usually a natural disaster, chronic illness or catastrophic event) or Type 2 (stressors resulting from long term ordeal, such as abuse and or neglect), trauma. 78 out of the 136 children scored moderate to severe in the pre-test for symptoms of trauma; those who scored mild levels of traumatic symptoms were eliminated from the study. From those a random sampling of 50 children qualified and random assignment was used to place them in experimental or control groups. Participants included 50 children (29 females, 21 males), ages four to ten years old. Of the 50

Stress has potential to influence the performance of an individual. The degree of stress correlates with the degree of arousal in a high pressure situation, which can eustress or impair an individual’s performance (Pignata, 2016). The flight deck of an aircraft is a complex operating environment with demand for high performance between automated and human interfaces. Exposure to these high levels of external and internal occupational (Blouin, 2014) stressors has underlying effect on the operational performance of professional pilots both in the immediate and prolonged circumstances. Stress and trauma education for especially training pilots is important to highlight the potential effects of physical, physiological and psychological stressors to manage pressure and optimise pilot performance of aviation safety.