Trauma And Recovery By Judith Herman Essay

    The mental struggles trauma that the Natives went through has marginalized them. In The Indian Diaries, an article explains how historical trauma may be the reason of today’s health crisis. It states, “A lot of our children that we see, for example, have been through not only one trauma but often multiple traumas in their life, in terms of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect...We look at what has happened to their parents, or what has happened to their grandparents, or their

There are unfortunate events that may take place in someone’s life, which can lead to stress. Sometimes a crisis or a traumatic event can come without any warnings. A crisis can be a problem that is too great for someone to handle, but it is not always bad (Wright, 2011). Trauma is the response to any event that shatters a person’s safe world, so that it is no longer a place they can feel safe

The term “Psychological trauma” refers to damage wrought from a traumatic event, which that damages one’s ability to cope with stressors. “Trauma” is commonly defined as an exposure to a situation in which a person is confronted with an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to self or others’ physical well-being (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Specific types of client trauma frequently encountered by which therapists and other mental health workers frequently encounter in a clinical setting include sexual abuse, physical , or sexual assault, natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis, domestic violence, and school or/and work related violence (James & Gilliland, 2001). Traumatic

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).

Trauma is an individual’s visceral reaction to a horrible event, events such as early childhood traumas, accidents, sexual abuse, or community violence (apa.org, 2016). An individual may react with shock and denial in the aftermath. As time continues some reactions may comprise of mood swings, intrusive memories, difficulties maintaining relationships and can manifest into physical symptoms to include headache or upset stomach. There are individuals who experience difficulties functioning in their daily lives; these observable responses are a normal response to the trauma (apa.org, 2016).

Children are affected by everything around them. They are small sponges waiting to absorb all the information they can. What happens to children when they are faced with traumatic incidences? There are many possible outcomes, but the outcome that is always hoped for is resiliency. When a child cane become resilient to their past, they have a greater likelihood of developing loving relationships later in life.

Trauma comes from the Greek –  meaning wound, and meaning damage, harm, or impairment. Trauma affects every body. The traumatized person will experience dissociation, disbelief, isolation, and hopelessness. They will often wonder “Where is God and why has he left me?”

“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.

In Sherman Alexie’s collection of short stories that forms his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven through his works of fiction he lets the reader in to a world that for many Native American including himself is a devastations reality that has been going on for so long that it has just become a part of everyday life for these people who call the Native American reservations of the United state home. On average 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence , and far more more have experienced sexual violence. While native children exposed to violence suffer rates of PTSD three times higher than the rest of the general population.(Wolfe & Elk, 1). This statistic is almost too hard to fathom but for the many woman and children that call one of the 326 Native American

In the Journal of Traumatic Stress, the article “Stress Among Young Urban Children Exposed to Family Violence and Other Potentially Traumatic Events” by Cindy A. Crusto of Yale University School of Medicine, Melissa L. Whitson of the University of New Haven, Sherry M. Walling of Fresno Pacific University, Richard Feinn of the University of Connecticut Health Sciences Center, Farmington, Stacey R. Friedman of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), Jesse Reynolds of the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, Mona Amer of the American University at Cairo, and Joy S. Kaufman of Yale University School of Medicine takes a look at traumatic events experienced by children

When I decided to take the trauma course, I was hesitant at first to take it. I did not know what to expect nor felt I would be prepare listen to stories about traumatic occurrences, despite of the number of years I have worked in the field of community mental health. Therefore, now that we are in week eight, I am delighted to have taken this course. The impression I had at first, has changed my insight concerning what is trauma, as for many years, I did not understand why a person in many instances, could not process their trauma. In a quote by Chang stated, “The greater the doubt, the greater the awakening; the smaller the doubt, the smaller the awakening. No doubt, no awakening” (Van Der Kolk, 2014, p. 22). The goes in congruence with my understanding on trauma and how it has changed during this course. As a result, I feel I am awakening when acquiring more about trauma.

In Judith Herman’s book, Trauma and Recovery, she discusses her research and work with trauma survivors. In her book, she writes that, “traumatic events are extraordinary, not because they occur rarely, but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life” (Herman 24). She explores the idea that trauma is as individual as it is common, with reactions and the journey to the post-traumatic self similar despite differences in events. In the case of Barbara Gordon, while the event may vary, her physical and mental trauma can be compared to America’s fear of its forfeiture of power to terror and the loss of the towers after September 11, 2001. Trauma is about more than just the physical ramifications; when the physical aspect is fixed, Barbara’s legs and the building of the 1 World Trade Center, the mental and emotional trauma still remain.

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

Judith Lewis Herman’s Trauma and Recovery provides not only greater understanding of how a traumatic event may defined but also the ways in which the effects of the experience may have a significantly repressing effect on the present and future self. Traumatic events are impressing on the self because they overwhelm the conventional emotional and physical perceptions that humanity has adjusted and modified their selves to. As traumatic events generally involve threats to the emotional and physical self, they differ from common misfortunes as they confront the victim with the feeling of extreme terror and helplessness that in result causes the individual to perceive the experience as one that was out of their control. As Herman reiterates, according to the Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, “The common denominator of psychological trauma is a feeling of “intense fear, helplessness, loss of control, and threat of annihilation” (Herman 104). However, it is the response to the traumatic event in the emotional or conscious self that may differ from one another as there are three differing reactions to the terror factor of trauma: hyper-arousal, intrusion, and disconnection. Throughout this essay the work of Judith Lewis Herman’s Trauma and Recovery as well as Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower will be utilized to illustrated the compromising effects a traumatic experience such as childhood sexual abuse may have on the development of a young teen and the ways in