December 19th, 2010. This was the day everything I knew vanished. The flames that engulfed my home that bitter morning took more than just my possessions, it took my childhood. At ten years old, you would like to believe that nothing bad can happen to you. Life is great, you’re young and free and suddenly your world stops turning. Everything you knew to be ‘your life’ is burning to the ground and there is nothing you can do except watch. The events we experience in our life time make us stronger, and much like the phoenix, we rise from the ashes of our traumas.
Silence. Everything seems to be going a thousand miles per hour around me, yet all I hear is silence. I am still, as if I’m frozen in this moment. I feel nothing as I watched these flames swallow the only home I’d ever known. Reflecting on this moment, nearly eight years later, it’s much easier to understand what was happening to me in this very moment. Most children who suffer through a disaster like this have a support system to lean on while healing. They have a mother and a father who are there to make sure everything is okay, but it was much different for me. When I finally snapped out of that trance, I realized that I was the support system. I didn’t have a mother or father there to get me through this, I was the only person who could bring comfort to my family, I was my own set of parents.
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Many people believe children who suffer from trauma have endured irreversible damage that stays with them for life.
Unfortunately, for a lot of children this is true and it makes it much harder for them to live a normal life. This fire was not the only trauma I’ve faced, I had a very rough childhood but I realized at a young age that I am who I make myself out to be. Ultimately, children and even young adults, have the ability to change their mindsets and work hard to live their best life. If more people were taught that they are not their trauma, so many people could be everything they’ve ever dreamed they could
be. As I aged I faced many difficulties along the way. No one is perfect and that is a very hard pill to swallow for someone like me. Being able to take my short-comings, insecurities and traumatic experiences and turn them into something positive is one of my best character attributes. I find myself telling this story to whoever I can because I feel it is a great lesson to teach people. No matter who you are, where you came from what has happened to you, you are who you make yourself out to be. No matter what has happened in your life or how low you feel, rise. Once you’ve hit rock bottom the only way to go is up. Six a.m. A Red Cross bus pulled up ready for us to board, last to go on I had time to reflect. Nobody understands trauma until it happens to them, you are mourning the memories, the stories yet told, the generations of children after me who would want to see this amazing home and hear my family’s traditions and stories. That is the cold reality that smacks you across the face as you step on that bus. You do not know what the future holds, good nor bad. As the bus moves, we pull down the driveway. Looking back at the burnt remains of a memory holder, a storyteller, a loved shelter for four generations of people slowly fading in the distance. But this was not the end, only the beginning of a new and bright future.
The environment after the disaster to include major life events. The support received whether or not it is social support from family members, friends, teachers, classmates or whomever might have been close to the child.
How do the issues facing those doing strategic planning differ from those doing tactical planning? Can the two really be
I was born in a small town of -----------of underdeveloped country of Bangladesh. I grew up speaking Bengali, wore traditional clothes, created intricate henna designs on women’s hands, and performed classical Bengali music. Since childhood, thought other than becoming a doctor never registered in my mind. My high grades in high school helped me to obtain admission in one of the most desirable place to learn Medicine, Mayemen Medical College.
children faced with the trauma of loss, they are also faced with a myriad of other
Even though I wasn’t expecting a very severe hurricane, my parents still prepared for the worst. They requested me to come home and stay even though many of my friends were still on campus. I figured being with my family during this difficult time would make the most sense. When the hurricane hit initially we did not lose any electricity even though many families around us did. My sister and I decided to end our boredom by watching random television shows, and just as we found something that interested us, the power went out. We were hoping it was just a quick power shortage, and that the power would be back within the hour. We were in for a big surprise. We did not have warm water or power for five days.
Mental health illness affects 26.2 % of the United states adults ages 18 and up. That is 1 in 4 people as of 2004 ("The Number"). Mental health illness does affect over a quarter of the United states population to include me as one of the people who suffer from it. This has affected me and changed my life drastically. Aside from the difficulties of having a mental health illness is how people react to me once they find out. This is widely due to mass media creating a stigma for the mental health ill people that most of the general population tend to believe in the United states.
Childhood Trauma is defined as “The experience of an event by a child that is emotionally painful or distressful, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.” (The National Institute of Mental Health). Childhood trauma is an epidemic that seems to be running its way throughout the world. Childhood trauma is a worldwide problem that can affect anyone and everyone. People tend to just try and help the problems that occur due to the childhood trauma, but not the problem itself. Many of these issues will also follow the child into their adult years and will cause negative effects. This paper will discuss the negative outcomes for a child who suffers from childhood trauma, and the negative outcomes that can follow them into adulthood.
At a stage like this, and feeling this way can be dangerous for a young child’s development. For example, On the ABC show called “The Family”, young Adam was kidnapped during his mother’s rally to promote becoming the mayor. In this situation, his kidnapping affected the whole family in traumatic ways. It effected Adam tremendously because he was only 8-years-old during the kidnapping. Adam would hope that his family would find him. But, as time went on he realized he would never be found (“Sweet Jane” The Family, ABC, Television). Adam was never found because he got sick and passed while he was being held captive. There was another child with him, named Ben, which was also being held captive. Ben was finally able to escape from his captor. When a child loses hope, as Adam did, they never develop a healthy level of hopeful thinking (Wilner, 2011). Another example of a child feeling helpless after a traumatic event is myself. After my aunt passed away, I felt like there was no one to explain or help me with the pain I had and saw (Julien, 2016). My mother, sister, and I would always go to my aunt’s house, in Miami, for the summer. My mother, sister, and I always had a fantastic time with her. Then when I found out she passed, I could not help but to think what her children were going through. When your own mother dies, and you are at a young
According to the American Psychological Association, trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event. Some terrible events that happen all too often are rape, natural disasters or an accident. Immediately following the event shock and denial are likely to occur, but in the long-term flashbacks, unpredictable emotions and troubled relationships can arise. Defining emotional trauma on a child. Emotional trauma in a child can be created by bullying, emotional abuse, death of loved ones, separation from parent, or chaos and dysfunction in the household. Child symptoms of trauma can be very similar to depression symptoms. They can over sleep or sleep to little, unexplained anger, trouble focusing, obsessive worrying and some anxiety. How a child experiences an event and how it’s handled by those around him have an effect on how traumatizing it can be, notes Dr. Jerry Bubrick (Child Mind Institute , 2017). People grieve at different speeds and the way the child grieves is not the correct indicator on how the child will cope later. Defining physical trauma on a child. Physical trauma on a child is considered non-accidental or the cause of physical injury. Some households that suffer from alcoholism/substance abuse and anger issues have higher occurrences of child abuse as compared to households without according to psychology today. Sometimes kids that are abused are unaware that they are being abused and are victims of child
Using narratives to gain an insight into human experience is becoming an increasingly popular method of exploration. Assuming that people are in essence narrative beings that experience every emotion and state through narrative, the value of exploring these gives us a unique understanding. Narrative is thought to act as instrument to explore how an individual constructs their own identity (Czarniawska, 1997) and explain how each individual makes sense of the world around them (Gabriel, 1998). It may also give us an understanding into individual thought processes in relation to individual decision making practices (O’Connor, 1997). It is evident from studies such as Heider and Simmel (1944), that there appears to be an instinctive nature in people to introduce plots structures and narratives into all situations, with an intention to construct meaning to all aspects of life in its entirety. The value of narrative is that it is a tool that allows us to understand what it means to be human and gives us an insight into a person’s lived experience whilst still acknowledging their cultural and social contexts. Narrative is thought to be significance as it is ‘a fruitful organizing principle to help understand the complex conduct of human beings (p.49)’ (Sarbin, 1990) The construction of a person’s narrative is thought to be dependent on each person’s individual awareness of themselves and the circumstances that surround them. However, a debate to whether a person is able to formulate a valid narrative in the face of a mental illness such as schizophrenia has emerged. Sufferer’s symptoms are often thought to interfere with their abilities to perceive within a level deemed acceptable to their society’s norms and therefore the validity ...
Depression is quiet. I had learned that at the beginning of high school when all of the sudden, my self-depreciating thoughts had gone silent. The feeling of elation I had experienced that moment was mighty. I felt that it was too good to be true, that there was no way that I had freed myself of the depression I experienced since my childhood. And I was right. I learned that silence was deafening, it was louder than any of the hateful words I told myself.
in order to help myself become happy again, but that was going to be difficult since the
People in this world have many different struggles. Some deal with chronic pain, others with poverty and some even with the consequences of their bad choices. Numerous individuals also struggle with mental illness also known as various disorders that affect mood, personality, cognition and other areas of functioning. Mental illness is unique to the individual and can be experienced in a variety of ways. Three people that have experienced mental illness and all that it entails are Susanna Kaysen the author of the memoir Girl, Interrupted, John Nash-a mathematician whose life was the basis of the film A Beautiful Mind and a woman named Theresa Lozowski who is a medical professional. All three struggle with a mental illness and the way they view their illnesses and the aspects of it are similar in several ways as well as different. These similarities and differences are witnessed in how they view their symptoms, their diagnoses, how they view the cause of their mental illness as well as how they view mental illness in general. There were also similarities and differences in their views on taking medication as well as the treatment of psychotherapy.
Trauma relates to a type of damage to the mind that comes from a severely distressing event. A traumatic event relates to an experience or repeating events that overwhelmingly precipitated in weeks, months, or decades as one tries to cope with the current situations that can cause negative consequences. People’s general reaction to these events includes intense fear, helplessness or horror. When children experience trauma, they show disorganized or agitative behavior. In addition, the trigger of traumas includes some of the following, harassment, embarrassment, abandonment, abusive relationships, rejection, co-dependence, and many others. Long-term exposure to these events, homelessness, and mild abuse general psychological
It consumes and debauches every single aspect of a persons life, eating away at their morals and understandings. It’s something that holds a monumental place in my heart and my life. I have seen negativity towards it, I have personally experienced it, and I plan to popularize seeking guidance for it. As I explain my reasoning behind the topic of mental illness I hope that you can, too, understand the everyday battle someone with such an illness, faces. When the average, unexposed, person hears the words: depression, anxiety, bi-polar, schizophrenia, etc., they more than likely have a negative feeling/ thought.