Ptsd

Research Paper- PTSD

Lyndsey Sorteberg

COM/156

February- Sixteenth, 2014

Mark Koenig

Research Paper- PTSD

When most people hear the term PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, their mind usually takes them straight to thoughts of veterans and soldiers, car accident victims, or victims of natural disasters. Not many people associate Post-Traumatic Stress within the same thought or sentence as the word “children.” They especially do not associate children being diagnosed with PTSD because of a divorce. Parental estrangement after a divorce is a terrible loss for a child that can be detrimental and lead to PTSD; therefore, no matter what happens between former spouses, in their role as parents, they need to take the right steps to protect their children.

PTSD is best described as a serious mental health condition that affects people who have survived a terrifying physical or emotional trauma (Boston Children's Hospital, 2011). Psychologists, doctors, and medical professionals use the DSM-IV to diagnose Post-Traumatic Stress disorder in individuals who are exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following are present: 1) the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others; 2) the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. In children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). When a child has undergone something traumatic, certain signs and symptoms can help determine if that child had developed PTSD. According to the DSM-IV, some of the criteria that psychologists look for are as follows: repetitive play that may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content, they may specifically reenact the trauma, or they may show intense psychological...