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Recommended: Traumatic experience essays
Traumatic events occur in all shapes and sizes. Traumatic events can influence a person’s life either in a positive way or a negative way. People can either make the best of what happened to them, or fall into a dark spiral downward—leaving some anxious or depressed. In the case of the Jeannette Walls, she tells the story of her ever chaotic and traumatic life as a child and young adolescent. Throughout her life she was exposed to being on fire, sexual assault, domestic violence, and many more traumatizing incidents. While these events are highly stressful and can cause severe mental problems, within the exposed person, Jeannette had the resilience to overcome and grow from the experiences her past had left her with. With every traumatic experience …show more content…
The first happened when she was cooking food for herself on the stove, and she caught on fire. Instead of reacting how a “typical” three year-old would, if burned (never going near the stove or fire again), she did the exact opposite. Although she was covered in third-degree burns all over her body, she still went home and kept on cooking her food as if nothing had happened. “The neighbor lady who had driven me to the hospital was surprised that I didn’t run in the opposite direction from any fire I saw” (15). Here, she experienced post-traumatic growth because she did not fall back to the baseline, but exceeded it by being able to not feel afraid or distressed by the traumatic event that had occurred. As time passed, the traumatic events began to happen more frequently. The next traumatic experiences happened to all be forms of sexual assault. Beginning with the neighbor boy who inappropriately touched her, moving to her uncle fondling her, and ending with the stranger that climbed through her window into her bed—waking to him groping her. Finally, she found the courage to tell her mom about her uncle touching her, but her mother told her to brush it off and act as if it never had taken place. “She said that …show more content…
Most of her life Jeannette spent living among poverty. Whenever her family moved, they always moved to areas of high poverty and low economic standing. In these communities a lot of trauma, similar to events she had experienced, happened. It was hard for her to get away from all the bad things that happened, since she was constantly submerged in communities with it. Thus being said, this ultimately contributed to her become resilient to a lot of the traumatic events she encountered later on. Since she had witnessed some already, she was prepared to handle others traumatic events that might arise in her future. For instance, one day the neighbor decided to shoot his BB gun at Jeannette’s house. “I yanked the pistol out of Lori’s hand, aimed low, and pulled the trigger” (88). After witnessing her father handle his gun, she knew what a plausible solution to the problem would be—using the gun to defend herself and siblings against the boy. This set her up for recovering faster when encountering these traumatic events because had already been exposed to so many. Additionally, her parents were constantly on the move. Being constantly on the move never really gave her a sense of having a community to identify with, so when traumatic events occurred, she never had anyone to talk to about it other than her family. This contributed to why she was so distraught when her
Jeannette and her siblings were all forced into completing tasks and taking on roles for themselves and their other siblings that are heartbreaking to read about and uncommon for most children to experience and tackle themselves. Much of this had to do with the lack of responsibility on their parents’ part and the ways they decided to live. As I have read the book, I have been amazed over and over again at the ways Jeannette handled the parental roles—both mother and father. She was very tough and never gave up, but you could tell there were other times she was just plain discouraged. One example we can see her using the roles to benefit her siblings was when her mom left to Charleston to “renew her teaching certificate” for 8 weeks and put Jeannette in charge of the money. She budgeted out $25 a week to provide the groceries and pay all of the bills that would need to be taken care of. Even though Jeannette gave her father (Rex) money when he asked, she
From the presentation, the most important thing I learned was that statistically, more than 60 percent of the population has experienced some sort of trauma and it could lead to substance use, depression and risky
Reviewing the 12 Core Concepts of the National Child Trauma Stress Network, James is suffering from three of the 12 concepts. Number 1 core concept, Traumatic experience are inherently complex. Traumatic experiences are inherently complex no experience are the same varying degrees of objective life threat, physical violation, witnessing of an injury or death. The victim perceives their surroundings and decides what is best for them now safety and self-protection. Number 4 core concept, A child or adolescent can exhibit an extensive range of reactions to suffering and loss. Number 9 core concept, the developmental neurobiology triggers a youth’s reactions to traumatic experience. In this paper, we will be covering another trauma that affects the social worker or case worker who works on these cases of
... Joyce Dorado. "Who Are We, But For The Stories We Tell: Family Stories And Healing." Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy 2.3 (2010): 243-249. PsycARTICLES. Web. 2 May 2014.
Punjuani has an extensive education background, in which she has earned a graduate degree in Psychology from India. Upon moving to the United States in 2011 on a student visa she found herself striving to become a nurse. This led her to her current achievement of being a graduate student at Carson University in which she is majoring in Mental Health Counseling. At time of assessment, Ms. Punjuani was completing her internship at Health Connect. She reports that although her traumatization has affected her on many levels, that she finds that it doe snot consume her, that her studies in the field have helped her to identify patterns, symptoms and coping skills in order to function fully and achieve her goals. Stating that she has begun the process of normalizing the incident, educating self on actions and the kind of people who victimize
“Picking up the pieces of their shattered lives was very, very difficult, but most survivors found a way to begin again.” Once again, Helen was faced with the struggle of living life day-to-day, trying not to continue feeling the pain of her past.
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.
“Alone in the world, cast off by it, and with this sole treasure to keep her heart alive, she felt that she possessed indefeasible rights against the world, and was ready to defend them to the death…God gave me the child!...She is my happiness – she is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me, too...She is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved…Ye shall not take her! I will die first!” (The Scarlet Letter). Women who are alone often confided in their children for support. Their children bring them happiness, even though they can be a constant reminder of what they have done at times. Mothers have a right to defend their children and anyone who threatens to take them away, they are willing to do anything to keep them. “All the light and graceful foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harsh outline…Even the attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. (The Scarlet Letter). People who have traumatic experience are often changed in some way, shape, or form. They can change in a positive way or a negative way; it all depends
I believe that Jeannette survived emotionally by her parents since she believed that her upbringing was a normal upbringing. It made her proud of her parents and family despite the neglect. I believe if she did not survive emotionally she would have become just like her parents when she gets older.
One of her earliest memories came from when she was three years old. Jeannette had to go to the hospital because she burned herself cooking hot dogs. Her parents didn’t like hospitals, so for that reason after a few weeks they came and took her away. Jeannette and her family were constantly moving from place to place, sometimes staying no more than one night somewhere. Her father always lied to them saying that they had to keep moving because he was wanted by the FBI. Jeannette’s mother never took much interest in Jeannette or her siblings, because the mother didn’t want them and thought that they were bothersome and in the way.
When faced with a life altering situation although Molly’s characteristics and personality aid her in courageously defying them, the effects of facing this traumatic event will lead to long term psychological repercussions. When severe harm is inflicted on a person’s psyche, it is viewed as an emotional trauma (Levers, 2012). The emotional harm inflicted on Molly’s psyche originates from different dimensions; like her upbringing, her trauma is multidimensional too. As a child of the Indigenous community, whose ancestors and elders were killed violently in inter-group conflicts, and whose children were forcefully removed from families, Molly is would experience intergenerational trauma (Atkinson, 2002). Intergenerational trauma is trauma passed down from one generation to another; as a close knitted community group, the grief experienced by family members of losing their loved ones, would have been transferred across generations (Atkinson,
When a person experience prolong trauma, especially during childhood and adolescents it can have detrimental effects that could interfere with personal growth and development. Many times the trauma reemerge during adulthood through the person’s actions and beliefs about the world and the people around him. Without taking the necessary steps to resolve the past trauma, the traumatic events will continue to have control over the person’s life which can lead to negative consequences like physical harm to oneself or imprisonment. Author and psychologist Peter Levin once stated that “although humans rarely die from trauma, if we do not resolve it, our lives can be severely diminished by its effects” (). This quotes describes how a life can be tremendously
She continues in this sequel to talk about the abuse she faced and the dysfunction that surrounded her life as a child and as a teen, and the ‘empty space’ in which she lived in as a result. She talks about the multiple personalities she was exhibiting, the rebellious “Willie” and the kind “Carol”; as well as hearing noises and her sensory problems. In this book, the author puts more emphasis on the “consciousness” and “awareness” and how important that was for her therapeutic process. She could not just be on “auto-pilot” and act normal; the road to recovery was filled with self-awareness and the need to process all the pieces of the puzzle—often with the guidance and assistance of her therapist. She had a need to analyze the abstract concept of emotions as well as feelings and thoughts. Connecting with others who go through what she did was also integral to her
... exposed to abusive environments show delays or restrictions in their physical growth as well as in their mental development (Smith, 1975).
A four year old girl lays on the floor unconscious after her mother beat her because she put a dish away in the wrong spot. She wakes up and feels the burns of the cigarettes on her and the feeling of a broken rib in her body. This abuse has been going on since she was a baby, but this was one of the first times that she would actually be able to have memory of. If she does one thing wrong, something very bad happens everytime. Sometimes it’s a beating and sometimes she is put in a closet with a wire fence bound around her and it is locked in place with chains. She will never be able to forget these terrible memories.