Every individual breathing in this world is generally assumed and anticipated to experience a childhood filled with joy, laughter, and smiles. However, pain, tears, and silence are the memoirs of some children due to child abuse. Child abuse is an issue that has become an epidemic, developing into children’s most unwelcomed nightmares that haunts them on a daily basis. Child victims of abuse can consider the cruel acts being done to them as their preeminent complication of their lives causing them to become unstable. These children tend to lose control over their own lives, bodies, and minds creating catastrophic obstacles to build up in their lives and causing themselves to become weakened and vulnerable due to being confronted by fear that they cannot endure. The many lives of abused children are misguided as they mature because the events that they encounter during their early childhood years influence the construction of their future and behaviors. Child abuse is the barbarous act of maltreatment directed towards children that includes physical abuse, emotional abuse, and sexual molestation which all serve as elements towards leading to the destruction of their lives.
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.
Children are seen as innocent and pure to the world’s toxic society. When a child is stripped of his purity by witnessing a tragic event, can have long lasting effects on the child. War, natural disasters, car or plane crashes, death of a loved one, rape, kidnapping, and child neglect are all examples of traumatic events that can lead to PTSD. It is a feeling of helplessness. It is normal for one to experience PTSD symptoms after a tragic event. After a death of a loved one or a natural disaster, most will usually feel numb or disconnected. PTSD is characterized by seventeen common symptoms. These symptoms are then categorized into four main groups. These main groups are re-experiencing, avoidance, dysp...
Secondly, children have their own reactions when experiencing or acting out post-traumatic stress disorder. Some children have symptoms such as forgetting how to speak, acting out the event, and being quite clingy to the parents or another adult. Stated by Smit...
Trauma is an overwhelming experience that causes injury to a person's psychological state of mind. Complex trauma, on the other hand, is a term used by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). In which an increased emphasis is placed on the impact of multiple traumatizing events that occur during child development stages. As well as an increase in sensitivity of those traumas involving close personal relationships, such as caregivers and siblings (Forkey 3). Children exposed to complex trauma suffer from detrimental short-term and long-term effects on every aspect of their child development. These effects significantly impact their overall "quality of life," specifically affecting areas of cognitive functioning, neurobiological
...a it was. Children 5-12 show PTSD by thinking if they pay attention they can avoid future traumas. They don’t have flashbacks or problems remember the trauma like adults would. PTSD in teens 12-18 begins to look like that of adults, but show more aggressive or impulsive behaviors. Treatment in children and teens is about the same as it would be for adults. A type of therapy that is more helpful with children is play therapy. When they can’t deal with the trauma directly using games, drawings, and other methods are helpful to help them to process the traumatic event. As parents you want to watch your children carefully and make sure nothing dramatic is changing in their everyday lives. Watch for sleeping problems, behavior problems, and avoidance of certain people or places. You want to make sure that nothing is changing in school with friends or school performance.
Cohen, J. A., & Mannarino, A. P. (2008). Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children and Parents. Child & Adolescent Mental Health, 13(4), 158-162.
Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is one of the most commonly utilized interventions for children (Cary & McMillen, 2011). TF-CBT is a highly structured intervention consisting of 90-minute weekly sessions. The clinician works with the client through eight competencies, including psychoeducation, relaxation, affective expression and regulation, cognitive coping, trauma narrative development and processing, gradual exposure, joint parent/child sessions, and enhancing future development (Cary & McMillen, 2011). TF-CBT has an extensive history and many variations. Clinicians utilize a number of other cognitive behavior treatments that have been adapted to meet the needs of traumatized children (Cary, & McMillen, 2012; Smith et al., 2007). While there are a number of cognitive behavior treatments, TF-CBT has received the highest classification rating for supported and effective treatment from many studies (Cary, & McMillen, 2012; Kauffman Best Practices Project, 2004).
In Dr. Sibcy lecture on “Trauma and Attachment,” he gives five components of effective therapies. These components are:
When people experience a traumatic event it normally will have an impact on every facet of their being. God created us as triune being made of a body, soul (mind, will, and emotions). Crisis immediately impacts a person physically, cognitively, and emotionally. After some time has passed you can expect to see symptoms of the effects of the critical incident in relationships horizontally with family and friends; as well as the person’s vertical relationship with God. It is critical in crisis intervention that all three parts of a person be assessed and cared for appropriately to aid victims of crisis in healing from the critical incident.