PTSD in Stephen Chbosky's 'Perks of Being a Wallflower'

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Post traumatic stress disorder to most people is a soldier that has just come back from war, but there are other ways a person can get PTSD. PTSD is a combination of anxiety disorder and depression that occurs when a person experiences or witnesses a traumatic event that is outside the range of usual human experiences. In the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, the main character, Charlie goes through the death of the person dearest to his heart his Aunt Helen. Charlie loses his Aunt Helen on his seventh birthday, but what he does not know is that his aunt molested him when he was little. Charlie does not realize this till his freshman year in high school. Childhood trauma can have lasting consequences; if the person goes untreated then their, PTSD can manifest as anxiety and depression, much like Charlie in The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Not a lot is known about what happens with individuals that have PTSD, but what we do know is that it is caused by a change in the nervous system, where large levels of stress hormones appear. The parts of the brain that are changed following the traumatic event are the amygdala and the hippocampus. Those parts of the brain link fear and memory together. With those parts unable to work at a normal function are what creates the flashbacks that the individual has. PTSD is made up of depression and anxiety, which is why it is easy for one to think that it is only anxiety and depression. The difference is that PTSD patients have flashbacks. Since Anxiety and depression are a part of PTSD, it makes people that have PTSD have troubles making friends and/or keeping those friends. “Teenagers usually keep up at least some friend... ... middle of paper ... ...lot of teens feel about going to therapy. They also may not go because it costs too much. So the people that don’t go top therapy or talk to anyone, might self medicate. Mrs.Tyra a counselor at LOHS said “…self medicating would be like getting into parents medications, drugs, alcohol, and pot” (English Project). The individuals do this because it makes them feel better and even it might not last forever it feels good in that moment. Many teens think that it is not cool to go to therapy. There are lots of reasons not to go to therapy, but there are none that good enough because without it the individual will have the slimmest chance of getting better. They just get worse over time. The main reason for people not going to therapy is because they think that they are going to be judged, but once they get over that then they will make so much progress.

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