UNAIR NEWS – Everyone in the world has memories, from memories in childhood, happy memories, even bad memories that can actually affect health.
Cases of sexual harassment, violence, and other cases that occurred in the past, on children were shared widely. It can lead to a mental health disorder known as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD is an anxiety problem that arises or develops when a person experiences a traumatic event such as war, crime, accident or natural disaster.
Universitas Airlangga (UNAIR) Psychology expert Tri Kurniati Ambarini, M.Psi., Psychologist explained, a person with PTSD will experience several things such as flashbacks of traumatic events, nightmares or memories of traumatic events and avoid situations that remind trauma. They often feel anxious or tense so that their lives are disrupted.
“The traumatic events are the shocking, frightening or dangerous events,” explained UNAIR Psychology lecturer known well as Rini, interviewed by UNAIR NEWS on Thursday, July 23, 2020.
According to him, violence or abuse in childhood can cause various negative impacts, including the inability to manage emotions and other psychological disorders such as PTSD. Symptoms of PTSD have been found to occur in individuals exposed to violence in childhood.
Then, some things can also increase the occurrence of PTSD such as, childhood trauma; feelings of fear or inadequacy; lack of social support or low social support; have a history of drug abuse or other psychological disorders; seeing other people being hurt or seeing a dead body; and live with trauma or dangerous situations.
PTSD symptoms usually begin after three months of a traumatic event. Even so, some people only show symptoms after a few years.
“To make sure the symptoms are PTSD, the symptoms must persist or appear more than one month and disrupt life or relationships with others,” she said.
Symptoms and Impact
The first symptom is re-experiencing (the feeling experiencing a traumatic event, ed) such as flashbacks, nightmares or scary thoughts. These symptoms can interfere and cause problems in one’s daily life, because objects or similar things can trigger memories of trauma.
Second, avoidance symptoms, such as avoiding places, events or objects that will remind you of a traumatic event. These symptoms can change the social function or function of daily life, for example after a car accident someone will usually avoid driving again.
Third, the symptoms of tension appear in the form of easily being provoked, feeling tense, difficulty of sleeping and explosive anger. These symptoms appear constantly and make a person feel depressed and angry.
“So they will have difficulty completing daily tasks or functions such as difficulty sleeping, eating disorders and difficulty concentrating,” she explained.
Fourth, the symptoms of cognition and mood include difficulty understanding traumatic events, negative thoughts about oneself and the environment, disturbing feelings such as guilt or blame, loss of interest in pleasurable activities. These symptoms can appear or even worsen after a traumatic event and cause someone to feel alienated from friends or family.
We also need to watch out, in children and adolescents experiencing trauma, form some symptoms that appear and they are sometimes different from adults. Children less than 6 years old sometimes show symptoms such as bedwetting at night; forget how to talk or can’t talk (mutism); hysterical in scary situations even while playing; and become dependent or stick to parents or adults. (*)
Author: Ulfah Mu’amarotul Hikmah
Editor: Binti Q Masruroh
