...describes the word trauma as: “a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). These emotional stressors can be caused from a wide variety of situations. Examples of damaging stressors can include: sexual abuse, verbal abuse, physical abuse, exposure to violence or death, as well as many others. The powerful effect of these stressors can ultimately lead to deep psychological damage. The term “trauma”, however, is specific to the affected individual. Though an event may be extremely traumatic for one person, a different person, on the other hand, may not be affected at all. The way a person reacts to trauma can be linked to their environment,...
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...Complexly traumatized youth frequently suffer from body dysregulation, meaning they over-respond or underrespond to sensory stimuli. For example, they may be hypersensitive to sounds, smells, touch or light, or they may suffer from anesthesia and analgesia, in which they are unaware of pain, touch, or internal physical sensations. As a result they may injure themselves without feeling pain, suffer from physical problems without being aware of them, or, the converse – they may complain of chronic pain in various body areas for which no physical cause can be found. Effects of Complex Trauma. (2014). Retrieved September 7, 2014. Think of what it is like for young children to be in traumatic situations. They can feel totally helpless and passive. They can cry for help or desperately wish for someone to intervene. They can feel deeply threatened by separation from parents or caretakers. Young children rely on a "protective shield" provided by adults and older siblings to judge the seriousness of danger and to ensure their safety and welfare. They often don't recognize a traumatic danger until it happens, for example, in a near drowning, attack by a dog, or accidental scalding. They can be the target of physical and sexual abuse by the very people they rely on for their own protection and safety. Young children can witness violence within the family or be left helpless after a parent or caretaker is injured, as might occur in a serious automobile accident. They have the most difficulty...
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...Adolescent Cognitive Development After Trauma Raquel A. Figueroa Liberty University COUN 620-B02 Abstract In a generation of hopelessness, adolescents seek a purpose for their existence. They seek refugee from violence, abuse and maltreatment. The overwhelming pressure opens the door for instant gratification in drugs, alcohol, sexual activity, and fail to make appropriate adjustments in compromising circumstances. There is a correlation between traumatic experiences and adolescent cognitive development. A traumatic experience can alter an adolescent’s neural system and adversely affect the latter stages of brain development. Working with survivors of traumatic events requires an understanding of maladaptive behaviors, reactions and coping skills. Behavioral patterns emerge and become part of an adolescent’s personality. This paper will highlight the impact of traumatic experiences on adolescent cognitive development and their ability to foster an intrinsic knowledge of self. Maltreatment of adolescents has reached epidemic proportions within the United States. According to Bright (2008), “One in four children/adolescents experience at least one traumatic event before age 16” (p. 11). A study commissioned by Finkelhor, Ormrod, & Turner (2005) concluded the exposure to “physical abuse, sexual abuse, witnessing domestic violence, community violence, and natural disasters is a common occurrence among children in the U.S.” (p. 314). Reports of...
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...Ikeda, Koda, & Abe, 2009). It has now been discovered that there is a biochemical reason that this happens. Scientific findings show that being a victim of child abuse can contribute to addiction in adulthood because the abuse can cause profound and possibly irreversible damage to the structure, function and chemistry of the brain. Kaufman, Plotsky, Nemeroff and Charney (2000) claim that because child abuse occurs during a crucial period of brain development, neurobiology reveals that trauma such as physical, emotional and sexual abuse has a substantial impact on the brain. It has also been discovered that the more severe the abuse, the more impact there is on brain function (Bremner, 2005). It has been found that abused children have abnormal brain wave patterns. Child abuse victims suffer damage to important brain structures like the cortex, which is related to rational thinking. Panzer (2008) describes that some of the most dramatic damage is seen in the limbic system. The limbic system is the midbrain region that regulates memory and emotion. The limbic system also is involved in motivation and emotional behaviors (Bremner, 2005). This region contains two deep lying brain structures, the amygdala and hippocampus. The hippocampus determines what information coming in will be stored in the long term memory. Damage to the...
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...ISSUE BRIEF November 2009 Understanding the Effects of Maltreatment on Brain Development What’s Inside: • How the Brain Develops This issue brief provides basic information on brain development and the effects of abuse and neglect on that development. The information is designed to help professionals understand the emotional, mental, and behavioral impact of early abuse and neglect in children who come to the attention of the child welfare system. • Effects of Maltreatment on Brain Development • Implications for Practice and Policy • Summary U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Administration on Children, Youth and Families Children’s Bureau Child Welfare Information Gateway Children’s Bureau/ACYF 1250 Maryland Avenue, SW Eighth Floor Washington, DC 20024 800.394.3366 Email: info@childwelfare.gov www.childwelfare.gov Understanding the Effects of Maltreatment on Brain Development www.childwelfare.gov In recent years, there has been a surge of research into early brain development. New technologies, such as neuroimaging (e.g., magnetic resonance imaging or MRI), provide increased insight into how the brain develops and how early experiences affect that development. One area that has been receiving increasing research attention involves the effects of abuse and neglect on the developing brain, especially during infancy and early childhood. Much of this research is providing biological explanations for what practitioners...
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...right lateral ventricle, bleeding in the right frontal lobe, and a subdural hematoma in the left temporal lobe, among generalized trauma across the brain (Apps et al., 2010). The primary link to the mesolimbic system in this situation is frontal lobe damage. When Judy became impaired in this specific region she lost the connection between the PFC and the mesolimbic system, in turn resulting in losing the ability to regulate her reward system effectively. Now, when stimuli reach the VTA and DA is swept along the system, strong urges to act on said stimulus do not reach the PFC, the region that relays if...
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...theories and allegations concerning multiple personalities, even dating back to the days of the witch hunts. Initial symptoms generally begin in childhood. By adulthood, a person has usually forgotten the actual abuse or trauma that caused the psychological disorder, but are left with a myriad of manifestations of abnormal behaviors throughout life. Memories that begin to reemerge later in life are caused by what is called triggers. In depth testing must be undergone to determine if a person actually has this condition. Once diagnosed, treatment is extensive, lasting over many years. Realistically, the person may never completely function normally. Keywords: Dissociative Disorder, multiple personalities, alter personalities, psychological conditions, treatment, abuse, trauma, switching, post-traumatic stress disorder Living Beyond Oneself: The Reality of Dissociation Disorder The Creation of an Alter Person Dissociative Disorder is part of a series of conditions called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, “a condition of reoccurring persistent mental and emotional stress as a result of injury or severe psychological shock.” (NLM) Originally known as “multiple personality disorder,” it is a multifaceted psychological condition in which a person disconnects, or dissociates from themselves in a particular situation resulting in a mental state similar to daydreaming. This is done in order to cope with severe and ongoing trauma or abuse. It can develop into a more severe condition...
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...the brain processes, stores, and organizes information into learning has been studied for centuries—yet it has only been in the past few hundred years that true breakthroughs in the cognitive sciences has been observed. Arguably one of the most essential discoveries in brain function lies within the compartmentalization of mental, emotional, logistical, motor, and cognitive capabilities, this process began in earnest with the discovery of Broca's Area through the diagnosis of a particular symptom of trauma—Broca's aphasia. To understand the overall picture of this convoluted problem we must first examine the historical foundations through which aphasia was diagnosed. From there we will attempt to dissect the process of language evolution and attempt to recognize where aphasia fits within the equation of language structure. From structure, we must then look even closer to the actual biology of the neural network to examine how learning and language develops in order to assist in the therapy of aphasics the world over. Broca's area is a portion of the brain in the left temporal lobe which has been attributed to the process of speech. The term “aphasia” is derived from the Greek, aphatos, meaning “without speech”; although not all forms of aphasia silence the aphasic. As opposed to a learning disability which one grows up with, nor with diseases such as Alzheimer’s, aphasias are typified by beginning very suddenly with a trauma to particular portions of the brain. Thus...
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...fact that an adolescent’s brain is not done developing until they are around the age of twenty five. That is why some diseases like Bipolar Disorder are not diagnosed until the age of twenty one. This is an important factor because over three percent of American Children are diagnosed with bipolar disorder every year. That is approximately two million children under the age of eighteen living with this disorder. The rate of which children are being diagnosed with mental disorders has skyrocketed. The majority of these diagnoses are actually not the right treatment...
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...around changed personality. She was also demanding, abrupt, and curt with people when interacting with them. Her parents said she would switch between bursts of irritability and agitation, and had moments of becoming extremely loud, obnoxious, and lacked any form of modesty. All of these behaviors can be connected to dysfunction in reward regulation caused by trauma acquired by the PFC within the mesolimbic system. Due to her sustained injuries, Judy had problems handling social interaction with the people around her, an important component of adolescent development. Without being able to regulate emotional response to others, Judy became increasingly likely to miss out on consolidating her social identity and having...
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...Biopsychology The brain is the control centre for the body and it sits in the skull at the top of the spinal chord. The brain is so complex that doctors and scientists still don’t know what some parts do. The brain is made up of different sections consisting of the frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes. Memory Part of the brain that is responsible for memory is also known as the hippocampus, it is located within the temporal lobes, adjacent to the amygdale. The hippocampus is involved in memory forming, organizing and storing information. It is particularly important in storing new memories and connecting emotions and senses, such as smell and sound to, memories. A case study of H.M. (1953) highlights how important the function of the hippocampus is. H.M. was a man who suffered from epilepsy who had surgery to remove the hippocampus to prevent his severe symptoms. After his operation he suffered from major memory loss, which then went on to cause an inability to transfer new information into his long term memory. This resulted in the realisation that the removal of the hippocampus can have detrimental effects on the brains memory. Language and speech The Boca’s area is one of the main areas of the brain which is responsible for producing language. It is located in the lower portion of the left frontal lobe and was discovered by French neurosurgeon Paul Broca .He realised that people who had language difficulties often had damage to this area of the brain. This part of...
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...a traumatic, if treated correctly it can become a recoverable condition, on the other hand a chronic traumatic encephalopathy is an incurable degenerative disease. The degeneration that occurs in the brain because of chronic traumatic encephalopathy has symptoms that varies depending on the individual, but often leads to detrimental results. When someone suffers head 2 impact, that individual's brain can begin to shift and twist inside the skull. The development of chronic traumatic encephalopathy can come from a severe blow to the head or multiple blows to the head, such as those that often occur in American football. These repeated blows can lead to neurodegenerative changes which include cerebral atrophy and shrinkage of the mammillary bodies. Sheer forces stretch the membranes if the nerves fibers that connect the nerve cells and can trigger an energy crisis. The blood that flows to the brain is restricted at precisely the same time then causing the nerve cells to demand for energy. When this happens the brain automatically responds by powering down functions in the affected area. By having all...
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...addresses the issues associated with Schizophrenia such as stress. It also addresses the bio psychosocial explanations that are associated with the development of this disorder. In this paper I address the type of therapies used for the treatment of Schizophrenia. The remainder of this paper discusses the rationale uses of these therapies and the effectiveness for Schizophrenia. SCHIZOPHRENIA 3 Schizophrenia The key features of the disorder, including its symptoms Schizophrenia is a disorder that is characterized by unorganized thinking and odd perceptions that dysfunction in major activities within a person’s life. These sometime include withdrawals from society; they have delusions and also hallucinations. They also may not be able to show emotion, feel pain, pleasure. They also have a lack of facial expression. They suffer from depression, mania and paranoia. Schizophrenia is the main example of psychosis. Psychosis is a disorder that people suffer from, they become irrational and they have lost contact with reality. This disease affects the brain and the system affected is the psychic-emotional system. The term schizophrenia means “split mind” but in actuality Schizophrenia does not mean a split personality. In schizophrenia a person may act like they have two different personalities but what they are experiencing is a condition known as dissociative identity disorder. A schizophrenic may experience unusual...
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...experience, avoiding talking or thinking about experience, feeling numb emotionally, hopelessness, decreased activity, irritability, anger, guilt, sleep disturbance, or hearing or seeing things that are not real (Mayo Clinic, 2012). Negative emotions are a normal reaction that an individual may feel after experiencing a traumatic event, however, when the symptoms last more than a month medical attention should be sought. Symptoms arise when a person is not able to deal with the trauma experienced and in severe cases a person may want to inflict harm onto themselves or another individual (Mayo Clinic, 2012). PTSD may develop after a person experiences, sees, or learns of an event that causes them to experience severe emotions such as fear, horror, or helplessness. It is not clear as to why people develop PTSD but it is thought that it is a mix of inherited risks or mental health issues, life experiences, temperament, and regulation of hormones and chemicals by the brain. PTSD can affect people of all ages. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is more likely to develop in someone who is...
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