Introductory Class Flashcards
Children of Chowchilla (Story)
26 kids kidnapped and buried, unharmed, made it out alive and everyone assumed they would be okay
Children of Chowchilla Acute (immediate) Findings
- Hallucinations
- Fears of further trauma
- Omen formation (looking for signs that something bad will happen)
Children of Chowchilla Later Findings
- Post-traumatic play (repetition of trauma)
- “Personality changes”
- Repeated dreams of event & death during it
- Ongoing fear of being kidnapped again
- Heightened generalized fears
What makes something traumatic?
- Life-threatening, No safety
- Unpredictable & Shock
- Lack of control: “I can’t get away and make it stop!”
What is trauma?
Traumatization occurs when both internal and external resources are inadequate to cope with external threat,
What is childhood trauma?
Childhood trauma is the mental result of a blow, or a series of blows, rendering the young person temporarily helpless and breaking past ordinary coping and defensive operations.
Big T Trauma
An event that most people would consider traumatic, such as a plane crash or sudden and unexpected loss of a loved one
Little T Trauma
An event experienced as traumatic at a personal level, such as the loss of a pet or a relationship break-up
Key elements of what makes an event/experience “traumatic”
❖indv has minimal or NO personal control to stop the event.
❖usually beyond the scope of ordinary human experience
❖It is unpredictable; a sudden event (or a sudden change in mood/behavior of an abusive parent).
❖In an effort to process the event, the person is changed.
ACES (Adverse Childhood Experience)
- Abuse (Physical, Emotional, Sexual)
- Neglect
- Household Dysfunction (Mental illness, DV, Substance Abuse, Divorce, Incarceration)
Adverse Community Environments
Poverty, discrimination, violence, poor housing & quality, drugs, etc
Post-Traumatic Symptoms
Disrupts healthy development, ↑ risk of emotional & behavior probs in future/present
Maltreatment
Your source of safety → source of harm
Pre-traumatic Risk Factors
- Quality of Attachment during early development
- Genetics & Epigenetics
Peri-traumatic (during) Risk Factors
●Duration and severity of the traumatic exposure
●Uncertainty that the danger has passed
Post-Traumatic Risk Factors
- Sufficient access to resources (Was Support obtainable after the Traumatic Event?)
- Real vs Perceived social support
- Cognitive belief (Bad coincidence vs. trauma was deserved)
- Did you believe it was a bad coincidence or did you believe it was your fault and deserved?
- Memory reconsolidation and updating with reinforcement of the trigger
Risk & Protective Factors
Influence - IQ, age, gender, socio-economics, ability to find safety, previous trauma, family history
Major ACE Findings
- High ACE score correlated with higher rates of drug use
- Dose-effect
- More likely to be victimized again
- Leads to higher social dysfunction
- Risk factor for health - alzheimers, heart disease, suicide
- Women are most likely to have the highest ACE scores
