Lecture 7 Flashcards
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is
is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.
A number of factors go into determining whether someone is at risk of PTSD
Gender
Lower income and education
Life events, like divorce
Ethnic minority
Additionally, Indigenous peoples have greater exposure to
environmental risk factors for PTSD.
Environmental factors include:
Exposure to trauma
Family instability
Childhood adversity
Separation from parents
Poverty
Family dysfunction
Indigenous peoples also suffer from higher rates of individual risk factors
PTSD
Individual factors include:
Personality
Mental health
Anxiety or depression
Emotional or behavioural problems before the age of 6
Children display PTSD by:
Lose interest in play activities
Recurrent nightmares
Repetitive play with trauma-related themes
Indigenous children are at high risk of developing PTSD because
because of the aforementioned other risk factors
PTSD impacts a person’s life in many ways. Some of the major consequences are as follows:
Mental health issues
Substance use
Problems with personal and family relationships
Clinicians had begun to associate symptoms displayed by former students (residential schools) with
with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because it is difficult to address intergenerational trauma.
Diagnosing former residential students with PTDS is limiting due
to the complex nature of the trauma experienced.
Little is known about;
- the complexities and extent of trauma from residential schools
- interventions that would promote healing for survivors
Traumatic events in the past have implications and consequences
for how Indigenous peoples function in the present, both culturally and socially.
In this model (Castellano & Archibald, 2013), symptoms of social disorders exhibited in the present are not only caused by immediate trauma;
the memories and images of past traumatic events are being passed, from generation to generation, disrupting adaptive patterns of behaviour and diminishing social efficacy.
Some behaviours that perpetuate the transmission of intergenerational trauma are as follows:
-Being in control of all behaviours and interactions
-Demanding perfection
-Blaming others or yourself if something doesn’t go as planned
-Denying feelings
-Having the expectation of unreliability in relationships
-Abuse
-Not speaking opening about shameful or compulsive behaviour
-Not bringing closure or completeness to transactions
-Denying, disqualifying or disguising behaviour that is disrespectful, abusive, or shameful (Aquiar & Halseth, 2015 p. 10)
Historic Trauma Theory
Aquiar and Halseth (2015) present five influential characteristics that perpetuate intergenerational transmission of trauma:
- Traumatic Bonding
- Trauma Re-enactment
- Anxiety
- Hyper-vigilance
- Depression
Addressing Intergenerational trauma has been an ongoing challenge for mental health professionals. A part of the problem is
is failure to understand the connection between historical and contemporary trauma in Aboriginal populations
Understanding how trauma theory relates to Aboriginal peoples is necessary
if we are to devise treatment approaches that are better suited to the unique context in which trauma is experienced by Aboriginal individuals, families, and communities
Aquiar and Halseth (2015) explain how historic trauma (HT) distinguishes from PTSD:
HT is more complex
HT is a collective phenomenon
HT is described as cumulative in its impacts over time
HT is intergenerational
“historic trauma transmission” was coined to explain
the origins of social malaise in Indigenous communities and the dynamics of interventions particular to Indigenous contexts.
Research draws on
historical, social science, and therapeutic sources to develop core concepts.
Past HT creates
conditions of disadvantage
- Resulting in the perpetuation of traumas for subsequent generations
Contemporary traumas (racism and discrimination)
perpetuate colonialism
Aquiar and Halseth (2015) illuminate conditions of disadvantage that Indigenous people have faced due to historic trauma:
- Lower levels of income and education
- Poorer quality of housing
- Reduced access to resources
- Erosion of cultural identity
Direct experience of the trauma is
not required
- The trauma experience is passed down to close family members
Studies show an association between secure infant attachment and
children’s health and well-being.
Children who experienced chronic childhood trauma are
but may not show it
Epigenetics may explain the way genes alter and can
perpetuate intergenerational impairments.
Adverse childhood experiences in the first generation create increased stress
on the next generation and thus perpetuates the cycle of trauma.
Chronic stress and anxiety have the power to manipulate
how the brain develops during childhood, which can influence thinking, motivation learning, memory, sensation, perception and emotion, and predisposition to addiction
Understanding trauma is critical in devising
more effective strategies for health and well-being.
Understanding must include the collective
and cumulative trauma experiences.
Understanding the relationship between contemporary and historical
manifestations of trauma is required to disrupt the cycle.
Interrupting the cycle requires
healing and rebuilding individuals, families, and communities.
Indigenous children are acculturated
into a situation revolving around shame. The loss of language, identity, culture, and basic skills such as parenting reverberate through generations.
The role of language in
a culture which bases all teaching and learning on the oral tradition is that it transmits the collective memory of the people
Language aids in the
preservation of their histories; oral histories are the archives of the tribe
- To inhibit the transmission of this oral history is to render a culture mute, which was precisely what was hoped to happen as assimilation took place.
Impacts on Self-worth & Identity : Loss of familial connections
Responses to trauma, and behaviours exhibited by trauma survivors, have the ability to create rifts between families.
Impacts on Self-worth & Identity: Shame
Uncontrollable responses to trauma are revisited by the survivor later, and looked back at with shame.
Impacts on Self-worth & Identity: Not worthy of love
This negative cycle continues, leading survivors to think negatively about themselves, and consider themselves not worthy of their loved ones.
Current treatment approaches tend to
pathologize the victim and incarcerate the perpetrator.
re-engaging in positive social and cultural activities, which can be viewed as
enlightening events
revisiting their past, and making connections between
the traumatic events from the past and disruptive social behaviours in the present.
revitalizing their political, social, and economic spheres, and their participation in a collective enterprise
of bringing wellness to their communities is creating positive changes.
Incorporating this cultural context honours
the Indigenous ways of being prior colonization creating an stronger attachment to identity.
Healing Must Include:
Indigenous Worldviews
Personal Cultural Safety
Capacity to Heal
Pillars of Healing:
Reclaiming History
Cultural Interventions
Therapeutic Healing
