If you happened to read my last article, you will see that I mentioned Post traumatic stress Disorder as one of the possible outcomes of the abuse.
Dear steemians, welcome to another interesting and revealing article of mine. This is a kind of continuation to my article as I will be sharing about PTSD just to let the world know what the effect of child sexual abuse looks like on these little ones. In case you missed the article, you can quickly read it below
PTSD is a health condition that originates in an individual due to a terrifying event that that individual experienced or witnessed. Its most common symptoms include, severe anxiety, flash backs and night mares. Although it is understandable that after traumatic events there will be a time of adjusting and coping but PTSD comes to play when this adjustments period begins to tend into months or even years and get to interfere with the individuals’ ability to function properly in other spheres of life.
SYMPTOMS
It symptoms becomes manifest one month into the trauma, although there are cases of symptoms showing up years after. It alters the daily life of the victim. There are four generally grouped symptoms;
INTRUSIVE MEMORIESCHANGES
: This includes; nightmares, flashbacks, severe emotional distress reaction to something that reminds the individual of the past event.AVOIDANCE
: like labelled; avoiding places, people, activities that bring back the trauma. Also avoiding talking about it is a sign under avoidance.NEGATIVE CHANGES IN THINKING MOOD
: Under this level we can find sign such as; inability to establish close relationship, feeling of isolation from friends and family, lack of interest in the things that were once captivating to the person, negative thinking about self and others around.PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL CHANGES
: In this case, scenarios like; always alert for danger, trouble concentrating, aggressive behaviour, trouble sleeping, tendency to drink much.COMPLICATIONS
PTSD can give rise to complications like:
Depression and anxiety
Drug and alcohol abuse
Suicidal tendencies
Eating disorders
PREVENTION
Remember that the focus of this condition is for children who have been through the HELL OF SEXUAL ASSAULT. So how can we prevent this condition from coming up??
First
: The parents and the close relatives/friends have to be very close to the kid, supporting him/her in all areas and assuring the child of a bright future. Stigmatization will only fast forward the suicide tendency so it should be heard of at all.Second
: The Belief of the Child will play a very big role in suppressing PTSD; let the child see reasons in His Beliefs that whatever he went through is nothing and will definitely turn out for Good. The Spiritual head that the child respect must assure the Child of His safety and stand before God.Third
: They say a problem shared is a problem solved. The child should be encouraged by close ones to share/speak up about the event. It may hurt at the beginning but as times goes by, the kid will be able to speak on it and feel no hurt. I will also add here that seminar be held for victims of child abuse where they are given lectures on how to cope with the experience and become successful people in life.Fourth
: Like I do always, I would love to see you contributions so, this lat slot is for my dear Readers. What do you think can be done to prevent PTSD in children that experience Child abuse?STOP CHILD SEXUAL ASSUALT!!!!!
LET OUR KIDS BE SAFE!!!
Till next Time
Keep Steeming
Stay Blessed
