Traumatic Stress Disorder in Teenagers - Coursework Example

Traumatic stress disorder in teenagers: Psychology Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation INTRODUCTION Traumatic stress disorder refers to the condition an individual experiences after being exposed to a traumatic event. Accidents, natural disasters like tornadoes, domestic violence and sexual assault encompass some of the traumatic events experienced[Lan10]. The events tend damage the psychological integrity of individuals and threaten their lives. All parents and guardians hope that their children would live lives free from any kind of stress or pressure. Most individuals who go through a traumatic event tend to experience shock, fear, guilt and anger among other negative feelings. Teenagers experiencing traumatic stress disorder get so overwhelmed that they fail to live a normal life. Due to the above reasons I chose this topic. My main aim remain to make individuals aware of the dangers of traumatic stress disorder on the teenagers’ lives. Studies show that four out of 11 teenagers witness violence that result to a traumatic stress disorder. An estimated 17% of teenagers experience physical assault while 8% tend to go through sexual assault[Lan10]. All these acts lead to traumatic stress disorder and this forms part of the other reason for my choice for this topic. The above topic remain relevant in every individuals lives because more often than not we get exposed to teenage suicide cases caused by traumatic stress disorder. It remains crucial to take traumatic events victims with great seriousness due to the dangers surrounding them. Trauma among teenagers remains to have a profound effect on their development, and a lifelong consequence on the mental and physical development (Lanius & Vermetten, 2010). The topic remains relevant as it aids parents whose children seem to experience traumatic stress disorder. HYPOTHESIS 1. Most teenagers experiencing traumatic stress disorder turn to drug abuse and vice versa 2. The effects of traumatic events last long upto adulthood 3. Teenagers who have experienced trauma tend to remain reluctant in accessing mental health services 4. Interpersonal trauma increase the symptoms of traumatic stress disorder CAUSES OF TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN TEENAGERS The causes of traumatic stress disorder depend on the severity of the trauma, the nature of the trauma, the teenager’s nearness to the trauma and the parent’s reaction to the trauma. To begin with, genetics play a great role in determining the development of traumatic stress disorder. Teenagers with close relatives who have been exposed or have struggled with traumatic stress disorders remain at a higher risk of developing traumatic stress disorder when subjected to trauma[All11]. The risk often remain at a higher rate for teenagers who have already experienced anxiety or depression. To add to that, a teenagers inborn temperament or personality heightens the chances of them developing traumatic stress disorder. Individuals who possess the melancholic temperament remain more likely to experience the disorder as compared to sanguine individuals. To continue, the physical attributes of a teenager determine their ability to handle traumatic events. The different genders have diverse ways of handling and regulating their hormones when faced with stressful situations. In this case, females remain at higher risk of developing the traumatic stress disorder as compared to males. Finally, the environmental conditions determine responses to stressful situations. The day to day experiences of a teenager, including the severity and amount of trauma determine their vulnerability to traumatic stress disorder. Traumatic situations that seem long lasting and repeated especially physical ones like sexual abuse can lead to TSD. SYMPTOMS OF TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER In most cases, traumatic stress disorder bring about strong physical and emotional responses triggered by the reminders of the traumatic events[Rut12]. The symptoms of traumatic stress disorder get grouped into four categories. To begin with, re-undergoing the trauma remains the first category. Here the affected individuals basically go through flashbacks, nightmares and emotional and physical responses as a result of the events they went through in the past. Secondly, the victims encounter avoidance whereby they shun the things that remind them of the traumatic events. The above include feelings, people, activities, places and thoughts that remind them of the trauma. Thirdly, the teenagers tend to emotionally numb themselves whereby they disconnect themselves from others. They gets the feelings of not being themselves. Finally, the victims come to terms with increased arousal. In this case, they come across outbursts of emotions like anger, get startled easily, feel highly irritable and also come into contact with insomnia. In other cases, they feel less concentration and encounter the need to constantly protect themselves from danger. Traumatic experiences in teenage hood have lifelong consequences as they result to higher risks of cardiac, immunological, psychiatric, metabolic and gastrointestinal sicknesses later in life. Approximately a third of teenagers tend to encounter unending symptoms of traumatic stress disorder (Ruth & Nancy, 2012). Increasing evidence show that maltreatment and repeated trauma has lifelong consequences on interpersonal and adaptive functioning, cognition and neuroendocrine functions including emotional regulation among other consequences. Adolescents who get subjected to traumatic events pass through disturbances in moods, attachments, attention and impulse control which result to other psychiatric disorders like ADHD and bipolar disorders. Most teenagers exhibit poor academic performance and drop out of school as a result of trauma. Teenage suicide, depression, teenage pregnancies, multiple sex partners and crimes come as result of trauma. TRAUMA AND DRUG ABUSE AMONG TEENAGERS Studies show that approximately half of traumatic stress disorder adolescents develop drug abuse problems (Cohen & Walter, 2010). Due to the fact that drugs and alcohol possess powerful effects on adolescents emotional encounters, teens going through traumatic stress disorder quickly switch from recreational activities to drug abuse. Adolescents with traumatic stress disorder seem to undertake substance abuse as it seems to ease their pain at first. Drugs give adolescents pleasurable feels and in some cases aid them to keep away from stress. However, in the long run substance abuse only serves to keep teenagers in an unending avoidance cycle and in the end they become unable to recover from trauma. In order to triumph over the pain associated with trauma, adolescents need some aid in learning better methods that will not lead to additional social and health problems. Drug abuse tends to increase a teenagers chance of getting more involved in traumatic events and also passing through more symptoms encompassing traumatic stress. Adolescents on drugs engage in life threatening activities like drunk driving, unsafe sex and hitchhiking. These activities puts them on the risks of suffering traumatic events. Due to the problems that come as a result of alcohol and substance abuse, adolescents go through a harder time coping with traumatic events. Teenagers involved with drugs show less interest in academic work and often drop out of school. They get more forgetful, aggressive, distracted, secretive and jittery[Coh10]. A great decrease in motivation and less cooperation seem also signs of substance abuse. The connection between drug abuse and trauma remains a two way thing. Trauma increases the levels substance abuse, and drug abuse increases the chances of experiencing trauma. Several studies show that drug abuse develop from exposure to trauma. Traumatic stress makes it more difficult for teenagers to stop substance abuse. Most teenagers tend to lack the skills necessary to cope with traumatic stress and this exposes them to substance abuse. NEUROBIOLOGICAL INFLUENCE OF TRAUMATIC STRESS Teenage trauma often have a massive impact on mental health. In most cases, traumatized adolescents suffer from symptoms like anxiety, depression or development regression[All11]. On the other hand, other teenagers suffer from long lasting traumatic stress disorders and other psychiatric disorders. The symptoms seem both internal and external. The diversity of these symptoms in most cases remains a mystery. Studies show that the diversity comes as a result of factors like gender, environmental factors, age, genetic makeup and pretrauma functioning. Different brain parts encounter bursts of myelination, pruning, synapse formation and neural networking. All these activities seem sensitive on issues like stress. Stress hormones like cortisol suppress cell division and eventually result to neuronal loss. Crucial brain areas like the amygdala, corpus callosum, hippocampus and cerebellar vermis seem extremely vulnerable and sensitive in the course of development. Different sections of the brain seem susceptible to the diverse types of trauma. The vulnerability depends on the child’s gender. Diversity in the genetic makeup does impact the sensitivity of stress. The different neurologic impacts remain responsible for the distinctive outcomes and impacts of the traumatic stress. Each of the affected area of the brain leads to the diverse symptoms. The above remain due to the fact that the diverse parts of the brain possess differing functions. EFFECTS OF TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN TEENAGERS The effects of TSD in teenagers remain either short term or long term. In most cases TSD tends to shutter the innocence of the victims involved[The00]. The victims tend to lose the faith of a safe world. Disillusionment remains the main effect of traumatic stress in teenagers. Traumatic experiences prevent teenagers from living a normal life because they get affected psychologically. The adverse effects can torment the individuals until they receive the required help. In other cases traumatic stress causes high levels of fear, helplessness and terror. The trauma tends to affect the person’s biologically. Traumatic stress often leads to abuse of drugs and increase in crime levels. In some cases teenagers commit suicide as a result traumatic stress. The teenagers also get affected in the future as they get affected physically. Some physical conditions experienced in adulthood can get traced from the traumatic stress they undergo in their teenage lives. TREATMENT OF TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN TEENAGERS The first stage of treating traumatic stress in teenagers includes ensuring the safety of the teen by collaborating with community resources, family members and child protective services[Lew10]. Through partnering with child support services will increase the safety of the teenager. The most important stage of treatment remains encompassed on ensuring the safety of the victims suffering from TSD. Safety should always remain the primary goal. In the cases where a country seems to experience war or neighborhoods with high levels of insecurity and violence, absolute security remains an uphill task. In such cases more collaboration remains a great requirement from the child support services and other parties involved. From the achievement of safety, it remains crucial for treatment to commence. For teenagers with traumatic stress disorder, the first form of treatment remains psychotherapy. The therapies centered on trauma carried out in randomized controlled trials seem more effective as compared to unstructured therapies. The most utilized form of treatment for teenagers suffering from TSD remains trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy often initialized as (TF-CBT). It remains effective in the treatment of TSD symptoms as well as depression and anxiety. The above works for sexually abused teenagers, teenagers affected by terrorism and teenagers suffering from domestic violence. Therefore, it remains effective for all teenage populations suffering from TSD. There includes several types of psychotherapy for the treatment of TSD. To begin with, there exists cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy enables the teenage victims to recognize their thinking patterns that stop them from perceiving the normal situations. In most cases, cognitive therapy remain utilized together with exposure therapy. Secondly, there exists the exposure therapy which remains perceived as behavioral therapy. It basically enables the victims to face the situation at hand in a safe way so that they can learn to cope with it in an efficient way. In certain situations, this approach utilizes virtual reality to enable them re-experience the traumatic situations. The approach enables the victim to become familiar with the experienced problem and develop a way of being immune. Therefore, the healing process will become faster and effective. Finally, the last type of psychotherapy remains eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EDMR). EDMR utilizes a combination of exposure therapy and controlled movements of the eyes. They enable individual’s change the way in which they respond to trauma (Lewis & Nguyen, 2010). All the above measures enables an individual gain control from their traumatic experience. It remains highly advisable for the teenager suffering from TSD to get the opportunity of choosing the right kind of therapy. The therapist should discuss with the victim the type of therapy best suitable for their needs. The victim may try individual or group therapy. However, group therapy remains the best as it offers an opportunity for the victims to connect through the similar experiences. In some instances several types of medications can aid in solving the problems. The use of anti-depressants aids a lot in symptoms like anxiety and depression. They aid in improving concentration and sleep problems. The use of anti-anxiety drugs aids in improving the feelings of stress and anxiety for a short period of time (Allwood, Bell, & Horan, 2011). The main aim remains to relieve the serious anxiety related problems. However, the above medications cannot get utilized for a long period of time due to the chances that they can get abused. Finally, medications like prazosin relieve symptoms like recurring nightmares and insomnia. They work by reducing and suppressing the nightmares experienced by the victims of TSD. ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER TEENAGERS The adolescents facing TSD normally turn to drugs to reduce their distress. The distress gets alleviated through the avoidance of the deep emotions or increase the levels of pleasurable sensations[The00]. Although such kind of adolescents need serious help, they face great difficulties in entering or even getting involved in treatment activities and services. In most cases, the teenagers attend the facilities unwillingly as they get forced by their parents or caregivers. In extreme cases they remain mandated by the courts to attend the treatments. Due to the fact that the systems of services targeting mental health problems and drug abuse remain fragmented, few teenagers with both problems get joint treatment services. To make the problems worse, there exists few health facilities with joint services. The above remains as a result of the fact that less professional programs for training offer the training of expertise in both trauma and drug abuse. Moreover, few professionals possess the experience and training in both fields. Due to the strong association between trauma and drug abuse, there remains a great need to make adjustments to both trauma and substance abuse professionals. For all the mental health service providers, it remains important for them to become familiar with all the addiction patterns of drug abusers and recognize similar patterns that work in addiction and traumatic stress. Both situations remain characterized by the behavioral and emotional dysregulation and seem expressed in broad symptoms. For the drug abuse professionals it remains crucial to look at the trauma history of the teenager and the coping patterns exercised. They should not only look at the immediate circumstance of the teenager’s drug abuse. The above remain due to the commonalities encompassed drug abuse triggers and responses to traumatic experiences. The administrators, clinicians and the healthcare providers in mental field and drug abuse fields face great challenges in the provision of care to teenagers with drug abuse and traumatic stress problems. The fragmentation that existed between drug abuse and mental health systems does limit the eligibility of the services received by the youth. To add to that, most service sector more often than not lack the necessary resources and the required services to provide effective and efficient services. In conclusion, adequate and sufficient care starts with accurate identification of the challenges experienced by the teenagers. Clinicians with the passion of helping multi-problem adolescents need to develop the necessary skills to cope with both problems to avoid referring the patient to another clinician. Counselors and therapists can develop the required skills to provide an integrated and comprehensive treatment approach. In orders to increase the chances of success, the teenagers concerns should remain addressed and the relationship between traumatic stress and drug abuse established[The00]. In establishing an individual plan of treatment, great attention should remain given to the symptoms of traumatic stress, drug abuse and their relationship. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION In conclusion, there exists a link between drug abuse and traumatic stress. The relationship between the two remains a two way thing with each being dependent on each other and vice versa. It remains true to assert that solving drug related problems remains the same as solving traumatic stress problems and vice versa. Therefore, therapist for TSD teenage victims should remain conversant with both problems so as to remain effective in the treatment process. Secondly, it remains clear that the effects of traumatic events last up to adulthood. The above hypothesis remain proven right as the events tend to alter the brain and its composition. Most individuals suffering from gastrointestinal problems at their adulthood once experienced traumatic events either in their childhood or adulthood. In most cases, teenagers seem reluctant to access mental health services. Due to the fact that they feel it’s embarrassing and don’t want to admit that they have a problem. In some cases mandatory court orders get made to ensure that the teenagers undergo the therapy sessions required. Finally, the Interpersonal trauma increase the symptoms of traumatic stress disorder. Traumatic stress remains both internal and external. The impacts of traumatic stress in teenagers seem profound and for this reason clinicians remain tasked with recognizing the affected teenagers. Once the affected teenagers get identified, the therapists establish safety, educate the teenager and the parents and finally provide counselling. Therapists also discuss with the parents and the victims on the most effective treatment methods. Due to the fact that adolescents remain unwilling to give out information on their traumatic experiences, specific questioning remain an uphill task. The evaluation of traumatic histories and TSD symptoms remain effective in assessing the risks involved and the treatment plan. REFERENCES Lan10: , (Lanius & Vermetten, 2010), All11: , (Allwood, Bell, & Horan, 2011), Rut12: , (Ruth & Nancy, 2012), Coh10: , (Cohen & Walter, 2010), The00: , (The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2015), Lew10: , (Lewis & Nguyen, 2010), Read More