PTSD & Mental Health

Stigma

By: Marcy Garcia, Karen Marzarella, Maria Z Morales, Daion B

 What is PTSD ?
● Psychiatric disorder
● PTSD affects 3.5 percent of US adults
● People will have Intense disturbing thoughts and feelings
● Relive the event that caused PTSD
● Feel sadness, anger, or fear
 What is the Mental Health Stigma?
● A stigma is when someone views another person in a negative way.
● People will have negative attitudes and beliefs about someone with PTSD
● People will discriminate and be judgemental towards people with mental
health issues
 Who is Covering What Subjects
Marcy - Child Abuse/Neglect

Karen - Drug Addiction/Relapse

Z - Domestic Violence

Daion -Sexual Abuse

All - PTSD and Fear

 What is domestic violence/abuse?
● Domestic violence is behavior(s) such as physical,
emotional, economic and sexual abuse done by one
person against another in a domestic setting.
● Domestic violence can be physical, psychological or both.
● It can affect anyone of any age, gender, race, or sexual
orientation.
● Domestic violence may also be linked to chronic effects of
PTSD on victims.
 Factors of domestic violence
● More than a million incidents of domestic partner abuse are reported to
law enforcement officials each year in the United States.
● Epidemiological surveys suggest that between 20% and 25% of adult
women and 7% of adult male have been physically abused by a partner
(U.S. Department of Justice, 2000).
● Hambly, Finkelhor,and Ormrod (2011) of the U.S. Department of Justice
found that approximately 8.2 million children were exposed to some form
of family violence in the past years.
 Characteristics of abusers
● Manipulating- abusers use victim’s vulnerability and past pain to their
advantage.
● Controlling- someone who needs to have the person around him or her
behave in certain ways and not in others.
● Isolating- abusers will attempt to isolate the victim by cutting the victim’s
ties to outside support and resources.
● Inconsistent- mood swings
● Critical- makes rude comments, belittling a person's look or decisions.
Nothing is good enough.
● Vicious- inflicting pain and intimidating others is what gives abusers
power.
● Violent- intentional infliction of physical pain, injury, and or sexual
assault.
 Characteristics of victims
● Depression-loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities.
Feeling worthlessness or guilt. Frequent and recurring thoughts of
suicide.
● Socially isolated- avoids social interaction.
● Low self esteem- has poor self image.
● Accepts blame and guilt for violence or abuse
● Is economically and emotionally dependent on the abuser.
● May defend any criticism of abuser
● Have traditional beliefs that women should be submissive to men.
● PTSD- after leaving an abusive and toxic relationship. Some victims suffer
from severe post traumatic stress disorder
 People with PTSD are at a higher risk of relapse
● Need to learn different strategies to stay sober

● PTSD is trigger for relapse

● Without proper treatment for the trauma that caused PTSD relapse rates

are higher.
 Treatment to avoid relapse
● Patient must have intense treatment to lower the risk of relapse

● Needs to find the correlation between PTSD and substance abuse

● Needs to understand how the trauma resulted in PTSD

● Need to develop coping skills to use in real life situations

 Coping mechanisms for people with PTSD
● Certain mood tolerance and management techniques

● Relationship building and communication skills

● Stress management

● Avoiding situations that are triggers for PTSD

 Child Abuse and PTSD
So what are main forms of maltreatment a child can go through? They are:

I. Neglect - A parent’s lack of care for the child’s wellbeing in not giving
enough food, clothing, shelter and proper attention. They just don’t want to
be bothered in raising their children.
II. Physical Abuse - This parents causing injury to their children on purpose
(like bruises, welts or cuts, even to the more extremes like bone and skull
fractures).
III. Sexual Abuse - This can very from an adult touching a child with the fact in
mind that they want to feel pleasure from being in physical contact with
them. There are also further extremes such as incest and rape.
 Child Abuse and PTSD
● In the United States alone, there are over a million children who are
maltreated every year. This maltreatment could be neglect, physical or sexual
abuse.
● Consequences of this maltreatment have been a lack of academic
underachievement along with a predicted lower IQ, health risk behaviors such
as poor physical health and excessive drinking, criminal behaviors, and mental
disorders.
● Sometimes due to their trauma, a person may black out the experience from
their memory and have trouble remembering the event. Although children
can develop PTSD into adulthood, trauma and PTSD are not the same.
 Child Abuse and PTSD
● Some studies look at cognitive flexibility, the ability to switch between
thinking about two different concepts and to think about multiple concepts
simultaneously. They look at how their past experiences with maltreatment
and abuse affect the way that they function.
● They found that violence with an intimate partner was very similar to the
emotions of traumatized children.
● In comparisons with non-abused children, the abused (especially those that
were neglected by parents) children, now as adults, were found to have
poorer scores in assessments of speed and completing a set of tasks.
 Child Abuse and PTSD
● The demographic (like age, gender or ethnicity) may also become a factor
when it comes to how child abuse and ptsd correlate.
● Along with PTSD, someone who had dealt with childhood abuse may
develop depression. They can develop risky behaviors such as excessive
alcohol consumption, especially around 30-40 years of age as adults.
● Abuse and Neglect predicts PTSD, which then may affect the choices
someone might make growing up (like choosing a path of delinquency or
drinking in excess).
 PTSD: Sexual Abuse
● Survivors of childhood sexual assault are likely to have more severe
sexual difficulties.
● Penetration during the sexual assault will also enhance the chance for
more sexual issues.
● Individuals of sexual abuse often engage in risky sexual behaviors later in
life like not using condoms or having a larger number of sexual partners.
● Individuals of sexual abuse may experience low sexual desire and
diminished sexual behavior.
 PTSD: Sexual Abuse
● Time is a factor in predicting PTSD symptoms.
● Stress has a different response in attachment avoidance and attachment
anxiety.
● Attachment avoidance - Individual will usually try and distance themselves
from negative emotions or people.
● Attachment Anxiety - Individual uses others to regulate their stress.
● Attachment theory is based on quality of early caregiver relationships and
determines your individual working model of yourself and others.
● Maintaining proximity to a nurturing caregiver gives the sense of security.
● Infants either manifest a secure or insecure attachment.
● Symptoms can appear up to 23 years after initial onset of abuse.
● Traumatic experiences, divorce or even grief can affect attachment styles.
● Studies state that survivors of childhood sexual abuse are at a high risk
(48-85%) for developing PTSD.
 Treatment
● Complete assessments are done before treatment begins and are
repeated every 6 months.
● All survivors receive weekly therapy with a personally oriented approach.
● Treatment usually lasts for about 1.5 years with changes to treatment
plans as needed.
● The RAAS consist of 18 things that can measure three subscales:
Closeness, dependency, and anxiety.
 Relapse
● There was no significant occurrence of relapse between those seeking
treatment and those that have stopped.
● Having attachment avoidance has a lower recurrence of PTSD, while
attachment anxiety has a higher.
●
FEAR
Birth Trauma happens to women who experience PTSD after childbirth.
The fear that she and the baby might die.
● Approximately 9% of women experience postpartum post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) following childbirth... Women who have
experienced a previous trauma, such as rape or sexual abuse, are also at
a higher risk for experiencing postpartum PTSD.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVHUrhh_vY&t=204s
 References
Nikulina, V., & Widom, C. S. (2013). Child maltreatment and executive functioning in middle adulthood: A prospective examination.

Neuropsychology, 27(4), 417–427. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032811

Sharkansky, E. J., Brief, D. J., Peirce, J. M., Meehan, J. C., & Mannix, L. M. (1999). Substance abuse patients with posttraumatic stress

disorder (PTSD): Identifying specific triggers of substance use and their associations with PTSD symptoms. Psychology of

Addictive Behaviors, 13(2), 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1037/0893-164X.13.2.89

Murphy, S., Elklit, A., Hyland, P., & Shevlin, M. (2016). Insecure attachment orientations and posttraumatic stress in a female

treatment-seeking sample of survivors of childhood sexual abuse: A cross-lagged panel study. Traumatology, 22(1), 48–55.

https://doi.org/10.1037/trm0000060

Bornstein, R. F. (2006). The complex relationship between dependency and domestic violence: Converging psychological factors and

social forces. American Psychologist, 61(6), 595–606. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.61.6.595

 References

Hall, J. G. (2019). Child-centered play therapy as a means of healing children exposed to domestic violence. International Journal of

Play Therapy, 28(2), 98–106. https://doi.org/10.1037/pla0000097

Handelzalts, J. E., Hairston, I. S., Muzik, M., Matatyahu Tahar, A., & Levy, S. (2019). A paradoxical role of childbirth-related

posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in the association between personality factors and mother–infant bonding: A

cross-sectional study. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000521