Experiencing a traumatic occurrence can scar individuals for the rest of their lives. At age…
It is impossible to know exactly how many Jews were killed of exposure, disease, and starvation in the Holocaust. Many people were put to death for speaking out against Hitler and for disagreeing with the government. In the book The Holocaust by Seymour Rossel it is estimated that about 6,000,000 Jews died. Not only were Jews being killed during the Holocaust but so were gypsies, slaves, the mentally ill, and the physically deformed people. (Rossel, p. 3)…
According to the Journal of Controversial Medical Claims, post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened and can affect both children and adults (Anderson 1). As a child Ishmael Beah goes through an unimaginable amount of life threaten violence that is both inflicted upon him and inflicted on others forcefully by him. Although having escaped the violence of war and is now an adult living a life of newly discovered happiness, Baeh is still unable to escape his traumatic past.…
"Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin, "Holos" meaning "whole" and "kaustos" meaning "burned". The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million European Jews, but an estimated 1 million people as a direct result, by the Nazi regime and its collaborators during World War II (ushmm 2013). The anti-Sematic Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler believed, and persuaded many others to believe that the Jews were the cause of Germany's failure in WWI and also, as a race, they were inferior and damaging to the racial "purity" of the German race.…
Maltreatment affects other aspects of the activity on the brain in regards to behavioral, social, and emotional functioning. For example: chronic stress or repeated trauma can result in a persistent fear state and this response in a child can result in the inability to differentiate between danger and safety. There are constantly in fear and this response is expressed in Elizabeth today. Her memory of being abused if she did something that her parents did not like is so much a part of her now that she associates that memory of abuse to all situations where she might do something that someone does not like. That is one of the reasons why she always makes sure that she is allowed to enter a house or eat food that someone offers her. She is afraid of getting hurt. The American Psychological Association explains this condition well; “When children are exposed to chronic, traumatic stress, their brains sensitize the pathways for the fear response and create memories that automatically trigger that response without conscious…
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is an often talked-about problem among war news and catastrophic events. It’s a household word and a well-known phrase. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a common brain affliction, with many causes. Research about its effects on the brain and brain chemistry are still going on, and treatments are still being tested. Post-traumatic stress disorder affects multiple areas of the brain, and that, in turn, affects an individual’s ability to function. Learning about PTSD and its effects on the brain is important for researching and advancing its treatment and prevention. I will be researching PTSD’s affects on the brain physically and chemically, then I will talk about PTSD caused by war and combat. Finally,…
During the Second World War, Jews were singled out and murdered for their religious beliefs. They witnessed torture, death, starvation and many other horrible things. After enduring such an atrocity, Jewish families lived in constant fear, dreading they're children would be separated from them again or that they would never be able to return home. As a result, Holocaust survivors and their children suffered from traumatic shocks and extreme PTSD. In her article, Starman explains that consequently, these traumas were passed down generations through inappropriate parenting…
The holocaust happened during World War 2 in addition, it started the year 1939 and ended in 1945.“The holocaust was not only a Jewish tragedy, but also a human tragedy.” ~ Simon Wiesenthal. Doctors are meant to save life’s not to destroy them. Medical experiments during the holocaust is still remembered today because of the doctors who performed them, the test subjects they used, the extreme practices performed and the results.…
In a study done by scientists at the New York Mount Sinai Hospital, it was found that trauma is biologically passed on to the children and possibly even grandchildren of survivors of an event such as genocide. This study was conducted on survivors of the Holocaust. The scientists found that there were specific gene changes in the children of Holocaust survivors that could “only have been attributed to Holocaust exposure in the parents.” They found that environmental influences such as smoking, diet and stress could affect the genes of future generations. The scientists were primarily concerned with the gene that is associated with the regulation of stress hormones. They found that there were epigenetic tags on the exact same parts of the genes for parents and their children. What this means in the case of the Armenian genocide is that as the population of survivors that were directly impacted by the genocide are passing away, the trauma that they experienced is spreading to the next generations of…
Psychological trauma can have an everlasting effect on a person’s life. According to Armsworth and Holaday (1993), Psychological trauma occurs when an individual is exposed to an overwhelming event that renders him or her helpless in the face of intolerable danger, anxiety, and instinctual arousal (p. 49). Anyone no matter what age, can experience a traumatic event. However, children are the ones mostly affected by a traumatic event. Trauma regardless if it is sexual abuse, physical abuse, or psychological abuse, affects a person’s life. The abuse will alter the way a person thinks, feels, and their ability to cope with the abuse. The human body responds to trauma in different ways. The traumatic experience or experiences can…
Childhood trauma, including abuse and neglect, is probably the single most important public health challenge in the United States, a challenge that has the potential to be largely resolved by appropnate prevention and intervention (van der Kolk, 2005). Trauma as a child can affect the child’s entire life unknowingly especially if they go untreated. However, this is often the case in today’s society. The results of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV), 2* Field Trial suggested that trauma has its most pervasive impact during the first decade of life and becomes more circumscribed (i.e., more like "pure" PTSD) with age (van der Kolk, 2005). Most psychologists agree that the DSM criterion does not effectively describe the trauma and the effects on the developing child. One of the problems the DSM criteria faces is the fact that the complex reaction is based strictly on military soldiers. As a result, the reactions of those involved in combat were likely significantly different from those of immature individuals whose exposure to traumatic stress was ongoing and related to family life (Courtois, 2004). Another difficulty facing clinicians during the assessment process of the child victim is the child’s inability to properly express their emotions. This may be due to their age or it can be the impact of the trauma.…
Traumatic events often have a long-term effect on individuals. Long after the traumatic event has occurred, thoughts, emotions and behavior may still be influenced by the event (Practice Notes, 2012). Normal neurological development can be effected by traumatic events in a young children. When a child experiences trauma, the…
World War Two set a mark in history that would cause major change in many aspects of lives today, the Holocaust possibly the most significant event of them all. By having different types of Nazi camps functioning in different ways, Nazi Germany was able to mentally and physically affect the victims and perpetrators, to this day, through the use of death camps, labour camps and prisoner of war camps. The Holocaust used a variety of different types of camps to work towards the Final Solution, extermination camps, labour camps and prisoner of war camps. The effects of these camps can be situated into two categories, long term and short term effects. The short term effect was in the moment and when Nazi Germany was in control. The long term affect…
Childhood trauma effects children worldwide in different ways in regards of their mental status, attention, and memory. There have been astounding amount of evidence in regards of the effects of childhood trauma in regards to impairment in cognition. Children who experience sexual, physical, or psychological abuse research have indicated the child will demonstrate psychiatric symptoms, neurodevelopment deficiencies and physical health consequences (Szanto et al, ). According to Hovens () childhood trauma will put a child at higher risk for depression and anxiety.…
References: Terr, L. C. (1991). Childhood traumas: an outline and overview. Am J Psychiatry, 1, 48.…