Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Those that experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) know that it’s a horrible experience, one that they wouldn’t want to pass on. For those who experienced PTSD provoking trauma it’s a sad reality that their PTSD will be passed on to their children who didn’t experience the traumatic event, creating a cycle. PTSD, among other things, has the ability to be passed down because of epigenetics, the study of changes in organisms caused by modification of gene expression rather than alteration of the genetic code itself. Epigenetics is a widely debated topic because it states that children’s genes are negatively changed because of their parents’ trauma. Some critics argue that people with anxiety and health complaints are more aware of their
One main problem that often come out of traumatic experiences is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is seen throughout society and is characterized as re-experiencing the traumatic event through dreams, thoughts, sensations, or flashbacks. It also involves emotional numbing, avoidance of trauma provoking thoughts or activities, and a heightened sense of alertness or arousal. PTSD is most commonly seen when the maltreatment was received as a child. Childhood maltreatment comprises of sexual, physical, and emotional neglect that negatively affects a child’s development and their psychological or psychological health throughout their entire lifetime (Ramo-Fernández et al.). When abused at such an important developmental age such as childhood development those children when adults have a higher probability of abusing their own children and becoming involved in abusive relationships, in which they would re-experience their victimization (Ramo-Fernández et al.). A study was done to prove that when one is abused as a child they are more likely to become abusive as well. In 135 parents with a history of childhood maltreatment 6.7% abused their child within the first 13 months. This may not seem like a large amount but compared to the control group of non-abused parents only 0.4% abused their offspring (Ramo-Fernández et
Children of the parents that survived the Holocaust described the ways in which they carried their parents suffering with them. One child who was a successful Ivy League graduate and had a successful professional who seemed to have no problems said in an interview “Well, there are a lot of ways to be damaged. I wouldn’t want to be the person in an intimate relationship with me. I wouldn’t trust myself to be a good father” (Shulevitz). As a byproduct of the horrid scenes that their parents saw such as what Elie Wiesel a 15-year-old Jewish boy witnessed. “Not far from us, flames were leaping up from a ditch, gigantic flames. They were burning something. A lorry drew up at the pit and delivered its load—little children. Babies! Yes, I saw it—saw it with my own eyes…those children in the flames” (Lenhoff). The offspring of those who experienced the Holocaust genes changed for the worse, and those children know it. The survivors of the Holocaust who developed PTSD children were at an increased risk to develop PTSD themselves (Ramo-Fernández et al.). Another health issue that came to the children of the survivors was even lower cortisol rates than their parents and higher anxiety levels (Rodriguez). Many of the children therefor grew to have bad views of the world, increased guilt, submission, and victimization