Discussion of Former Child Soldiers with Ptsd and the Available Treatments

In his magazine article describing the obscene violence that is currently personnel casualty on in Uganda, Christopher Hitchenssits down with a boy named mob at a rehab center. James was prosperous enough to escape being a slave to Kony, when he was marched all the way to Sudan, where an ambush ensued and James got away. Marching long distances was an initiation technique used by the Lords Resistance soldiery in order to herd out the weaker boys. If a boy was too tired to go on, the opposite slaves were forced to brutally beat him to death.Before the march, James was savagely flogged with a wire lash and sp ared from having to bulge out his own family which is a frequent method of registration practised by the LordsResistance Army. No doubt, these starts would endure a minus developmental affect on any child, perhaps developing PTSD. Hitchens writes that when he was oral presentation to James, the boy would sit perfectly still in his chair, stoic, but when it came time for J ames to share his story, he began twisting in his chair.Along with rubbing his eyes and making waving gestures with his arms, these restless and jumpy behaviours are common symptoms of PTSD. What is the impact on a child who was forced to kill someone? Are the outcomes of this experience just as severe as witnessing a murder or being raped? incoming look for must dissect these varying forms of war trauma and compare the severity of a specificexperience to the negative developmental outcomes. Though the analyses of the data collected from these smalls groups seems exhausting, it is vital in order to better understand the individual. lento but surely, the research gathered surrounding specific traumatic experiences, will uncover more school strategies in the rehabilitation of former child soldiers. Participants were taught to verbalize the traumatic Overwhelming Events and that these events and the accompanying emotions might no longer be processed on a conscious level and could pr oduce psychological disequilibrium. They were wherefore taught that these traumatic events and emotions are often encapsulated in their subconscious memory as a coping trick and that encapsulating the events and emotions can cause physical symptoms Somatisation.Participants learned to recognize the psychological and physical bondage of these traumatic events and to have it away that these were beyond their control. This was followed by selecting a Companion to Release the encapsulated events to and leads to greater freedom from the emotional bondage. Recognizing their own resiliency as based on their individual strengths leads to the emergence of a New-Self, which leads to Rebuilding their social structure. A concluding Commencement celebration serves to integrate the learning as well as to initiate a yoke between the former child soldiers and their community.The vulnerability of a child who has just witnessed the destruction of their village and maybe the murder of their fa mily, allows warlords to brainwash them and force them to perform sinister acts of violence. While being enslaved, a childs once innocent mind is often flooded with warped views by their captor, and turned into an irrational violent death machine. The effects of this are devastating on several levels psychological, emotional, social and physical. As the previously discussed studies prove, it is crucial for research to continue surrounding the mental health outcomes of child soldiers in any war torn country.References Bayer, C. P. , Klasen, F. , Adam, H. (2007). experience of Trauma and PTSD Symptoms WithOpenness to Reconciliation and Feelings of Revenge Among Former Ugandan and Congolese Child Soldiers. JAMA, 298(5), 555 559. Hitchens, C. (2006). Childhoods End. Vanity Fair, Jan 2006, 58 64. Onyut, L. P. , Neuner, F. , Schauer, E. , Ertl, V, Odenwald, Shauer, M. , Elbert, T. (2005). Narrative Exposure Therapy as a treatment for child war survivors with posttraumatic variant dis order Two case reports and a pilot study in an African refugee settlement. BMC Psychiatry, 57