By: Kyle J Smith, Marketing Intern
June is PTSD Awareness Month. Each week this month on our blog we will explore the causes and effects of PTSD in low-income urban communities like ours, the evidence-based treatments we are using to help our client guests find healing, and the incredible strength it takes to seek healing and reconciliation. Read Part 1, here.
Nora after a group therapy session.
“Not all the men in my life have been abusive, “ Nora said. “It’s just that it’s hard to trust anyone when your childhood is a living nightmare.” We first shared Nora’s story a few years back. (Trigger warning: Nora’s story contains graphic details of her abuse.)
“You can’t just put it behind you and move on. My dad and grandfather (her abusers) are dead, but I’m still learning to deal with the memories that are alive in my brain.”
The prevalence and pervasiveness of trauma in our community cannot be overlooked. Most adults (87%) in the Kansas City region have experienced trauma in their life, according to the Resilient KC Report (2017). And slightly over half (53%) experienced four or more traumatic events or conditions.
Trauma is often traced back to early experiences, like Nora’s “living nightmare,” and are referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs. They include on a personal level: physical and emotional neglect, substance abuse in the household, and having an incarcerated parent.
But trauma goes beyond just what happens to the individual. Our partners at Alive and Well Communities include two more categories in their trauma-informed care workshops: public events and community trauma.
Public event trauma includes witnessing violence like a homicide and dramatic community disruption like after a natural disaster. Community trauma is often invisible to the naked eye, but is well-documented in the urban core of Kansas City where poverty, poor housing quality, and discrimination limit our neighbors each day.
The Resilient KC Report, which was conducted in 2017 across a nine-county, bi-state area, reports: “Studies demonstrated that stressful or traumatic childhood experiences such as abuse, neglect, witnessing domestic violence, or growing up with alcohol/substance abuse, mental illness, parental discord, or crime in the home are a common pathway to social, emotional, and cognitive impairments that lead to increased risk of unhealthy behaviors, violence or revictimization, disease, disability, and premature mortality.”
Via Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Adverse childhood experiences can also lead to a host of negative outcomes later in life, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD, as documented in the CDC-Kaiser Permanente ACE Study
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing trauma at any point in their life. As Nora said, “I’m still learning to deal with the memories that are alive in my brain.” Of people who have experienced trauma, about 1 in 10 men and 2 in 10 women will develop PTSD.
The symptoms of PTSD are:
reliving the traumatic event
avoiding things that remind you of the event
having more negative thoughts and feelings than before the event
feeling on edge (a stress response that is described as fight, flight, or freeze.)
The only way to know for sure if you are experiencing PTSD is to talk to a mental health care provider. The REVEAL therapy team here at Reconciliation Services is available if you or someone you know want to start the conversation, call 816-931-4751 x211.
In the “Understanding PTSD” booklet, the National Center for PTSD shares some simple screening questions, starting with: Have you ever experienced a traumatic event? If yes, answer the questions below. In the past month, have you:
Had nightmares about the event(s) or thought about the event(s) when you didn’t want to?
Tried hard not to think about the event(s) or went out of your way to avoid situations that reminded you of the event(s)?
Been constantly on guard, watchful, or easily startled?
Felt numb or detached from people, activities, or your surroundings?
Felt guilty or unable to stop blaming yourself or others for the event(s) or any problems the event(s) may have caused?
If you answered “yes” to 3 or more of these questions, talk to a mental health care provider to learn more about PTSD and PTSD treatment. Answering yes to more than 3 doesn’t mean that you have PTSD, just as answering yes to less than 3 doesn’t mean you don’t–only a mental health care provider can tell you for sure.
In upcoming blog posts, we’ll talk about the treatments we use here at RS to help reveal the strength of our neighbors who are struggling with PTSD. Many of our neighbors, like Nora, are saddled with the burden of chronic trauma in unimaginable and heart-wrenching ways.
Nora came to RS in 2014 after losing her job, “Things went downhill from there. I lost everything I owned and ended up homeless.” While eating a free meal at RS, Nora connected with Sylvia Goodloe, LCSW, and she signed up for her first Women’s Therapy Group in our REVEAL Program.
Nora went on to participate in multiple therapy groups. “I realized, for the first time, that I am not alone. Other women have experienced what I have,” she said. “I felt understood, like I had a connection with them. The more we shared with each other the better we all felt.”
By getting treatment for her PTSD, Nora’s strength was revealed and she was able to move forward in her life. Eventually, she got her own home, where she loves to entertain, and she began to volunteer at RS, to give back to the community that helped her make her own way forward and find healing. “I’ve learned how to set boundaries and to say, ‘No.’ I have a greater sense of self worth,” she said.
Nora’s path to healing is a perfect example of why mental health services are at the core of our work to reveal the strength of our neighbors. She says it best, “I’ve found hope and strategies to help me focus on what I want to become.”
>>>>> Subscribe to our Reveal Strength newsletter to read more stories of resilience as we continue our series on PTSD next week and explore the treatments we use here at RS.