Adapting to a Traumatic Event

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=160 BGCOLOR="#333333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="03cdedc2ddualp.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D"><U><B>Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B>Contact Us</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id147.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FAQs"><U><B>FAQs</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Dr. Silverman"><U><B>About Dr. Silverman</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id146.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Great links"><U><B>Great links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Mind Reader© archive"><U><B>The Mind Reader© archive</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="03d64643.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#666633" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D</B></FONT>    |     <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D"><U>home</U></A></FONT></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> Adapting to a Traumatic Event</div> <bR> <div> When you ask the question am I more vulnerable than others to a trauma, you are asking a complicated question. Other things being equal, individuals with severe mental disorders are at the top of the list of those most vulnerable. This would include schizophrenics, major depressive disorders, and certain personality disorders.  In other cases your vulnerability will be determined by your exposure to previous stress inducing situations.   As an example, most of us would be symptomatic if we encountered a major stressor such as a natural disaster or a death of a loved one. On the other hand, we would tend to have a variety of individually determined reactions to such events as robberies, assaults, or product failure dependent upon our previous exposure. Consider the example of two women, each of whom has been the victim of assault. One has been raised by harsh, moralistic, and rejecting parents and has a history of child abuse. The other is from an affectionate, warm, and accepting family with no history of child abuse. Who is most likely to suffer severe psychological trauma? I couldn't tell you without a thorough  psychological evaluation.</div> <div> We would be especially interested to find out how each woman incorporated the negative event into their world view or personal philosophy about life. Individuals who suffer from severe posttraumatic stress cannot come to terms with the experience of trauma because they cannot accept that horrendous things can happen  to the innocent. Rather than accept the fact that "bad things can happen to good people", they become symptomatic of life. They  experience alienation, isolation, and dissociation. These experiences then cluster into the post-traumatic stress syndrome.  This syndrome, left untreated, can last a lifetime.  Treatment for such a condition consists of relaxation techniques, cognitive restructuring, and psychotherapy.    </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>