Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In Speak By Laurie Anderson

Approximately 7-8 out of 100 people will experience some severity of PTSD throughout their lives. There’s undoubtedly a handful of people whose lives are affected by the struggles the symptoms of Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cause, although there fortunately are ways to go about treating them. PTSD is a mental disorder that stems off of witnessing/experiencing a traumatic event that can further cause fear and consistent alertness of one’s surroundings. PTSD could develop in anyone that witnesses/experiences said trauma; it has been shown to be present in people of different races, ages, religion, and so on. There are some common types of traumatic experiences someone may face which could cause PTSD, including sexual harassment/assault,

Speak by Laurie Anderson, is about a fourteen-year-old girl named Melinda who is shown behaving in a way unlike her typically happy, social self after experiencing a rape at a party while drunk when she was 13. She is displayed acting in ways relative to the symptoms of PTSD such as avoidance and at one point, self-harm. The trauma she experienced gives her a constant fear of speaking out about what happened, worried about rejection or potentially getting attacked by the person who raped her. A victim of PTSD may find themself becoming disengaged from the world around them as they feel the need to consistently avoid others that could potentially provide them with help, which makes it harder for the person to think of methods for relief, which can then lead to resorting to things such as

The National Library of Medicine introduces how PTSD may have a role in causing someone the inevitable urge to go through with self-urge. It specifically speaks about war veterans, however it applies to any vulnerable person in this situation. War veterans typically are known to experience more severe cases of PTSD compared to others, so it’s a simpler choice when trying to explain how and why the urge for self-harm is developed. There’s something specific that could stem from PTSD that may cause someone the desire to commit self-harm, which is called “emotional dysregulation.” The article explains it as a “multidimensional construct involving deficits in the awareness, understanding, and acceptance of emotions; impulse control problems and difficulties pursuing goal-directed behavior when experiencing emotions; and lack of access to effective strategies to modulate emotions” (Raudales). In simpler terms, emotional dysregulation is the incapability of finding a way to resolve pain and depression in a safe/healthy way. Self-harm is unfortunately something many resort to, however in some situations it may feel almost impossible for them to feel relief in another way. Melinda is shown going through this urge, described as, “I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my left wrist. Pitiful” (Anderson 87). This may have been a situation of emotional