This a project for a high school AP Psychology course. This is a fictionalized account of having a psychological ailment. For questions about this blog project or its content please email the teacher, Laura Astorian: laura.astorian@cobbk12.org
Hubble Asteroid Hunter III. Physical properties of newly found asteroids
Working through the past
1. Working
Through the
Past
This a project for a high school AP Psychology course. This
is a fictionalized account of having a psychological ailment.
For questions about this blog project or its content please
email the teacher, Laura Astorian:
laura.astorian@cobbk12.org
2. What is PTSD?
An anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social
withdrawal, jumpy anxiety and insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a
traumatic experience
3. Who could get PTSD?
Anyone could but the following people commonly do have PTSD
Combat veterans
accident and disaster survivors
sexual assault victims
prostitutes
6. Explanation
Brain stem or reptilian part of brain (controls survival and instincts) takes over
Amygdala overstimulated
Hippocampus less active
Sympathetic Nervous system stays highly activated
9. Facts
15% of all Vietnam veterans reported PTSD symptoms
1 in 6 in Iraq war reported symptoms of PTSD
PTSD rates vary from 4% in natural disaster and 50% of those kidnapped, held
captive, or raped
Psychologists say it is overdiagnosed
10. Famous People with PTSD
Whoopi Goldberg
Monica Seles
Mick Jagger
Darrell Hammond
Barbra Streisand
11. PTSD in Children
5.5 million children report PTSD
Girls are more likely to have PTSD- 15%of girls and 6% of boys
Children 5-12= incorporate trauma into daily lives yet unlikely to remember
flashbacks
Children 12- 18= normally aggressive and impulsive behavioural symptoms
Play Therapy common for Children
12. How I Feel
A normal day can turn into a day full of anxiety.
13. I begin to sweat uncontrollably while thoughts flow through my head without
ceasing.
14. For me, I feel like the past will never just be my past and not my present, and I want
to move on.
15. I feel like I should have let my feeling out sooner and not held them in to take control
of me.
16. I feel as though no one understands what I am going through.
17. I can trust no one with my
feelings because I could get more hurt.
18. I do not want to be around anyone, I would rather remain in solitude.
19. I want everything to end and for my life to go back to normal before my past. But…. I
know what I have to do.
20. Quotes by those with PTSD
“When we feel weak, we drop our heads on the shoulders of others. Don't get mad when
someone does that. Be honored. For that person trusted you enough to, even if subtly, ask
you for help.”
“The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud
is the central dialectic of psychological trauma.”
“In situations of captivity the perpetrator becomes the most powerful person in the life of
the victim, and the psychology of the victim is shaped by the actions and beliefs of the
perpetrator.”