Effect of Parents with PTSD on Children

Effect of P atomic number 18nts with posttraumatic extend disorder on ChildrenDushica DjurovicDoes Transmission of Trauma Influence Children of Parents with posttraumatic stress disorder?War veterans whitethorn experience traumatic make upts that whitethorn influence their lives later on the multitude to a greater extent thanover, such(prenominal)(prenominal) traumatic experiences may pretend lives of the veterans family members. One of these pot who experience a trauma during phalanx service is my uncle who went to the army when he was very young. There is non anything that can be the same over again for my uncle. Although he was a smiling and pretty talkative per intelligence in front he went to the army, six months by and by he became reticent and aloof. Family members who have know him since he was born were worried ab let on his mood and behavior, and they wondered what happened to him. When his mentions and a sister heard that his best friend, Mark, was shot rig ht in front of my uncle band progress Mark and he were running into a bunker, they have realized the source of his depressive behavior. The bloody portraying of his friend shot in the back of address has been flowing in my uncles mind for a long period, and that picture became some(prenominal) his daily struggle and a night mere. He was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic render disorder which is caused by the traumatic however upt he has go through during the soldiery combat. There are many ex-combatants who have experienced traumas during state of warfares like my uncle, and such traumas may affect veterans family relationships (Bathory, page 71). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder may affect some(prenominal) a relationship with combat veterans children and relationships with their partners.According to Medscape Medical tidings that published the article rough the high rate of posttraumatic stress disorder in reversive Iraq war veterans, the estimate rate of posttraumatic st ress disorder (posttraumatic stress disorder) among veterans re tump overing from Iraq embraces the range from 12% to 20% (Roehr). Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder tend to have a high level of anxiety and arousal, which manifests itself as difficult sleeping, impaired concentration, and the fear of beingness easily startled (Price). My uncle had difficulties such as sleep slightness and anxiety. until now though he had psychotherapeutics treatment for a few age later on he returned home from the military service, his recovery was slow because of limited posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms such as apathy and insomnia. As a result, his five-year-old countersign was not able to understand why his pose was often pondering when he asked him for whatsoeverthing. PTSD symptoms may be frightening for both parents and their kids. Children may also worry that their parent cannot properly care for them (Price). That is why children may be afraid of having a close rel ationship with their parents who are low-spirited or anxious, dealing with PTSD symptoms. Furthermore, such children may even dumbtack together unhappy or reluctant to trust others, including their parents, because they do not steamy state loved and cared for their family members. armed combat veterans may struggle assay to maintain relationships with their partners because lot with PTSD may feel anxious talking with their wives and husbands active their traumatic experience. According to the American National Center for PTSD, the partners of the Vietnam Veterans with PTSD reported some effects of the veterans mental health problems such as lower levels of happiness, slight satisfaction in their lives, and more demoralization that is manifested as the lack of hope, courage, and authorization (Stevens). If spate who experience traumatic events do not use psychotherapy treatments, their intense emotions of guilt, grief, or fear may escalate. That may happen because they may not be able to handle their burden of war. As a result, war veterans may become physically and verbally aggressive to their partners, which may lead to divorce. The rates of divorce for Veterans with PTSD were about twice as great as for Veterans without PTSD (Kulka). Suffering from the effects of PTSD such as aggression, irritability, or anger, people may deal with certain relationship problems.Both parts, Maus I and Maus II emphasize two stories in which PTSD was transmitted from parents to their child. While one story is focused on Vladek Spiegelmans survival of the Holocaust, another is focused on the relationship in the midst of Vladek and his currents Artie. There is a strong bond that connects both stories. The clue lies in the different kinds of guilt that both of them feel, and such kind of guilty triggered PTSD in them. While Vladek, as a Holocaust victim, struggles when he realizes his dowery by surviving from Nazi terror during the war, Artie struggles because he wa s gold to be born after the war and avoid the accepting in Auschwitz that his family experienced. Furthermore, both of them have an open wound in their hearts Vladek lost his wife and Artie his mother when she had a breakdown after the many hardships she endured through. Not merely Holocaust survivors, notwithstanding also their children suffer from their families experience.The main question that echoes in Vladeks head is, Why did he survive the Holocaust and not somebody else. He feels guilty because he was well-to-do to survive the war which was responsible for millions of demises. Vladek thinks that instead of him, somebody more worthy deserves to be alive. In order to avoid that feeling, he wants to turn his back on the pestering past. He always avoids talking about it with Artie who becomes angry every time he tries to get information about his family. During my reading, I figured out that Vladek even pretends that he does not realize his intelligences frustration and gets angry when Artie insists on getting the information. Instead of that, he behaves like everything mingled with them is fine, ignoring any tension. Vladeks experience at Auschwitz is a burden that flows in his mind, however, he desperately wants to live in the present and so he avoids talking about it. On the other hand, Artie constantly insists on hearing more information about what his family experienced during the war. While he is stung and often angry with Vladeks behavior and cannot even imagine brisk with him under the same roof, his father wants to fix their relationship by expense time together. Vladek misses his wife, Anja, who had cared for him and for this rea give-and-take he needs his son even more. For instance, he calls his son early in the morning to tell him that he needs his help fixing the drainpipe. Vladek tells him that he needs help by accent the fact that he is an old, vulnerable man besides actually it is about more than a drainpipe. He desperately needs his sons love and attention. While he wants to enjoy spending time with his son and talking about the present, Artie wants to hear everything about the past. The more Vladek struggles with PTSD symptoms and wants to turn his back on the past, the more Artie insists on talking about it in order to get more information. That is why their relationship is humiliated and plenteous of tension and misunderstanding. Every time Vladek talks about such a brutal experience that his family had, he digs deep into his heart, and becomes upset and more grim. Not only if people who experienced the Holocaust are its victims, but also their children who are born after the war as Artie was.Although he was born after the war, Artie also suffers from his parents painful memories. That memories caused PTSD and both parents as well as his son suffered from the same traumatic disorders. As the only member of his family who does not have a traumatic past, Artie struggles because he feels less wor thy as somebody who did not suffer at Auschwitz. Moreover, he feels a burden because he did not do anything to deserve the at ease heart that he has. On the contrary, his family had to survive terrible suffering during the war to be still alive. Unfortunately, the majority of their relatives were not as a lucky as Vladek and Anja. Arties brother Richie did not survive the war. When the Germans started to take children from Srodula, Anja and Vladek, were liveliness in the ghetto and in order to save their sons feeling they sent Richie to Zawiercie with his aunt Tosha and her children, Bibi and Lonia. Unexpectedly, the Germans came a few months later to evacuate Zawiercie and shoot down the rest of the Jewish population to Auschwitz. In order to avoid being sent with the children to Nazi gas chambers, Tosha decided to kill not entirely herself but also her children and Richie with poison. She chose the lesser of two evils. That tragedy left a deep scar on Anja and Vladeks hearts. That scar even step up their PTSDs. Richie was still their beautiful and intelligent baby. Even though they had Artie after the war, they are desperately trying to see their first baby in Arties eyes. This causes Artie to feel neglected. He would have never been able to be convertd with his brother, and that is why he feels less worthy than Richie. He feels guilty because of his inability to replace his brother for their parents, and the parents sorrow was transmitted to their sun making him a advanced PTSD sufferer. As we see from this story, Artie becomes a new Holocaust victim even though the event itself was in the past, before he was born.another(prenominal) thread that connects both stories, Vladeks escape from the Holocaust and the relationship between his son and him, is Anjas death. Vladek, as her husband, blames himself for not having been able to save her. Artie blames his father because he disgraceed Anjas diaries which were his only reminder of his mother. After th e war, Vladek did not pay enough attention to her and was not as kind as he had been before they were forced to go to the concentration camp, for this reason she became even more depressed and committed suicide. After her death, he wanted to destroy everything which reminded him of her. Furthermore, he became very depressed and cried when he read the comic called The captive on the hell planet that Artie published about his mother days ago. This is the only time readers of Maus are faced with Anjas personality as a Holocaust victim. She felt alone and became more depressed after her son answered by saying just sure and did not even looked at her when she asked him if he still loved her. From Arties comic disinvest about his mother, I realized that Arties cold reaction was not just one more thing for an already very depressed woman, a small step which pushed her over the edge. She already felt unwanted and Vladek did not support and care about her. Artie called his father a abse nt when Vladek told him that he had destroyed her diaries. In my opinion, Vladek destroyed them in order to plow not just from his conscience but also from Artie the fact that he, as her husband, was guilty for the suicide his wife committed. Once again, the past influences Arties life and he is suffering because of the PTSD consequences his father and mother experienced after being in Auschwitz.Both stories, Vladeks survival of the Holocaust and the broken relationship between Artie and him, are interlinked with the guilt they feel. Vladek feels survivors guilt, and although his son insists on it, he avoids talking about the past. Although he was not a victim of Auschwitz, Artie indirectly suffers from his parents PTSD and feels inadequate for having an easy life, while his parents had been put under so a good deal thread. Moreover, Anjas death forever left a deep scar on their souls, which escalate painful memories in Vladek and triggered PTSD in Artie. For this reason both, the father and son would have never been able to step completely into the present. Part of both of them would have always been in the past. This book teaches us that the more people tend to ignore their past, the more it holds onto them and their past experience, good and bad, can be passed from one generation to the next, and that is how PTSD transmission becomes intergenerational illness.Analyzing the literature, researchers represent that in or so studies, the children whose father were diagnosed with PTSD participating in combat, were more likely to suffer from distress than those children whose fathers did not participate in combat but experienced PTSD. However, there were a few clinical cases in which the number of fathers with PTSD but who did not participated in military was larger than the number of those fathers with PTSD but who experienced their traumas in military. Additionally, there is not clear commentary of traumatic status that is still an ambiguous and inconsisten t term (Kallerman, 2007).Davidson, Smith, and Kundler study 108 outpatient veterans with PTSD, including 24 major depressives and 15 alcoholics, and reported the higher(prenominal) rate of psychiatric treatment among children of PTSD sufferers (Davidson, Smith, Kundler, 1989). Furthermore, PTSD were found in 6 families of PTSD, but none in the control assemblage. Similarly, Parsons, Kehle, and Owen observed cases that were consisted 45 children of veterans, and 47 children of nonveterans, when they found that PTSD sufferers perceived children as having more dysfunctional social and emotional behavior, and difficulties in establishing and maintaining friendships. In these cases the types of behaviors were function of childs gender and age (Persons, Kehle, Owen, 1990).In both of described studies, the fathers had status of those who were diagnosed with PTSD but the trice study also included those fathers who were without PTSD. The target groups in both studies were consisted of Ame ricans who participated in the Vietnam War or the World War II. Furthermore, Jordan et al. reported that veterans with PTSD showed markedly elevated levels of severe and diffuse problems in marital and family adjustment, parenting skills, and violent behavior. In his research the author was focused on 1,200 Vietnam veterans and 376 spouses or coresident partners of the veterans.Ruscio, Weathers, and King found that emotional numbing was the only aspects of PTSD uniquely associated with veterans perceived relationships with their children. The group included 66 male Vietnam veterans, and all of them had one or more children (Ruscio, Weathers, King, 2002). There is another research, done by Westerink and Giarratano, and such study consisted 22 children of veterans over the age of 15 years, and their fathers had the status of veterans with PTSD. The findings show that children of veterans reported higher levels of conflict in their families there were no significant differences on meas ures of psychological distress and self-esteem from control groups (Westerink, Giarratano, 1999).In the case of my uncle who was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which is caused by the traumatic event he has experienced during the military combat, I realized that his son is more likely to become a new PTSD sufferer. That is because of the bloody picture of my uncles friend who was shot in the back of head, and such a bloody picture has been flowing in my uncles mind for a long time affecting even the behavior of his son. According to Maus, the book about the lives of Holocaust survivors after the Auschwitz, I realized that they transmitted their PTSDs to their son Artie. That caused many struggles in their relationships. I got hotshot that the clue lies in the different kinds of guilt that both of them feel. While Vladek, as a Holocaust victim and PTSD sufferer, struggles when he realizes his luck by surviving from Nazi terror during the war. On the other hand, Artie s truggles because he was lucky to be born after the war and avoid the suffering in Auschwitz that his family experienced. However, their parents PTSDs made him a new PTSD sufferer.According to studies I was reading, the results about transmission of PTSD from father to child show a various(a) range of different findings. While some researchers reported that the children of fathers with PTSDs that were caused by military traumas, are more likely to suffer from the same, numerous others think that military traumas of ex-combatants cannot directly affect their children. To conclude, there are many researchers who are trying to narrow the scope of findings about PTSD transmission from father to child, however, a large range of multiple different results show that this area is much deeper and ambiguous than scholars expected.Works CitedDekel, Rachel, and Hadass Goldblatt. Is There Intergenerational Transmission Of Trauma? The Case Of Combat Veterans Children. N.p., 2015. Web. 7 May 2015. Kellerman, N. (2007). Haavara shel traumat hashoah Transmission of the Holocaust trauma. In Z. Solomon J. Chaitin (Eds.), Yaldut betzel hashoah Yeladim nitzolim vedor sheni Childhood in the seat of the Holocaustsurvived children and second generation (pp. 286 303).Davidson, J., Smith, R., Kudler, H. (1989). Familial psychiatric illness in continuing posttraumatic stress disorder. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 30, 339 345.Parsons, J., Kehle, T. J., Owen, S. V. (1990). Incidence of behavior problems among children of Vietnam veterans. School Psychology International, 11, 253259.Ruscio, A. M., Weathers, F. W., King, L. A., King, D. W. (2002). priapic war-zone veterans perceived relationships with their children The importance of emotional numbing. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15, 351357.Westerink, J., Giarratano, L. (1999). The impact of posttraumatic stress disorder on partners and children of Australian Vietnam veterans. Australian and recent Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 33, 8 41 847.Spiegelman, Art. Maus. New York Pantheon Books, 1986Kulka, Richard A. Partners Of Veterans With PTSD Research Findings PTSD National Center For PTSD. Ptsd.va.gov. N.p., 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.Bathory, Dalia. recital Of Communism In Europe Vol. 4 / 2013. Google Books. N.p., 2015. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.Roehr, Bob. High tempo Of PTSD In Returning Iraq War Veterans. Medscape.com. N.p., 2015. Web. 17 Mar. 2015.Price, Jennifer L. Children Of Veterans And Adults With PTSD. Aaets.org. N.p., 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.Stevens, Susan P. Partners Of Veterans With PTSD Common Problems PTSD National Center For PTSD. Ptsd.va.gov. N.p., 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.