How have my experiences of clergy abuse affected me?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a diagnosable psychological and physiological reaction, often lasting for years, to an event[s] causing extreme stress. Mollie Brown ("From Victim to Survivor: The Treatment of Adults who have been Sexually Abused as Children") lists the following criteria for the disorder:1. The person has experienced an event[s] that is outside the range of usual human experience and that would be markedly distressing to almost anyone.
2. The traumatic event[s] is persistently re-experienced in at least one of the following ways:
a) recurrent and intrusive recollections of the event[s];
b) recurrent distressing dreams of the event[s];
c) sudden acting or feeling as if the traumatic event[s] were recurring...;
d) intense psychological distress at exposure to events that symbolise or represent an aspect of the traumatic event[s], including anniversaries of the trauma.
3. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma or numbing of general responsiveness...as indicated by the following:
a) efforts to avoid thoughts or feelings of the trauma;
b) efforts to avoid activities or situations that arouse recollections of the trauma;
c) inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma....;
d) markedly diminished interest in significant activities....;
e) feeling of detachment or estrangement from others;
f) restricted sense of affect;
g) sense of foreshortened future...
4. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal....as indicated by at least two of the following:
a) difficulty in falling asleep;
b) irritability or outbursts of anger;
c) difficulty concentrating;
d) hyper-vigilance;
e) exaggerated startle response;
f) physiologic reactivity upon exposure to events which symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event[s].
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