Symptoms And Symptoms Of Ptsd - 2486 Words

PTSD in Adolescent Bullying Victims Turned School Shooters Anna Llewellyn Currently, the DSM-5 characterizes posttraumatic stress disorder as a disorder in which clients respond with heightened arousal and reactivity to repeatedly experienced or revisited traumatic situations (Posttraumatic). Individuals who have persistently witnessed or been a victim of great violence, such as military veterans or victims of domestic abuse, often develop PTSD as a result of their experiences. A population that has been largely overlooked in terms of their rates of PTSD is adolescent victims of bullying. Bullying in middle and high schools has become an extremely hot topic in today’s society due to an influx of high-profile, severe cases that result in†¦show more content†¦In order to understand how severe bullying can result in the development of PTSD in adolescents, it is important to understand how the adolescent brain processes peer hostility and rejection, especially in relation to how an adult brain would process similar situations. There is a large amount of literature on the many unique factors of the adolescent brain. â€Å"The Adolescent Brain†, an article by BJ Casey, addresses limbic system development and prefrontal cortex development in adolescents, both of which are extremely relevant to perceptions and reactions to peer aggression. The limbic system is comprised of brain structures that are involved with emotional regulation, reward sensitivity, and impulsivity. The prefrontal cortex is the portion of the brain that is responsible for planning and decision making. In the article, Casey discusses how the limbic system matures at the onset of puberty in adolescents, while the prefrontal cortex isn’t mature until a few years later, at the beginning of early adulthood. This means that adolescents are unique in their combination of high levels of risk taking, impulsivity, emotional sensitivity, and reactivity to stress without the influence of the prefrontal cortex’s tendency for planning and reasoning (Casey 112). This gap in maturation of neurological systems in adolescents provides an explanation for their perceptive and behavioral differences when compared to adults. Catherine Sebastien explains in her article â€Å"Social brain