Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is covered in an article in Crosscurrents:
Over the past decade, California has resettled more Middle Eastern refugees than any other state in the country. In Northern California, Santa Clara County in the South Bay is a resettlement hub for Middle Eastern refugees – more than 1,300 moved there since 2006. About one out of three of those refugees are from Iraq. And most have seen or suffered through violence related to the war.
- JASMINE: What happened will remain like a scar inside yourself. Especially like we saw a lot of stuff not normal. Like dead people in the street. People killed in front of your eye. I don’t believe like I’m going to forget them.
Iraqi refugee Jasmine asked that we not use her full name for this story. After two years in the U.S., she’s been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and she’s receiving therapy for it. But Iraqi culture, like many others, often considers mental health problems shameful, and Jasmine is concerned about embarrassing her family. Reporter Shuka Kalantari shares Jasmine’s story…
…Jasmine’s social worker recommended she see a therapist and referred her to the Center for Survivors of Torture. Doctor James Livingston is a psychologist at the center. He says just the experience of having to flee your home country is usually enough to cause post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
- JAMES LIVINGSTON: The re-experiencing symptoms are very painful and disruptive because they’re typically accompanied by the kinds of feelings that were experienced in the original situation. And so terror, horror, all sorts of very painful emotions…
- …LIVINGSTON: We get people who were professionals in their home countries who are very intelligent and very educated and find themselves unable to learn because they’re traumatized…. Read more here
