Journal 6: Post-traumatic stress disorder by Lexia Wilson

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is defined as a mental heath condition that is triggered by a terrifying event - either witnessing it or experiencing it. Some of the main symptoms may include nightmare, flashbacks, severe anxiety and uncontrollable thoughts about the event. This condition can last only months or many years. PTSD is know to affect adolescences more than adults. During the Civil War in Sierra Leone (1999-2002) thousands of children joined voluntarily or were forced into the war as "child soldiers". These child soldiers were not only boys there were some girls too. While the girls were mainly used for sexual purposes they were used for others things too such as; performing domestic tasks, taking care of the wounded and even working in the diamond mining camps. Studies have shown that females are more susceptible to depression and PTSD especially during adolescence. One of the studies showed that boys and girls were equally likely to witness all of the events of war like bombing, massacres, shootings and raids of homes. They were also equally likely to be involved in injuring or killing others. Another part of the study showed that males were more likely to be trained as soldiers than females but that doesn't mean that there weren't any female soldiers.(All the people that were a part of this study were under the age of 18 while they were in the R.U.F.) The study that I found shows that the idea that child soldiers are male only isn't correct. For all of these children to have to go through these experiences just makes them more likely to develop the symptoms of PTSD.

A chart that shows the amount of people that were exposed to the different events of war.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3124662/