|
The
consequences of truth: Post-traumatic stress in new South Africa
(continued) Part 2 of 7 |
|||||
|
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD is not a phenomenon that is new or unique to South Africa. Though the diagnosis of PTSD was only officially introduced to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and adopted by the American Psychiatric Association in 1980, the condition has been around for years under different names. In the American Civil War it was called "soldier's heart" or "melancholia," in World War I it was "shell shock" and in World War II it was called "combat neurosis." These labels were attached to soldiers returning home from combat, especially ones who saw catastrophic violence, who were withdrawn and depressed, and apt to leap for cover at the sound of a slammed door. Today the diagnosis of PTSD includes the after-effects of stressful events other than war, like rape and violent crime. The National Center for PTSD estimates that 7.8 percent of adult Americans suffer from PTSD. For American veterans of the Vietnam War, those numbers are far higher - 31 percent. And in a recent review published in the PTSD Research Quarterly, researchers who reviewed 55 studies on children and PTSD found that children exposed to chronic community violence experience the disorder at a rate of 25 percent. In 1997, the World Health Organization issued a study on the Global Burden of Disease, and found that mental disorders are second in burden only to infectious diseases. The most obvious consequences of mental disorders like PTSD are the cost in terms of human productivity and quality of life. Of the roughly 100,000 Vietnam veterans diagnosed with the disorder, 33 percent are alcoholic. Many are unable to work, and are only able to receive disability payments if they can "prove" the severity of their PTSD. While there have been few epidemiological studies of trauma disorders in South Africa, existing research suggests South Africans, especially blacks struggling to make sense of the tragic tapestry of their country's past, may be suffering from the disorder in numbers far greater than average. In a 1997 study of 3,870 adults conducted by Market Research Africa and the Community Agency for Social Equality, 17 percent of people who had been exposed to trauma described their mental health as "poor", versus 2 percent of people who had not been exposed to trauma. Of the 23 percent of people exposed to violent events, 78 percent had one or more symptoms of PTSD. The study was conducted with face-to-face interviews. Michael Simpson, a psychologist at the National Center for Psychosocial and Traumatic Stress in Pretoria, South Africa's capital, says PTSD isn't an accidental by-product of apartheid, particularly in the case of political prisoners. At a Mental Health Workshop held in November 1997, he said torturers deliberately traumatized their political prisoners. “(If) your cohesive and abusive interrogation (didn't) force somebody to tell you what you wanted to know, at least you could return them to the community...sitting shivering in the corner and awake with nightmares all night and no darn use to further the cause that he or she had been fighting for," he said. Experts point out that while many people who lived through apartheid suffer from few if any symptoms today, there are others who are still so undone by yesterday's atrocities they are unable to work or have meaningful personal relationships. They suffer from nightmares, racing hearts, and frightening flashbacks. Their short-term memory is damaged, and their mood swings are severe. Some have turned to alcohol (South Africa has one of the highest rates of alcoholism in the world, according to a Health Department report released last year) and drugs to medicate themselves, some have embraced violence. |
|
||||