What are the symptoms of PTSD in a child? Children and teens with PTSD feel a lot of emotional and physical distress when exposed to situations that remind them of the traumatic event. Some may relive the trauma over and over again. They may have nightmares and disturbing memories during the day.
Children who have experienced complex trauma often have difficulty identifying, expressing, and managing emotions, and may have limited language for feeling states. They often internalize and/or externalize stress reactions and as a result may experience significant depression, anxiety, or anger.
Kids exposed to trauma may mentally re-experience traumatic events, and that can make kids look spacey and distracted, like kids with the inattentive type of ADHD. “If you're having intrusive thoughts about a traumatic event you've been through, you're not attending to the present moment,” notes Dr. Howard.
PTSD can occur at any age, including childhood, and may be accompanied by: Depression. Substance abuse. Anxiety.
Slower and Damaged Cognitive Development
Children experiencing PTSD will have stunted brain development when compared to a normal child. This causes them to have slower capability to learn, lower general IQ, memory problems, damaged social and emotional responses, and a defensive personality.
Can complex PTSD be misdiagnosed as autism? Yes, the two conditions have many overlapping symptoms and may occasionally confuse each other. A clinician could misinterpret why the child isn't communicating well and connecting with others. It's certainly possible that a child with autism could also develop PTSD.
What is fawning? Fawning is a trauma response where a person develops people-pleasing behaviors to avoid conflict and establish a sense of safety. In other words, the fawn trauma response is a type of coping mechanism that survivors of complex trauma adapt to "appease" their abusers.
Individuals with ADHD are easily distracted by extraneous stimuli when doing tasks that require sustained mental effort. However, individuals with PTSD cannot concentrate due to hyperarousal or zoning out, and are easily startled.
A study of young adults found that childhood trauma was significantly correlated with elevated psychological distress, increased sleep disturbances, reduced emotional well-being, and lower perceived social support.
Certain types of trauma are more likely to lead to PTSD. Learn how many children and teenagers have PTSD. Studies show that about 15% to 43% of girls and 14% to 43% of boys go through at least one trauma. Of those children and teens who have had a trauma, 3% to 15% of girls and 1% to 6% of boys develop PTSD.
The typical onset age for PTSD is in young and middle adulthood. The NCS-R reported a median onset age of 23 (interquartile range: ages 15-39) among adults (Kessler et al., 2005).
Trauma response is the way we cope with traumatic experiences. We cope with traumatic experiences in many ways, and each one of us selects the way that fits best with our needs. The four types of mechanisms we use to cope with traumatic experiences are fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.
A 'flop' response results in a total bodily collapse, which might involve blacking out or loss of consciousness, loss of control over bodily functions or total disorientation. This is also referred to as collapsed immobility where the muscles become all floppy like a ragdoll.
Misdiagnosis with BPD
Some of the symptoms of complex PTSD are very similar to those of borderline personality disorder (BPD), and not all professionals are aware of complex PTSD. As a result, some people are given a diagnosis of BPD or another personality disorder when complex PTSD fits their experiences more closely.
Fawning is an attempt to avoid conflict by appeasing people. They are both extremely common in neurodiverse people as it is a way for them to hide their neurodiverse behaviours and appear what is deemed to be “normal”.
Trauma-induced changes to the brain can result in varying degrees of cognitive impairment and emotional dysregulation that can lead to a host of problems, including difficulty with attention and focus, learning disabilities, low self-esteem, impaired social skills, and sleep disturbances (Nemeroff, 2016).
According to recent studies, Emotional Trauma and PTSD do cause both brain and physical damage. Neuropathologists have seen overlapping effects of physical and emotional trauma upon the brain.
PTSD in children can lead to depression, suicidal behavior, substance use, and oppositional or defiant behaviors well into adulthood, which can affect their ability to succeed in school, and create and nurture important relationships.