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Post Traumatic Stress In Melinda Sordino's Film Speak

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The main character Melinda Sordino, in the film Speak, is a prime of example of a young girl, much more a survivor, who overcomes great distress caused by a trauma. The summer before entering her first year of high school, she was put in a postion that later became the root of all he rproblems. It became a disturbance in her daily life. Her friends no longer wanted to hang out with her, she constantly got picked on, she does not seem motivated to either speak or interact with others, and continuously has flashbacks of what happened that summer before entering school. The name of the movie is called Speak because of the reasons as to why she does not speak about her rape. She is restricted because of all of her suppressed emotions. That summer night, Melinda Sordino attended a party where she was approached and befriended by an upperclassman. He forced himself on her and she was shamelessly sexually assaulted. She called the police to report it, but when she was on the phone she could not speak of it. Her mind could not process what had happened, but the police still tracked her location down and showed up at the party. …show more content…

(Oltmanns,Emery, 2015) A trauma may include rape, which in Melinda Sordino’s case is what she experienced. Melinda Sordino can be diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, as opposed to acute stress disorder, because her disturbance after the trauma had lasted longer than a month. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder include intrusive re-experiencing, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, increased arousal or reactivity, negative moods or thoughts, and often dissociation. (Oltmanns,Emery, 2015) Weeks after the terrifying experience, Melinda Sordino experienced all of

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