Post Traumatic Stress In Melinda Sordino's Film Speak

Everyone has hardships that they come across, but what really matters is the way they overcome them. In the book “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character Melinda Sordino does not try to face her hardships, she wants her problems to just disappear, but what makes her different is that she learns that saying nothing will just make her problems worse. The author characterized Melinda as very brave, although it took time for her to accept her problems. Melinda tries to admit what happened to her, deal with the bullies in her school, and tries to help her ex-best friend, Rachel to see with whom she is dealing with.

From the very beginning of the book, Speak is an incredibly moving story no one can forget. Melinda Sordino, a freshmen in High School, finds herself pitted against depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts after being ostracized by her fellow classmates. Throughout the book Melinda withdraws from her old social life with her best friend Rachel to a scared, timid girl who is afraid to open her mouth for anything. Right from the start, she is forced into a corner by her EX-best friend, Rachel and many other kids. Constantly, she is harassed, has obscene words thrown at her and is hated after calling the cops at a party over the summer break. Melinda, who cannot speak to others about what happened at that party- a rape, slowly beings to cope with her depression in ways that hurt her more than the rape itself.

The title, Speak most represents how the book is about Melinda’s journey to regain her ability to speak. In the beginning of the book Melinda is raped at a party. She calls the cops however does not report the rape.Melinda loses everything from her friends to her ability to speak. Incapable of telling anyone about her trauma, Melinda only has herself but the burden of her secret may be too much. Throughout the book Melinda finds her voice and will begin to put her life back together.

In “Speak” by Laurie Anderson, Melinda a teenage girl who is struggling to find friends in high school because of an incident at a party. It all started the summer going into freshman year when Andy Evans raped Melinda at a party, resulting in Melinda calling the cops. Since then only a few things are keeping Melinda going her freshman year like art and her few friends. Everyone thinks of Melina as the girl who called the cops now and nobody wanted to be her friend. Until she met a new girl Heather but, that friendship didn't last long. The closet incident with Andy played the most important role in changing Melinda’s identity. Melinda’s identity changed from being depressed and isolated to being happy and having friends once people found out what Andy did to her. This matters because now Melinda doesn't have to keep the secret about why she called the cops on the party because now people will believe her. This shows that people should not be afraid to tell the truth when they know it's the right thing to do no matter what.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a story written in the first person about a young girl named Melinda Sordino. The title of the book, Speak, is ironically based on the fact that Melinda chooses not to speak. The book is written in the form of a monologue in the mind of Melinda, a teenage introvert. This story depicts the story of a very miserable freshman year of high school. Although there are several people in her high school, Melinda secludes herself from them all. There are several people in her school that used to be her friend in middle school, but not anymore. Not after what she did over the summer. What she did was call the cops on an end of summer party on of her friends was throwing. Although

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is classified as an anxiety disorder that can develop after an individual has observed and/or experienced an extreme traumatic event that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury to one’s self or another (APA, 2000). An extreme traumatic event can include, but is not limited to, military combat, terrorist attacks, natural or manmade disasters, sexual assault, physical assault, robbery, and torture (APA, 2000). The type of traumatic event could influence the way in which medical and mental health care professionals assess, conceptualize, and subsequently treat the individuals with a PTSD diagnosis. For this reason, sexual

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is characterized as a psychological condition in which a person has persistent mental and emotional distress after experiencing a traumatic event. In the United States alone, there is an 8.7% projected lifetime risk for developing PTSD by the age of seventy-five years old. Furthermore, rates of PTSD are commonly higher amongst people whose occupation increases their risk of traumatic exposure. Examples of occupations that increase the risk of traumatic exposure include law enforcement, military personnel, and firefighters. But it is important to note that the highest rates of PTSD are found among survivors of rape and captivity (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).

According to the dictionary diagnosis in PsychCentral, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is defined as a “debilitating mental disorder that follows experiencing or witnessing an extremely traumatic, tragic, or terrifying event” (PTSD Info & Treatment, 2013). While this definition describes the general definition of PTSD, the DSM-IV states that the criteria for being diagnosed with PTSD varies between a person who “experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others” and/or “the person’s response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror” (DSM-IV, Appendix E). Such experiences can include various

Researchers, J. Douglas Bremner, Katherine Krause Shobe and John K. Kihlstrom establish in their study on the repressed mind of victims that the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that women of childhood sexual abuse exhibited poorer memory for words that had been recently studied and increased insertions of alternative words other than critical lures (Bremner, Shobe, Kihlstrom, 2000). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) according to the Mayo Clinic, "Is a mental health condition that 's triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event" (Mayo, 2016).

Dunleavy explains that survivors of sexual abuse may be psychologically diagnosed with “posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse, and suicidal tendencies as a primary diagnosis or comorbidities” (Dunleavy 340). Dunleavy stated that posttraumatic stress disorder is powerfully connected with a sexually traumatic event (Dunleavy 340).

Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, is a delayed stress reaction in which an individual involuntarily re-experiences emotional, cognitive and behavioral aspects of past trauma. An emotional memory contributes to the lasting quality of most traumatic memories. Having lived through a natural disaster, survived a life-threatening accident or witnessed another person being killed or badly injured are traumas described by PTSD victims most frequently. They are different experiences that cause this disorder. In men it’s usually a physical attack, military combat, disaster or fire or being held captive or hostage. For women it would be rape, sexual molestation, physical abuse and neglect during childhood. Women are more than likely to develop

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is characterized by the presence of signs and symptoms in the three primary domains: (i) reminders of the exposure (including flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, nightmares); (ii) activation (including hyperarousal, insomnia, agitation, irritability, impulsivity and anger); and (iii) deactivation (including numbing, avoidance, withdrawal, confusion, derealization, dissociation, and depression). (Sherin & Nemeroff, 2011). The signs and symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder are persistent, abnormal adaption of neurolobiological systems to the stress witnessed trauma (Sherin & Nemeroff, 2011). L.S. reported sexual abuse as a child from age 4 to 8 years old and bullying

The title, Speak, is the key to Melinda changing her life back to normal. I believe the thesis of this novel is that if you’re sexually assaulted, speak up. Many people believe that if you hold the dreadful memory inside of you, soon it’ll just lighten away, but that’s in no way the case. We see that in depth at Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. The title is the tip off.

A study conducted by Ullman, S., Townsend, S., Filipas, H., & Starzynski, L. (2007) evaluated the origin of posttraumatic stress disorder. The purpose of the study is to analyze how sexual assaults can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. The study was composed of 1,084 women, who responded to mail surveys about unwanted sexual experiences. The first time the researchers sent out the surveys only 90 percent of women responded. The sample in this study decreased to 636 women after many surveys were thrown out due to missing data and not everyone responded. The researchers focused on women ages of 18 to 71 that had unwanted sexual experiences. Out of the 636 women, only 5% of them were never sexually assaulted (Ullman, 2007). These researchers

The term “Psychological trauma” refers to damage wrought from a traumatic event, which that damages one’s ability to cope with stressors. “Trauma” is commonly defined as an exposure to a situation in which a person is confronted with an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to self or others’ physical well-being (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Specific types of client trauma frequently encountered by which therapists and other mental health workers frequently encounter in a clinical setting include sexual abuse, physical , or sexual assault, natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis, domestic violence, and school or/and work related violence (James & Gilliland, 2001). Traumatic