Medical question cont - Writers Forum

Annanan1 · 03-21-2008, 04:29 AM

Psychological Trauma?

As i have mentioned in other post i am researching a novel that i am writing. in it this kid gets badly flogged while in jail (it's a sci-fi) on a niehgbouring planet. He is 16 at the time and already a little insecure. What psychological effets might it have on him and how would ships counsellor help him deal with it. Details of procedures would be usful.

also anyone have any medical details of how to treat such wounds (Guess they would lacerations on a big scale) to help him get over the shock that he is in.

Boleyn · 03-27-2008, 09:27 AM

I can only give you the obvious answers about the wounds, which I'm sure you would know anyway.

First of all they would be cleaned, then stitched, dont forget anesthesia for the stitching, depends on your setting and date but right now pethadine is used in the UK, it is where I work anyway. then painkillers would be given, if they were from a doctor then something stonger than paracetamol. oh and everything would be sterile. I'm sure that you know most of this anyway.

Ive never been to a counsellor, so cant help there.

Remedy · 03-28-2008, 08:34 PM

(Please excuse my spelling; my spell checker is broke recently, and I'm not too swell without it.)

It would depend on how tought your character is... If he's suspectible enough to it, he might end up developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). An anxiety related to the attack might also develop, such as a fear of flogging, jail, guards, whips (or whatever they flog with), and/or ect.

As for your therapist... What kind is he/she? Pyschologists and pyschartrists would approach it in different ways.

Annanan1 · 03-31-2008, 01:24 PM

Thanks all good stuff.
guess he would be a psychistrist

Timex · 04-05-2008, 12:36 AM

I wouldn't think that PTSD would be possible from a single beating in a jail, unless, like you said, he was already susceptible to it. Really, what's needed is more detail. There is no way to make a full diagnosis on a single sentence. If you'd be willing to post more of the story, or at least more of the essentials to the trauma, I'd be more than willing to outline what effects it might have as well as the terms and treatment.

Annanan1 · 04-09-2008, 03:19 AM

The kid has been caught in a rather compremising position with empoeres daughter. he is 16. the society that they find themselves in is suppose to be very barbaric, loosely based on the roman's. at first the emporer wish him executed by then the boys people negotiate and persude him to relent. but instead he is entenced to 20 lashes, by a rather mean looking whip stiffened leather thing. they take him and their translator and the kids brother whom as he is a child in his society they agree can stay with him. he is taken down to a room set aside for this sort of thing straped across a stone table , blindfolded and then a gaurd calls out each stroke before it comes. they change angles so that the kid has no idea where each stroke is coming from. all he can hear is translator calling out the count and his brother whispering hin his ear, to try and distract him. he is unconscious by the time they have finished.

Dreamingsinger · 04-10-2008, 12:47 AM

I would think that such a situation would likely cause a few nightmares,and things like that. Perhaps the young man would soon have trouble sleeping because of these nightmares, in which finds himself back in that situation again. The best treatment for that might be sleeping pills. I'm no expert, buut I can't imagine a one time beating like that, causing Post tramatic stress disorder though.

lilacstarflower · 04-10-2008, 07:15 AM

As someone training to be a counsellor - I'd say the person-centred approach is probably best A.K.A the 'talking therapy'.

Being a fantasy novel, I'm guessing you would rather write about how the character feels and his mental process of moving on or whatever. As a reader, I wouldn't want to read ten pages of therapy where you're character is whacking a cushion with a rubber bat or scribbling meaningless symbols on walls with colored crayons

Keep it simple - hypnotherapy or face-to-face discussion as a means of progress.

As to after effects - PTSD is more for severe stress i.e. military combat or when major events occur without warning (9/11 e.g.). Your character would have 'moderate' anxiety issues because of what happened. This would result in phobias of confined spaces, loss of appetite, panic attacks, relationship issues, intimacy issues and/or self-harm (not meaning suicide)

also, you specifically said counsellor: this would imply also that you are looking for a 'talking therapy' (could also have support groups). Counsellors are classed as with the allied health professions in general i.e. they do not have a license to give people drugs, they are not medically trained. If you want to go down the medicine route it would be a psychiatist.

The American Psychological Association has papers on these issues you can read for free - they mix medical and purely psychological research. If you can get your hands on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Psychiatry at your local library that would give you a better idea of symptoms your character would be suffering.

good luck

Annanan1 · 05-05-2008, 03:06 AM

Thanks ever so much. that is just want i wanted to know. i need him to be off keel for a while afterwards and not willing to venture to that planet again for quite sometime. would that be resonable. also do know roughly how long they would leave it before they offered him some form of counselling.

thanks for your help so far

seigfried007 · 05-05-2008, 08:02 PM

Play him out yourself to see what kinds of issues he has--do it with another writer, preferably.

Personally, I hate diagnosing characters because then it's tempting to pigeonhole your boy into the diagnosis so that he fits in neatly and no one can argue.

I've had lots of characters go crazy. A couple have turned up dissociative (DDNOS to DIDs to things more mild) and they're usually passive, submisive people to start out with--very eager-to-please types.

He might 'forget the whole thing' or might remember it as though it happened to someone else, but more than likely, he'll just get queasy when he thinks about it, wake up screaming and in a cold sweat with his covers thrown off, get nervous around people or objects that look/sound/smell/feel like those on the scene (not necessarily just the flogging utensil and the perpetrator of said flogging, but ANYTHING--usually something small and/or common. For instance, anytime someone yells a countdown.

Things like vehicles, cigarettes, anything that has a distinct odor as odors are have fastest route to memories, alcohol, facial hair or other hairstyles.

For instance, I had a really bad weekend once and ever after, I've had issues with mustaches, vodka (esp when mixed into colas), white vans (esp with yellow lights on the top), the movie Fargo, chicken Cordon Bleu, certain layouts of apartments and styles of apartment buildings, bad neighborhoods, particular streets and other locales, and sometimes cigarettes. None of those things were specifically used to make my life hell, but all were on the scene.

Did that help at all?

Also, as someone else mentioned, psychologists and psychiatrists have VERY different methods. Both will talk at/with a patient, but psychoatrists give drugs and are more likely to demand hospitalization. However, if what you have is a 'counsellor' in line with school cousellors, you have a person who's essentially nothing but ears, a couple questions, a hall pass and a lot of well-wishing.