The Impact Of Proximity On The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

The impact of proximity on the post-traumatic stress disorder development and resilience rates of adolescents in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami. In 2004, the tsunami that struck the coasts of Indonesia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka was recorded to be one of the largest catastrophes in the past few decades (Levy and Gopalakrishnan, 2007). One of the areas that were tremendously affected was the Aceh province located on the west end of Indonesia. In a horrific tragedy like this case, many psychologists and psychiatrists are interested in the impact of the catastrophe on the emotional states of young victims (Agustini, Asniar, and Matsuo, 2011; Du, Lee, Christina, Belfer, Betancourt, O’Rourke, and Palfrey, 2012). This paper will focus on the†¦show more content†¦More than 130,000 people lost their lives to the catastrophe, and many were exposed to an intense degree of stressors and trauma-inducers that led to emotional disturbance among victims, adolescents in particular, after direct exposure to the tsunami (Centers for Disease Control and prevention [CDCP], 2006; Frankenberg, Friedman, Gillespie, Ingwersen, Pynoos, Rifai, Sikoki, Steinberg, Sumantri, Suriastini, and Thomas, 2008; Musa, Draman, Jeffrey, S., Jeffrey, I., Abdullah, Halim, Wahab, Mukhtar, Johari, Rameli, Midin, Jaafar, Das, Sidi, 2014). Thus, the hypothesis of this paper is that the proximity to the affected area of Aceh significantly increased the severity of PTSD symptoms and, therefore, decreasing the resilience rates. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) describes the unusual behavior or other symptoms that appear following a distressing experience (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The symptoms of PTSD after the occurrence of a catastrophe, such as the tsunami in Aceh, include fear of a particular object or situation, social avoidance, sleeping troubles, and many more (Frankenberg et al.,2008; Agustini et al., 2011). Many of these symptoms were observed among the majority of victims (Frankenberg et al., 2008). The question is what factors might have influenced the prolongation of PTSD symptoms among adolescents affected by the Aceh tsunami?