Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its influence on the Social Life of Victims of Armed Violent Conflict in Kumbo Municipality Resident in Bamenda Municipality, Cameroon
Abstract
Psychological distress from violence is harmful and the victims may experience a sense of helplessness and despair leading to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study was designed to investigate how PTSD influence the social life of victims of armed violent conflict in Kumbo Municipality resident in Bamenda Municipalities. Specifically, the study was out to investigate how avoidance, flashbacks, panic attacks influence the social life of victims of armed violent conflict in Kumbo Municipality resident in Bamenda Municipalities. The study adopts a survey research design. Questionnaire and interview guide were used to collect data from internally displaced persons. The sample population of the study was made up of 152 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are victims of the armed violent conflict from Kumbo resident in Bamenda Municipalities. The IDPs were selected using the purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The instrument used for data collection was a self-constructed questionnaire and interview guide with the reliability of 0.948. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The findings showed that avoidance significantly influences the social life of victims of the armed violent conflict (r= 0.222**, P=0.006, < 0.05). Findings equally affirmed that flashbacks significantly influence the social life of victims (r= -0.193*, P=0.018, < 0.05). Similarly, the findings equally revealed that panic attacks significantly influence the social life of victims (r= -0.354**, P=0.000, < 0.05). The findings indicated that Posttraumatic Stress Disorder negatively affects the social life of victims of the armed violent conflict in Kumbo Municipality resident in Bamenda Municipalities. Based on the findings, some recommendations were made that victims should be given counselling on how to do self-rehabilitation and healing such as making more efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations and flashbacks about the traumatic event, actively trying to avoid places or people that remind them of the traumatic events and keeping themselves too busy to have time to think about the traumatic events.
References
2. Atwoli, L., Stein, D. J., King, A., Petukhova, M., Aguilar Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Kessler, R. C. (2015). Posttraumatic stress disorder associated with unexpected death of a loved one: Cross-national findings from the World Mental Health Surveys. Depression and Anxiety, 34(4), 315–326.
3. Baingana F. Fannon I. & Thomas R. (2005) Mental health and conflicts - Conceptual framework and approaches. Washington: World Bank.
4. Bandelow, Borwin; Domschke, Katharina; Baldwin, David (2013). Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia. OUP Oxford.
5. Bisson, J. I, Cosgrove S, Lewis C, Robert NP (2015). "Post-traumatic stress disorder". BMJ. 351.
6. Blank, A. S., Jr., (1985). The unconscious flashback to the war in Viet Nam veterans. In Sonnenberg, S. M., Blank, A. S., Jr., & Talbot, J. A. (Eds.) The trauma of war. (pp. 295-308). Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press Inc.
7. Briere, J. (1989). Therapy for adults molested as children. New York: Springer.
8. Burstein, A. (1985). Post traumatic flashbacks, dream disturbances, and mental imagery. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 46 (9), 374-378.
9. Campbell SB, Fortney J, Simpson TL, Jakupcak M, Wagner A. (2019). Change in social support while participating in behavioural activation for PTSD. Psychological Trauma.
10. Carter, R. T. (2007). Racism and psychological and emotional injury: Recognizing and assessing race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35, 13-105.
11. Dalgliesh, T., & Power, M. J. (2004). Emotion specific and emotion non-specific components of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Implication for a taxonomy of related psychopathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 1069-1088.
12. Foa, E. B., Rothbaum, B. O., Riggs, D., & Murdock, T. (1991). Treatment of PTSD in rape victims: A comparison between cognitive-behavioural procedures and counselling. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59, 715-723.
13. Foa, E. B., Steketee, G., & Rothbanm, B. O. (1989). Behavioural/cognitive conceptualizations of post-traumatic disorder. Behaviour Therapy, 20, 155-176.
14. Fontana, A., & Rosenheck, R. (1994). Traumatic war stressors and psychiatric symptoms among World War II, Korean, and Vietnam War veterans. Psychology and Aging, 9, 27.
15. Mellman, T. A., & Davis, G. C. (1985). Combat-related flashbacks in post-traumatic stress disorder: Phenomenology and similarity to panic attacks. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 46(9), 379-382.
16. Monson, C. M., Friedman, M. J., & La Bash, H. A. (2014). A psychological history of PTSD. In M. J. Friedman, T. M. Keane, & P. A. Resick (Eds.), Handbook of PTSD: Science and practice (2nd ed.). (pp. 38-59). New York: Guilford Press.
17. Monson, C. M., Friedman, M. J., & La Bash, H. A. (2014). A psychological history of PTSD. In M. J. Friedman, T. M. Keane, & P. A. Resick (Eds.), Handbook of PTSD: Science and practice (2nd ed.). (pp. 38-59). New York: Guilford Press.
18. Nicholls P J, Abraham K, Connor K M, Ross J, Davidson JR. (2006). Trauma and posttraumatic stress in users of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America Web site. Compr Psychiatry. 47(1): 30-34.
19. Pai, A., Suris, A. M, North CS. (2017). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the DSM-5: Controversy, Change, and Conceptual Considerations. Behav Sci (Basel). 7(1).
20. Putnam, F. W. (1989). Diagnosis and treatment of multiple personality disorder. New York: The Guilford Press.
21. Van der Kolk, B. (1987). Psychological trauma. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press.
In submitting the manuscript to the International Journal on Integrated Education (IJIE), the authors certify that:
- They are authorized by their co-authors to enter into these arrangements.
- The work described has not been formally published before, except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, thesis, or overlay journal.
- That it is not under consideration for publication elsewhere,
- The publication has been approved by the author(s) and by responsible authorities – tacitly or explicitly – of the institutes where the work has been carried out.
- They secure the right to reproduce any material that has already been published or copyrighted elsewhere.
- They agree to the following license and copyright agreement.
License and Copyright Agreement
Authors who publish with International Journal on Integrated Education (IJIE) agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the International Journal on Integrated Education (IJIE) right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors can enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the International Journal on Integrated Education (IJIE) published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or edit it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.