PTSD and Poverty: Trauma as a staple of inner-city life
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was first brought to the forefront through its effects on Vietnam War veterans. In 1980, the disorder was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) (Friedman), the standard classification of mental illnesses used by medical professionals in the US (“DSM”). Its classification was groundbreaking because it recognized an external cause to the unusual behaviors many people experience after trauma rather than attributing that behavior to an internal weakness. While PTSD is publicized primarily on behalf of veteran communities, those who face war in their daily lives—people living in crime and poverty stricken neighborhoods—face …show more content…
For example, access to health care, but specifically mental health care, in impoverished areas is sparse. The school districts in underprivileged areas are underfunded and overpopulated (Edelman). Jobs are rarely available, and when they are these jobs are difficult to acquire as a result of implicit bias against minorities and women in the workplace. Housing discrimination and redlining makes it difficult for people in underprivileged communities to escape those communities even when they may have the funds to do so. It is like making a child start a race fifty miles behind the start, and being upset that she does not make it to the finish line in time. Even from a young age, people of color are funneled into the cradle to prison pipeline (Edelman) which drives the prison industrial complex. African American and Hispanic children are more likely to be suspended for bad behavior in the classroom than their white peers (Smith and Harper). Young girls of color are more likely to be arrested for “status offenses,” like truancy and underage drinking, than their white peers (Davis and Shaylor). The criminalization starts early. Compound the inherent bias against social mobility for people of color in the US with the fact that others are choosing to profit off of them, and we have a vicious cycle that is bound to continue. The trauma of growing up with these disadvantages combined with cycles of domestic and community violence can often lead to the triggering of PTSD. Again, many of those who go untreated (which in most situations is the case) turn to drugs for self-medication. Instead of treating their mental illness, however, the criminal justice system puts them behind bars. This is not a sentence for rehabilitation. Rather, it becomes a sentence for being born a poor
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was first brought to the forefront through its effects on Vietnam War veterans. In 1980, the disorder was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) (Friedman), the standard classification of mental illnesses used by medical professionals in the US (“DSM”). Its classification was groundbreaking because it recognized an external cause to the unusual behaviors many people experience after trauma rather than attributing that behavior to an internal weakness. While PTSD is publicized primarily on behalf of veteran communities, those who face war in their daily lives—people living in crime and poverty stricken neighborhoods—face …show more content…
For example, access to health care, but specifically mental health care, in impoverished areas is sparse. The school districts in underprivileged areas are underfunded and overpopulated (Edelman). Jobs are rarely available, and when they are these jobs are difficult to acquire as a result of implicit bias against minorities and women in the workplace. Housing discrimination and redlining makes it difficult for people in underprivileged communities to escape those communities even when they may have the funds to do so. It is like making a child start a race fifty miles behind the start, and being upset that she does not make it to the finish line in time. Even from a young age, people of color are funneled into the cradle to prison pipeline (Edelman) which drives the prison industrial complex. African American and Hispanic children are more likely to be suspended for bad behavior in the classroom than their white peers (Smith and Harper). Young girls of color are more likely to be arrested for “status offenses,” like truancy and underage drinking, than their white peers (Davis and Shaylor). The criminalization starts early. Compound the inherent bias against social mobility for people of color in the US with the fact that others are choosing to profit off of them, and we have a vicious cycle that is bound to continue. The trauma of growing up with these disadvantages combined with cycles of domestic and community violence can often lead to the triggering of PTSD. Again, many of those who go untreated (which in most situations is the case) turn to drugs for self-medication. Instead of treating their mental illness, however, the criminal justice system puts them behind bars. This is not a sentence for rehabilitation. Rather, it becomes a sentence for being born a poor