This post is one of a series on trauma that is experienced by TCKs which falls outside of what is "expected" in terms of what kind of experience might cause trauma.
I didn't have any terrible experiences in my childhood. I had loving parents. A stable immediate family. No abuse. Nothing terrible happened to me. I was never beaten, held at gun point, physically threatened with death or violence, or any other "trauma-inducing" situation.
So why, at the age of 15, did I start to experience the effects of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)? Why do so many TCKs have a story like mine? Happy home, no visible trauma -- and yet, the symptoms appear as if they had undergone a serious trauma in their lives?
The American Psychological Association defines a traumatic event as "one that threatens injury, death, or the physical integrity of self or others and also causes horror, terror, or helplessness at the time that it occurs" (Greca, et al., 2008)
According to this definition, anything that makes a person feel threatened, terrified, or helpless can be traumatic. Many TCKs live in a constant state of threat: they are in unstable countries, constantly exposed to war or violence, or even may live under the constant possibility of evacuation.
When I was 14, I went to a big youth conference with a whole group of MKs from my organization. During our time there, talking to the other missionary kids, I remember how frequent it was for us to tell stories of the things we had experienced. One girl had been held at knife point while her family was robbed. Many had been evacuated because of political unrest. I, myself, was evacuated from our host country after an unexpected change of government. As a child, these experiences seemed almost normal -- I mean, every place has it's issues, right? What's a little military unrest among friends? However, as I grew older I realized that these experiences had a cumulative effect on me and my brother. We were far more aware of the violence and threat of everyday life. We were always on alert, wondering if we would be stopped on the road by a band of highwaymen. We carried money in separate places so that we could give them some money without losing all of what we had.
We were exposed to the effects of natural disasters over and over as our parents and friends were involved in the relief effort of hurricanes on other islands, flooding, drought, etc. We may even fear for the life of a loved one traveling into a dangerous area, caught on the other side of a landslide, or out of contact for long periods of time. These cumulative effects of an ongoing threat of some kind are documented causes of threat-related stress. (NASP, 2004)
This threat-related stress differs from vicarious trauma in that while vicarious traums is caused by exposure to the stories of those who have undergone trauma, threat-related stress is a result of ongoing direct or indirect exposure to situations in which there is the threat of trauma. These are referred to as Continuous Traumatic Situations, and are associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Nuttman-Schwarz & Shoval-Zuckerman, 2015)
TCKs are certainly not alone in experiencing these types of trauma. The American Psychological Association estimates that more than 2/3 of children will have experienced a traumatic event by the age of 16. (Greca, et al., 2008) The difference is, like with vicarious trauma, that TCKs are exposed to high levels on ongoing trauma as a result of the types of jobs their families often have.
The good news is: this does not have to be a bad thing. Exposure to trauma, either indirectly or directly, can actually lead to some really good psychological outcomes, making TCKs more likely to succed in life as adults, to face additional trauma with resilience, and to remain healthy in the face of all the issues that life throws at us. I will address these positive results of "trauma" in a future post.
Resources:
National Association of School Psychologists. (2004) How Children Cope With Trauma and Ongoing Threat: The BASIC Ph Model. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/children-trauma-update.aspx
Greca, A.M., Boyd, B.A., Jaycox, L.H., Kassam-Adams, N., Mannarino, A.P., Silverman, W.K., ... Wong, M. (2008) Children and Trauma. American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma in Children and Adolescents. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/update.pdf
Nuttman-Schwartz, O., Shoval-Zuckerman, Y., (2015) Continuous Traumatic Situations in the Face of Ongoing Political Violence: The Relationship Between CTS and PTSD. PubMed pii: 1524838015585316. [Epub ahead of print] Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25966968?dopt=Abstract