Nigeria’s Chibok Girls - Dealing with the Appearance of Psychological Trauma
The story of Nigeria’s Chibok girls will continue to trigger a wide range of emotions for a very long time.
Today, I wanted to think a little bit about psychological trauma and its physical manifestation.
Please be reassured I have not just happened on this topic; and it is not an attempt to speculate on whether there was real abduction (or not) of a group of young women from Chibok in Northern Nigeria, 3 years ago.
Social media is awash with comments of people who doubt that the 82 ladies who arrived in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital on Sunday 7th May 2017 from the hold of Boko Haram terrorists have been on any form of captivity or duress.
While it is fine to hold varying opinions, I think we are best served as a nation when the opinions have basis in fact and reason.
This way, there would be checks and counter checks that can hopefully lead to development.
Regardless of which side you are on – those who believe the whole story is a fraud of political origin and economic propagation; or you accept the indignity and cruelty that an innocent group of families woke up to a most terrifying nightmare 3 years ago – you should be able to state the convictions for your position on the basis of fact.
For many Nigerians, we are mere witnesses, spectators, even in respect of this issue but our viewpoints are crucial to the moral fabric of our society.
Psychological trauma in simple term refers to an abuse or assault on the mental state of an individual.
Many times, psychological trauma occurs simultaneously with physical trauma from a violent experience.
A myriad of examples will demonstrate that you will have memories of any negative event – from early ages many of us will recall some pain or discomfort from a nasty experience a lot longer than any physical pain experienced.
So, physical experiences, abuse or assault can directly lead to psychological trauma. From these conditions such as PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - arise.
Here people have flashbacks (vivid recollection of the traumatic event that may occur spontaneously or provoked by the slightest mental trigger - a smell or sound for example), hyper-vigilance (a high stimulus condition, always watchful, tense), panic or anxiety when exposed to something that reminds them of the singular experience or assault in their past.
But emotional and mental abuse can cause similar problems.
Continuously subjecting a person to negativity – comments or attitude/maltreatment – without laying a finger on them can sometimes be as damaging (if not worse), as if they were exposed to physical assault.
The difficulty when one is subjected to emotional trauma is – just what are the features? How can you tell someone has suffered from emotional abuse – when you can’t see any physical signs of abuse?
It is difficult but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
In the UK, emotional abuse is one of the types of abuse described against children in which they are starved of love, attention, supervision as well as verbal negative assaults among other insults.
Psychologists and other mental health practitioners will study behaviour as an indicator to the evidence of such ‘hidden’ abuse. Adults can also be victims of emotional abuse and there are countless examples of its occurrence.
And therefore, I think people who deny the possibility that the Chibok ladies recently released were genuinely in captivity for the last 3 years because of their ‘fresh skin’ and ‘healthy appearances’ are lacking in understanding.
Firstly, the human mind is resilient and in an acute assault will strive to survive. There is the well-known acute stress response – ‘fight or flight’, adrenaline drive or urge that shouts ‘DANGER, DANGER’ from the brain causing the body to react in a multiple number of ways to save it.
This leads to racing pulse, breathing faster, sweating, dilated pupils – all responses that push the body to do something to save itself.
This stress response may account for the drastic change in appearance for someone who has just been assaulted or received bad news regardless of whether there was actual physical involvement like trauma from accident or gunshot wound,for instance.
In the initial period following an assault - physical or mental/emotional, it will be easy to see obvious signs of distress. Tears, weight loss, change in countenance etc can happen.
On the other hand, I believe there is a different response when the assault is sustained over a length of time.
Prolonged captivity challenges the human body and makes it adapt to adverse conditions in different ways.
We may have heard of the Stockholm Syndrome. It is a complex situation – but in simple terms, the person who is captive no longer abhors the person who has put them in a captive situation.
I am by no means suggesting that the Chibok girls are suffering from Stockholm’s syndrome – I do not know enough to suggest this; but on hearing media reports that one of the girls refused to be rescued; preferring to stay with her ‘Boko Haram’ husband; this syndrome came to mind.
In my consideration of prolonged captivity, I imagine that the captive person may (reluctantly) reconcile to the situation, and rationalise their position in order to survive.
Could this mean that not every captive person will embark on hunger strikes so they would appear lean and suitably ‘suffering; to display their distress? Maybe.
Could it serve the captor’s interests to maintain their prisoners in some degree of 'wellness' – may be allowing them regular food, and perhaps treating them with some degree of ‘normalcy’ despite the negative nature of the relationship? Possibly.
I guess my point is to make us think more.
It’s too easy to accept that because the appearance of the Chibok girls recently freed seems outwardly 'healthy', this suggests that they have not been in a traumatic experience; or that someone has substituted people to replace the real girls in an act of subterfuge.
Let us realise that psychological suffering may show nothing physical.
People suffering severe depression may appear totally normal to us – and when we hear they have committed suicide – we’re shocked – the very reason for our shock being – we saw no signs they would ever do such a thing.
They looked fine, well fed; even carrying out normal jobs until that moment of no return when they commit the act of suicide.
I think if there are people interested in this debate who are genuinely ignorant of the wider implications of prolonged psychological trauma, this may give some pause for thought.
Please share your thoughts!
Stay Well.
Editing by AskAwayHealth Team Disclaimer All AskAwayHealth articles are written by practising Medical Practitioners on a wide range of health care conditions to provide evidence based guidance and to help promote quality health care. The advice in our material is not meant to replace management of your specific condition by a qualified health care practitioner. To discuss your condition, please contact a health practitioner or reach us directly through info@askawayhealth.org
