PTSD Awareness: How to Help a Child Through Trauma

June 17, 2022 Madeleine Vieira

We often think of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a mental illness that only soldiers suffer from. In fact, it has been referred to in the past as Shell Shock or Combat Fatigue.(1)

While PTSD is common in those individuals who have seen and experienced war, unfortunately, any person who has experienced trauma can develop PTSD.

This even includes children.

So what should you be looking for if you suspect that your child or another child in your life has PTSD? And how can you help them? Let’s talk about it.

Why Is My Child Acting Out? Oppositional Defiant Disorder Explained

May 16, 2022 Madeleine Vieira

Some kids are just “bad kids.” You know the ones. They run down the aisle screaming at church. They have meltdowns in the supermarket. They don’t listen, they talk back, and they laugh in the face of authority. They can’t be controlled by their parents or teachers.

In short, they’re a menace with a capital M.

Except… there’s no such thing as a “bad kid,” is there? There are good kids who need help… Kids who start to believe the worst about themselves because they’ve come to expect negative reinforcement from their parents, other adults, or their peers…

Believe it or not, that kid yelling obscenities at his mother in the school parking lot probably doesn’t want to be doing that. But children with oppositional defiant disorder, or ODD for short, have difficulty controlling their impulses and making healthy, developmentally appropriate choices.