Psychological Impact of Hostage Situation Among

Captives: An Overview

Drawings: A Picture is Worth a Thousand

Words Drawings: A Picture is Worth a Thousand

Words

Ms. Marylendra A. Penetrante-CYWTAC

Drawings: A Picture is Worth a Thousand

Words Drawings: A Picture is Worth a Thousand

Words

Drawings: A Picture is Worth a Thousand

Words Drawings: A Picture is Worth a Thousand

Words

Reality Bites!

• Although the resilience of individuals

should never be underestimated, there is evidence that being taken hostage can have enduring effects, particularly on children.

• Hostages - like other victims of hijacks, sieges and political violence – have to cope with extreme psychological pressures for which most people are completely unprepared.

Reality Bites!

• Individuals vary in how they cope with such an experience, both during and subsequent to it.

• The experience is best described as “a psychological rollercoaster.”

• There are long periods of boredom, punctuated by ghastly bursts of violence, fear and threat.

Persistent Effects of Hostage-Taking Trauma in Children

Looking within the captive’s psyche

• Fear is the ever-present emotion

• : "Trapped body, racing mind," is Dr James Thompson of University College London summary of the hostage's state.

• Some hostages start to feel sympathy for their captors, and even support their cause. This is known as the Stockholm Syndrome.

• For those who make it out alive, freedom almost always brings elation. But the effects of being captive don't disappear so easily. Hostages tend to review their performance and analysis how they performed under pressure.

• Some people never get over the effects.

Current Research(Published in Journal Watch Psychiatry February 1, 2000)

• These researchers followed 29 third- and first-graders, who with their teacher had been held hostage at gunpoint in their classroom for two hours by a threatening, deranged intruder, and 22 indirectly affected third-graders in another class.

• Debriefings at 24 hours and 6 weeks as well as psychological counseling were provided to most of the directly affected students and their parents. Twenty-six directly affected and twenty-one indirectly affected children and families agreed to participate in the 18-month study

Significant Findings

• One month after the event, 96% of the directly threatened children showed symptoms of acute stress reactions, post-traumatic stress disorder, or carefully defined subclinical PTSD.

• After four months, 42% of directly exposed and 40% of indirectly exposed children showed symptoms; at 18 months, 28% of the directly exposed children but only 11% of the comparison group showed symptoms.

• Children with preexisting psychological problems or who were not debriefed were at greater risk of stress-related symptoms.

Worthy to be Noted

• Although sample sizes were too small for statistical validity, the finding that children with persistent symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder were more likely to have prior psychological problems is consistent with studies of PTSD vulnerability in adults

Sta

ges

of T

raum

a 1. Sudden Occurrence of Traumatic Event

2. Physical Effects

3. Shock or Disbelief

4. Destabilization

5. Psychological Effects (Traumatic symptoms)

6. Coping / Normalizing

7. RecoveryMs. Marylendra A. Penetrante-

CYWTAC

Degree of Psychological Distress• Exposure: The closer captives are to the

location of a threatening and/or frightening event, and the longer the exposure, the greater the likelihood of severe distress.

Relationships: Having relationships with the victims of a disaster (those who were killed, injured, and/or threatened) is strongly associated with psychological distress. The stronger children’s relationships with the victims, the greater the likelihood of severe distress.

Initial reactions: How captives first respond to trauma will greatly influence how effectively they deal with stress in the aftermath

Perceived threat: The captive’s subjective understanding of the traumatic event can be more important than the event itself. Simply stated, severely distressed children will report perceiving the event asextremely threatening or frightening.

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Psychosomatic IllnessPTSD

Spe

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Sym

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Tra

uma Physical Symptoms

• Changes in eating and sleeping behaviors • Stomach aches, unease, feelings of stress, head

aches, and • difficulty with body temperature control may all

accompany crisis.

Thoughts • Inability to stop thinking about the crisis (cyclical)• This constant thinking usually heightens feelings

of distress and makes it more difficult for us to find solutions to the situation.

• Feelings of hopelessness and pessimism• Difficulty concentrating

• Social isolation – During a crisis we often tend to feel all alone, and that no one really understand us. This causes us to further remove ourselves from social situations and support and can make the situation even worse. Actually talking to someone about the way you feel is the first step towards getting over the crisis.

Ms. Marylendra A. Penetrante-CYWTAC

1. Learning Difficulties

2. Memory Disturbances

3. Dissociation

4. Aggression against Self and Others

5. Psychosomatic Reactions

CONSEQUENCES

Ms. Marylendra A. Penetrante-CYWTAC

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Ms. Marylendra A. Penetrante-CYWTAC

What we can do to help?

• Let the victim to know that it's normal to feel upset when something bad or scary happens

• Encourage the victim to express feelings and thoughts, without making judgments

• Protect him/her from further exposure to traumatic events, as much as possible

• Return to normal routines as much as possible

Ms. Marylendra A. Penetrante-CYWTAC

• School can be a major healing environment as the child's most important routine. Educate school personnel about the child's needs. Reassure the child that it was not his or her fault, that adults will try to take care of him or her, etc.

• Allow the survivor to feel sad or cry

• Give the him/her a sense of control and choice by offering reasonable options about daily activities (choosing meals, clothes, etc.)

• If the victim regresses (or starts to do things he or she did when younger), people can help by being supportive, remembering that it is a common response to trauma, and not criticizing the behavior

Adults can be most helpful if they take care of themselves and get help for their own distress, since children and adolescents may respond to adults'

feelings and reactions. Ms. Marylendra A. Penetrante-CYWTAC

In any hostage taking incidents..the real victims are

the captives….