[Music]
[Applause]
what do you think about when you hear
post-traumatic stress disorder military
exactly and there’s a reason for that
there’s a lot of servicemembers who have
PTSD and there’s also another reason for
that the injury that troops suffer
happens very very far away and that
injury is happening to people we
consider heroes so that’s a very very
safe way for us to talk about PTSD it’s
a safe way for us to talk about trauma
because it happens far away and it’s
happening to very strong people PTSD
doesn’t just affect veterans however
that’s me I was enrolled in gymnastics
that’s right around the time I
discovered I wasn’t very good at
gymnastics
because Dominique Dawes signed up for my
and in hindsight maybe I could have been
ok ish at gymnastics but at that time I
was like you know what this just isn’t
for me so I started taking swim lessons
and I joined a swim team and that’s when
my trauma began because my swim coach
was a predator and he sexually abused me
for five years from the age of seven to
round twelve so lots of people think
that PTSD is just for veterans but it
can affect children too just like it
affected me and I’m not alone in my
experience at all one in eight children
suffers enough trauma to have long
lasting negative effects in terms of
both mental health and physical health
well into adulthood and these 1 in 8
children can expect to experience a
lifespan that is 20 years shorter than
their peers and the fact is that combat
is not the only type of trauma child
sexual abuse is not the only type of
trauma because another way we try to
make trauma okay in addition to making a
very very far away
is to make it a little less farther away
but still far away oh that happens to
other people that happens to people in
different neighborhoods well it can
happen to anyone and I’m willing to bet
there’s people here who’ve experienced
something similar to what I’ve
experienced and I’m also willing to bet
that there’s people here who’ve
experienced other kinds of trauma it
could be a car accident a serious
illness witnessing a death some type of
other kind of violence living in poverty
can be a type of trauma the stakes are
extremely high for children because
trauma can change the architecture of
the developing brain and since stakes
are so high
I’ve always wondered why didn’t I know
about this before you see I didn’t know
I experienced PTSD or even trauma until
I was a student in counseling school I
had been a teacher for 10 years and had
probably seen over a thousand students I
had never learned about the symptoms of
PTSD I always thought it was for other
people far far away I never thought it
was done
thing that I had experienced and I never
thought it was something that was
affecting me every single day and I
remember sitting in that class and I’m
taking notes and I’m writing down the
symptoms intrusive thoughts mm-hmm
avoidance and I’d always called
avoidance I don’t know if you can tell
I’m from the mid-atlantic region so
avoidance for me it was strength nothing
bothered me but really I was avoiding my
own reality
I also learned about nightmares I
learned about hyper arousal overreacting
emotionally to certain situations so I’m
sitting there taking notes class goes
out on a break we’re all looking at each
other several of us figured out in that
class that we had PTSD and I thought why
haven’t I learned about this before why
don’t we talk about trauma and children
why don’t we talk about trauma in other
populations so in addition to reading
the book and seeing it in a very
clinical way which is also a very safe
way to deal with trauma I learned about
PTSD by experiencing it you see around
that time I reported my childhood
perpetrator I called the police and said
this harm happened to me I know
something happened they said well what
happened I said I don’t know and they
said when did it happen and I said 30
years ago and I was fully expecting to
click and the detective said next time
you’re in Maryland come on and we’ll
take a statement so as I process my
trauma and I processed it partially
through reporting I learned a lot and
here’s what you need to know about
trauma and here’s what you need to know
to help millions of children like the
child I was first of all the way I’d
like to think about trauma is like
gravity and I don’t know about you but
I’ve never turned to somebody and said
man this gravity’s amazing today check
it out this is amazing we’re not
floating away my shoes are on my shirt
staying down we take gravity for granted
just like I took trauma for granted and
just like millions and millions of
people who’ve experienced trauma take
their post-traumatic stress for granted
it’s not as them
well as having a bad memory of something
disturbing it’s not as simple as having
a nightmare it pervades every aspect of
your life from relationships to your
sense of time you when you re experience
the trauma you think in what year is it
we’re partying like it’s 1999 again and
it’s 2018 so trauma is a lot like
gravity insofar as it pervades every
aspect of a person’s life and if you
think about children they’re the most
disenfranchised group in our country and
in the world we like to think children
are okay we want to look at them and say
if they look okay
they must be okay but sometimes children
aren’t Seneca the ancient Roman
philosopher whom I’ve loved I’ve always
loved him I’m a Latin teacher now I had
a stint as a mental health counselor and
now I teach Latin but Seneca was
suffering from a really really severe
illness and he wrote sometimes just
living is an act of bravery and that’s
the case for children and anybody
suffering from trauma but if you imagine
that child in the context of school and
that child is reappear Ian Singh a
trauma and that child is literally
afraid for his or her life because
that’s what it’s like when you re
experienced it’s well beyond a memory in
fact I don’t have any memories of my
trauma I just have feelings so you’re
sitting in class you thinking oh my gosh
it feels like I’m about to die and your
teacher writes up on the board here take
these notes our math back is important
when you think your survival is at stake
I’m guessing not other ways kids cope
with trauma my favorite one is
dissociation we all do it to some extent
maybe you space out you daydream in a
more extreme sense when you dissociate
because of trauma you can actually leave
your body your body’s there but nobody’s
home so if you imagine that in the
context of school where kids spend most
of their time what do teachers say to
kids I say it all the time
pay attention no command to pay attend
can bring a kid back out of dissociation
and then not only are they missing out
on schoolwork but then they’re the kid
that never pays attention so there’s
lots of symptoms to PTSD that you might
read about in a clinical way like I did
when I was in school taking notes I did
have a sinking feeling like this is
sounding very familiar but when you’re
actually living it it’s just like Seneca
said just living is an act of bravery so
what are some things we can do about
this I mean it’s a it’s affecting a lot
of people it affects a lot of children
our national conversation about PTSD
generally focuses on veterans to the
point where we know on the 4th of July
we might want to be careful with our
fireworks what do we know about a child
who’s experiencing PTSD probably not
very much and that’s dangerous because
these children will grow up hurting and
these children will experience higher
rates of suicidality higher rates of
eating disorder higher rates of obesity
dysfunctional relationships higher rates
of addiction so what can we do we
obviously can’t control the weather if
it’s a natural disaster that’s a source
of the trauma we can’t stop all crime
but there are some things that we can do
to make our communities and our schools
and the places where our children spend
the most time friendlier and safer for
them the first is simply to disseminate
information so when I had my children I
have four I had the furred my first
child I knew when I brought her home she
was going to cry all the time I knew she
wasn’t going to smile and talk right
away there’s lots of things I knew when
I get a runny nose I don’t think my
brain is coming out I understand what
that’s all about when we have flu
epidemics we get sheets of information
as teachers we find out how to prevent
the flu what to do if you have the flu
in
Meishan helps it helps people make sense
of the world and it helps people
understand how to react to certain
situations so we need to make sure that
information about childhood trauma isn’t
relegated to universities and certainly
that’s not relegated to some gimmick of
the month that’s going to be popular
before the next acronym comes out we
need a sustained commitment to spreading
accurate information about childhood
trauma and that can happen in our
schools and that can also happen in our
communities doctors offices other places
children go that way people have the
information they need to understand and
experience that most people with trauma
cannot put a name to the second thing we
can do is to share our stories I share
my story so that others will share
theirs and since I’ve started sharing
I’ve met a lot of people who’ve
experienced the same thing as me and I
wish I had that as a child I did not
know anybody who was like me as a child
in fact I didn’t know anybody like me
until I named myself as victim a in the
case against my perpetrator the third
thing we can do is to be an ally this is
my seventh grade social studies teacher
she came to the sentencing of my
perpetrator in 2014 and she was there
not just to support me as an adult but
to support that 11 year old girl who sat
in her class and she supported me then
she supported me by making me feel
important she supported me by telling me
my work was good and she supported me by
caring and providing a safe secure
environment and she did that for me at
my perpetrator sentencing so the third
thing we can do is be real allies to
children not be afraid of them not other
them not keep them at arm’s length but
make them feel heard and seen and
understood I’ve had a good life and all
children with trauma deserve that chance
and together we can make that happen
thank you you
[Applause]
what do you think about when you hear
post-traumatic stress disorder military
exactly and there’s a reason for that
there’s a lot of servicemembers who have
PTSD and there’s also another reason for
that the injury that troops suffer
happens very very far away and that
injury is happening to people we
consider heroes so that’s a very very
safe way for us to talk about PTSD it’s
a safe way for us to talk about trauma
because it happens far away and it’s
happening to very strong people PTSD
doesn’t just affect veterans however
that’s me I was enrolled in gymnastics
that’s right around the time I
discovered I wasn’t very good at
gymnastics
because Dominique Dawes signed up for my
and in hindsight maybe I could have been
ok ish at gymnastics but at that time I
was like you know what this just isn’t
for me so I started taking swim lessons
and I joined a swim team and that’s when
my trauma began because my swim coach
was a predator and he sexually abused me
for five years from the age of seven to
round twelve so lots of people think
that PTSD is just for veterans but it
can affect children too just like it
affected me and I’m not alone in my
experience at all one in eight children
suffers enough trauma to have long
lasting negative effects in terms of
both mental health and physical health
well into adulthood and these 1 in 8
children can expect to experience a
lifespan that is 20 years shorter than
their peers and the fact is that combat
is not the only type of trauma child
sexual abuse is not the only type of
trauma because another way we try to
make trauma okay in addition to making a
very very far away
is to make it a little less farther away
but still far away oh that happens to
other people that happens to people in
different neighborhoods well it can
happen to anyone and I’m willing to bet
there’s people here who’ve experienced
something similar to what I’ve
experienced and I’m also willing to bet
that there’s people here who’ve
experienced other kinds of trauma it
could be a car accident a serious
illness witnessing a death some type of
other kind of violence living in poverty
can be a type of trauma the stakes are
extremely high for children because
trauma can change the architecture of
the developing brain and since stakes
are so high
I’ve always wondered why didn’t I know
about this before you see I didn’t know
I experienced PTSD or even trauma until
I was a student in counseling school I
had been a teacher for 10 years and had
probably seen over a thousand students I
had never learned about the symptoms of
PTSD I always thought it was for other
people far far away I never thought it
was done
thing that I had experienced and I never
thought it was something that was
affecting me every single day and I
remember sitting in that class and I’m
taking notes and I’m writing down the
symptoms intrusive thoughts mm-hmm
avoidance and I’d always called
avoidance I don’t know if you can tell
I’m from the mid-atlantic region so
avoidance for me it was strength nothing
bothered me but really I was avoiding my
own reality
I also learned about nightmares I
learned about hyper arousal overreacting
emotionally to certain situations so I’m
sitting there taking notes class goes
out on a break we’re all looking at each
other several of us figured out in that
class that we had PTSD and I thought why
haven’t I learned about this before why
don’t we talk about trauma and children
why don’t we talk about trauma in other
populations so in addition to reading
the book and seeing it in a very
clinical way which is also a very safe
way to deal with trauma I learned about
PTSD by experiencing it you see around
that time I reported my childhood
perpetrator I called the police and said
this harm happened to me I know
something happened they said well what
happened I said I don’t know and they
said when did it happen and I said 30
years ago and I was fully expecting to
click and the detective said next time
you’re in Maryland come on and we’ll
take a statement so as I process my
trauma and I processed it partially
through reporting I learned a lot and
here’s what you need to know about
trauma and here’s what you need to know
to help millions of children like the
child I was first of all the way I’d
like to think about trauma is like
gravity and I don’t know about you but
I’ve never turned to somebody and said
man this gravity’s amazing today check
it out this is amazing we’re not
floating away my shoes are on my shirt
staying down we take gravity for granted
just like I took trauma for granted and
just like millions and millions of
people who’ve experienced trauma take
their post-traumatic stress for granted
it’s not as them
well as having a bad memory of something
disturbing it’s not as simple as having
a nightmare it pervades every aspect of
your life from relationships to your
sense of time you when you re experience
the trauma you think in what year is it
we’re partying like it’s 1999 again and
it’s 2018 so trauma is a lot like
gravity insofar as it pervades every
aspect of a person’s life and if you
think about children they’re the most
disenfranchised group in our country and
in the world we like to think children
are okay we want to look at them and say
if they look okay
they must be okay but sometimes children
aren’t Seneca the ancient Roman
philosopher whom I’ve loved I’ve always
loved him I’m a Latin teacher now I had
a stint as a mental health counselor and
now I teach Latin but Seneca was
suffering from a really really severe
illness and he wrote sometimes just
living is an act of bravery and that’s
the case for children and anybody
suffering from trauma but if you imagine
that child in the context of school and
that child is reappear Ian Singh a
trauma and that child is literally
afraid for his or her life because
that’s what it’s like when you re
experienced it’s well beyond a memory in
fact I don’t have any memories of my
trauma I just have feelings so you’re
sitting in class you thinking oh my gosh
it feels like I’m about to die and your
teacher writes up on the board here take
these notes our math back is important
when you think your survival is at stake
I’m guessing not other ways kids cope
with trauma my favorite one is
dissociation we all do it to some extent
maybe you space out you daydream in a
more extreme sense when you dissociate
because of trauma you can actually leave
your body your body’s there but nobody’s
home so if you imagine that in the
context of school where kids spend most
of their time what do teachers say to
kids I say it all the time
pay attention no command to pay attend
can bring a kid back out of dissociation
and then not only are they missing out
on schoolwork but then they’re the kid
that never pays attention so there’s
lots of symptoms to PTSD that you might
read about in a clinical way like I did
when I was in school taking notes I did
have a sinking feeling like this is
sounding very familiar but when you’re
actually living it it’s just like Seneca
said just living is an act of bravery so
what are some things we can do about
this I mean it’s a it’s affecting a lot
of people it affects a lot of children
our national conversation about PTSD
generally focuses on veterans to the
point where we know on the 4th of July
we might want to be careful with our
fireworks what do we know about a child
who’s experiencing PTSD probably not
very much and that’s dangerous because
these children will grow up hurting and
these children will experience higher
rates of suicidality higher rates of
eating disorder higher rates of obesity
dysfunctional relationships higher rates
of addiction so what can we do we
obviously can’t control the weather if
it’s a natural disaster that’s a source
of the trauma we can’t stop all crime
but there are some things that we can do
to make our communities and our schools
and the places where our children spend
the most time friendlier and safer for
them the first is simply to disseminate
information so when I had my children I
have four I had the furred my first
child I knew when I brought her home she
was going to cry all the time I knew she
wasn’t going to smile and talk right
away there’s lots of things I knew when
I get a runny nose I don’t think my
brain is coming out I understand what
that’s all about when we have flu
epidemics we get sheets of information
as teachers we find out how to prevent
the flu what to do if you have the flu
in
Meishan helps it helps people make sense
of the world and it helps people
understand how to react to certain
situations so we need to make sure that
information about childhood trauma isn’t
relegated to universities and certainly
that’s not relegated to some gimmick of
the month that’s going to be popular
before the next acronym comes out we
need a sustained commitment to spreading
accurate information about childhood
trauma and that can happen in our
schools and that can also happen in our
communities doctors offices other places
children go that way people have the
information they need to understand and
experience that most people with trauma
cannot put a name to the second thing we
can do is to share our stories I share
my story so that others will share
theirs and since I’ve started sharing
I’ve met a lot of people who’ve
experienced the same thing as me and I
wish I had that as a child I did not
know anybody who was like me as a child
in fact I didn’t know anybody like me
until I named myself as victim a in the
case against my perpetrator the third
thing we can do is to be an ally this is
my seventh grade social studies teacher
she came to the sentencing of my
perpetrator in 2014 and she was there
not just to support me as an adult but
to support that 11 year old girl who sat
in her class and she supported me then
she supported me by making me feel
important she supported me by telling me
my work was good and she supported me by
caring and providing a safe secure
environment and she did that for me at
my perpetrator sentencing so the third
thing we can do is be real allies to
children not be afraid of them not other
them not keep them at arm’s length but
make them feel heard and seen and
understood I’ve had a good life and all
children with trauma deserve that chance
and together we can make that happen
thank you you
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