Hood Disease: Inner City Oakland Youth Suffering From Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

According to the CDC, inner city kids are having such a tough time living/surviving, that the students are suffering when it comes to education due to PTSD
For children in parts of Oakland, survival is often a daily struggle. The lives of youth in poverty-stricken neighborhoods is replete with violence
The environment resembles that of a war zone, and trauma is no stranger
For these emotionally-embattled kids, the way up and out isn’t necessarily through school

OAKLAND (KPIX 5) — In the inner city, a health problem is making it harder for young people to learn. The Centers for Disease Control said 30 percent of inner city kids suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The CDC said these children often live in virtual war zones. Doctors at Harvard said they actually suffer from a more complex form of PTSD that some call “hood disease.”

Unlike soldiers, children in the inner city never leave the combat zone. They often experience trauma, repeatedly.

“You could take anyone who is experiencing the symptoms of PTSD, and the things we are currently emphasizing in school will fall off their radar. Because frankly it does not matter in our biology if we don’t survive the walk home,” said Jeff Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D. of San Francisco State University

sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com...

Jaliza Collins, also a teacher at Fremont, said, “It’s depression, it’s stress, it’s withdrawal, it’s denial. It’s so many things that is encompassed and embodied in them. And when somebody pushes that one button where it can be like, ‘please go have a seat,’ and that can be the one thing that just sets them off.”

A study done by the National Institutes of Health shows frequent violence dramatically limits academic achievement in neighborhoods with high crime rates and can even lead to a decrease in one’s memory, which has a direct impact on student learning.


What a sad life these kids have got, with little to no future for some of them
Seems like more could be done to make their neighborhoods safer

whoa, i knew it! i wrote a thread on this topic a few months ago because, after seeing the effects of trauma on a human psyche, i was pretty darn sure this was also a huge factor in impoverished areas, where the crime rates are higher and thus the trauma compounds.

here' s the thread i wrote about it (unfortunately, the first video no longer works. it was a faultline show, but we are not allowed to see it in the usa it says. however if you click thru to its youtube page and read the About tab, it gives a summary

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: undo

Wow some people were very upset with you for writing that post.
Sush a shame..

originally posted by: Justwatchingyou
a reply to: undo

Wow some people were very upset with you for writing that post.
Sush a shame..

yeah that first video was really good too, and it was a show filmed right here in the usa. why it was put off limits to americans, is beyond me.

ah, here it is. i found a new working copy

This is as ridiculous as affluenza.
All we are doing is making up excuses for what the youth does these days, our future is so screwed.

originally posted by: thesaneone
This is as ridiculous as affluenza.
All we are doing is making up excuses for what the youth does these days, our future is so screwed.

it's not an excuse, it's reality for people in poverty. the newly impoverished have some benefit in that they haven't been generationally afflicted. but if you've ever dealt with a person with a stress disorder, you know, that person is a ticking time bomb of emotional trauma, and that carries over into how they view themselves and treat their offspring and the cycle repeats. you should watch that video i posted above. it really helps to put it into perspective.

originally posted by: thesaneone
This is as ridiculous as affluenza.
All we are doing is making up excuses for what the youth does these days, our future is so screwed.

True, the choices some people make, there is no excuse

That being said, the ones that are affected by the violence are usually the non-violent ones that live in that crappy world
The dog tags that they wear around their neck are 'R.I.P' tags to remember someone they lost to violence
Some kids have 3-6 tags
I've meet people before who have never experienced losing a loved one/friend until they were in their middle 40's/50's

That is the 'stress' that they are referring to....the stress of survival-- the stress of knowing that many will never leave there and will be stuck there, hoping that they make it to their 20th birthday
And then depression of, 'then what?'

These kids are seeing it/living it everyday
And those of us who are lucky not to be in that kind of environment, have no clue to what goes on in the inner cities

That's trauma....

I was thinking about this recently in a different context. Unfortunately it's a topic that always seems to get derailed by political obsessives who frame everything as party politics.

When individuals in the armed forces (all nations) are exposed to deaths and heightened stress, they're looked after and monitored for potential PTSD. Similarly, we sometimes see individuals acting against their morals due to circumstances and peer pressure (Abu Ghraib?). We likely all agree that these scenarios are harmful to individuals and earn our sympathy and empathy.

A family living in a dirt-poor area can be exposed to deaths, violence and daily stress caused by fear of death and violence. Worrying about burglaries and street robberies increase stress too and create a siege mentality. These are facts that apply in inner-city areas across the world - it's not a US-specific issue or a skin colour issue.

We're talking about poverty, social divides and cultures. It's not even like we could disperse folk with 'hood disease' into better areas and expect them to successfully integrate and for those 'dirt-poor areas' to disappear. It takes generations to change cultures and change doesn't happen when those with the power can't agree beyond their party line.

a reply to: Kandinsky

These are facts that apply in inner-city areas across the world - it's not a US-specific issue or a skin colour issue.

We're talking about poverty, social divides and cultures.

Thank you...you are so right about that!!


I'm hoping that this doesn't get turned into a race debate.....it's about survival for the young kids

a reply to: Kandinsky

you got the idea now. that's what i was trying to say in my thread linked above. the worst hit communities are the ones that have been used as an excuse to get political advantage/financial advantage, and then dropped like a hot potato - and this goes on for generations. the poor are traumatized repeatedly, in every poor community, and as a result, fewer make it out of the morass of trauma.

I was the victim of an armed robbery and attempted murder in Oakland. And the guy who shot me only did 18 months in jail. It was a miracle I survived, and was incredible that I was able to help get him behind bars, but the overwhelmed District Attorneys office tries to cut deals because they are more interested in the case being over, than actual justice served.

It is a war zone there, no question. But what is the answer in this plummeting economy? The glorification of the thug life has gone out of control. Drug dealing and stealing is the only way for some of these uneducated men to survive.

Martin Luther King Jr. would be ashamed of what has happened to the black community over the past few decades.

a reply to: oneupShadow

Martin Luther King Jr. would be ashamed of what has happened to the black community over the past few decades.

I don't think he would be 'ashamed'; he'd be disappointed. After all, the civil rights movement wanted equality for all. Instead, we've all got equal rights to share water fountains and get schooled together.

When you say 'black community,' does that include the wealthy as well as the middle classes? If we ever say 'white community' does that include our underclass too? Know what I mean? People say 'black community' and think of the hood; they say 'white community' and think of two-car families and parent evenings at school.

No matter the colour of skin, someone in a dirt-poor area can stay there or move to another dirt-poor area.

People have had hard lives though out time but in the 21st century Oakland's hard times rate PTSD.

The cure is for the youth to stop the violence or to eliminate all those who practice violence. Always blaming someone else seldom fixes anything.

originally posted by: roadgravel
People have had hard lives though out time but in the 21st century Oakland's hard times rate PTSD.

The cure is for the youth to stop the violence or to eliminate all those who practice violence. Always blaming someone else seldom fixes anything.

the human brain has been pretty much a mystery to us for a long time, particularly as regards things like stress disorders. now that we know about it, should we feign ignorance and pretend it's still 100 years ago, where most doctors had no idea what a stress disorder was?

a reply to: undo

Using this standard, the majority of the world probably has PTSD.

originally posted by: thesaneone
This is as ridiculous as affluenza.
All we are doing is making up excuses for what the youth does these days, our future is so screwed.

Yes and no. You are responsible for your actions, definitely, but you're also a product of your environment. Both the one inside your front door, and the one outside it. If you live in a good area, a safe area with a great community, you're going to be a reflection of that. Safety and happiness tend to go hand in hand. But if you live in a veritable hellhole where the homes are held together with spit and duct tape, where poverty is rampant and crime & murder rates are sky high, you're not going to be a particularly happy person let alone act it. That kind of environment is going to trigger residents' self-defense mode, trust is going to go down the toilet and everyone's going eye each other out of worry and fear.

I can definitely understand how PTSD is an issue for kids in these areas. I've lived in some pretty crappy areas myself, and my stress level has hit the stratosphere before. For a kid to feel that kind of worry & anxiety, it's destructive & counterproductive.

originally posted by: roadgravel
a reply to: undo

Using this standard, the majority of the world probably has PTSD.

I was thinking the same thing, about 6.5 billion must have it then....

The problem here is that the kids/young adults are not only the victims but the perpetrators too. They have created and continually fed this war from within. If they stopped today it would end today, but about 6 billions others do not get that choice.

Can you say DISABILITY!!! Where my check!!!