VOA慢速英语2014 AS IT IS 2014-01-03 Arab Spring Violence Damaging Mental Health in the Middle East中东的阿拉伯之春暴力损害心理健康

 

AS IT IS 2014-01-03 Arab Spring Violence Damaging Mental Health in the Middle East 中东的阿拉伯之春暴力损害心理健康

From VOA Learning English this is As It Is.

Welcome back!  I’m Caty Weaver¹ in Washington.  

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Arab countries since the political unrest known as the Arab Spring began three years ago.  Many others have been jailed or disappeared.  But the violence does not only affect people physically².  Today we tell about how the situation is affecting the mental health of people in the Middle East.

“You get isolation³ or social isolation…but you can get  aggression⁴…”

Then we tell about new patients for a treatment that doctors have used on soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder⁶.  Doctors say prolonged exposure therapy seems to help young girls who have suffered sexual abuse.

“Most of the girls…actually lost the diagnosis⁷ of PTSD and really did very well…”

Mental health in the Arab Spring and helping⁸ victims of sex abuse… today on As It Is.

Our first story comes from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli.  Many Syrians have fled to Lebanon to escape the conflict in their homeland.  Among them is a six-year-old boy from the Syrian town of Hama.  He pushes aggressively into the center of a circle of refugee children to list the dangers he faced in Syria from exploding rockets.  The little boy explains the picture he has made of a house and an artillery⁹ battery.

Mohamed Khalil is a psychiatrist¹⁰, specializing in treatment of mental disorders¹¹.  He says it is not unusual for refugee children from the two-and-a-half-year Syrian war to draw weapons.  He says they also often change quickly from hyperactive behavior to emotional withdrawal¹².

Dr. Khalil says children who have seen inhumane acts and violent death often return to behaviors seen in younger children. He says they might suck their thumbs or wet their beds.  And he says they often have frightening dreams and experience restless sleep.

“You get isolation or social isolation, and they don’t want to speak to people but you can get also aggression, and the main toys for children is guns.”

Dr. Khalil says there is a public health crisis across the Middle East right now.  He says it gets little or no attention from the media or international aid organizations.

There are no good estimates on the number of people suffering from mental health problems in the Middle East.  But mental health experts say violence and political unrest is causing severe depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders.

The problems are often left untreated.  Ahmed Abdellah is a psychiatrist in Egypt’s capital, Cairo.  He says cultural shame about mental health problems can interfere¹³ with efforts to help people.

He says three years of civil conflict in Egypt is harming the mental health of its people.

“The problem is there’s a gap between what is going on in the society and between what is in clinics and in psychiatric institutes, especially the governmental institutes. Nowadays we have massive numbers of post-traumatic stress disorder cases. But you will not find maybe any of these cases in psychiatric departments.”

He says people are left to suffer when they could be helped.  But also he says more problems are created when victims of PTSD do not get treatment.

“To leave somebody with trauma⁵ untreated, this opens him and the society for more aggression, you are open for more stress and we are open to more violence, actually. If you have maybe tens of thousands, maybe more of people who are suffering, you couldn’t expect them to work, to share, to intervene, to interact.”

Young people are especially suffering.  There are as many as 50,000 displaced Syrian children under the age of 16 in Lebanon.  Dr. Mohamed Khalil estimates that at least one third of them are at risk of developing PTSD.

Mental health experts often use a treatment called “prolonged exposure therapy” to help soldiers returning from battle.  It is considered the first step in treating soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.  Now, researchers have found the treatment can also help adolescent girls who were sexually abused as children.  Christopher Cruise reports.

In prolonged exposure therapy, or PET, patients are asked to remember and then talk about the feelings and thoughts that cause them to suffer.  They do this until these memories are no longer painful. 

Edna Foa is a clinical psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania.  She helped to develop prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD.  She says young women who were abused at an early age often get what she calls “supportive counseling.”  But she says that kind of treatment usually helps them for only a short period of time.

“It kind of reduces the pain on the short run; but in the long run, it actually maintains the symptoms and, and actually generate(s) chronic¹⁴ post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Dr. Foa and her team amended¹⁵ the PET program to meet the emotional maturity¹⁶ level of young people.  Then they compared it to supportive counseling in a group of 60 sexually-abused girls.  All the girls suffered from PTSD, and were 13 to 18 years of age.  Each girl got 14 sessions of either PET or supportive counseling.  Each meeting lasted about 60 to 90 minutes.

Dr. Foa says during treatment, those who received PET had a larger decrease in PTSD symptoms and depression, compared to the other girls.  They also had a greater improvement in the quality of life.

“Most of the girls in, who received prolonged exposure actually lost the diagnosis of PTSD, and really did very well even a year after -- because we followed them up to a year after the treatment.”

Dr. Foa says social workers in community mental health centers can be trained in prolonged exposure therapy in just four days.

I’m Christopher Cruise.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

3 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

4 aggression   

n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害

参考例句：

• So long as we are firmly united, we need fear no aggression.只要我们紧密地团结，就不必惧怕外来侵略。
• Her view is that aggression is part of human nature.她认为攻击性是人类本性的一部份。

5 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

6 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

7 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

10 psychiatrist   

n.精神病专家；精神病医师

参考例句：

• He went to a psychiatrist about his compulsive gambling.他去看精神科医生治疗不能自拔的赌瘾。
• The psychiatrist corrected him gently.精神病医师彬彬有礼地纠正他。

11 disorders   

n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调

参考例句：

• Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告，厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

13 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

14 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

15 Amended   

adj. 修正的 动词amend的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He asked to see the amended version. 他要求看修订本。
• He amended his speech by making some additions and deletions. 他对讲稿作了些增删修改。

16 maturity   

n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期

参考例句：

• These plants ought to reach maturity after five years.这些植物五年后就该长成了。
• This is the period at which the body attains maturity.这是身体发育成熟的时期。