I will start by saying this, what is a psychological atopy? A psychological atopy is a predisposed or inherited condition passed down through one's genes, the atopy in this case is anxiety. What do we know about anxiety? We know that it can cause anti-social behavior it can hinder one’s ability to even get the simplest task done. It is commonly predisposed or cause by traumatic experiences. In regards to this atopy, “those children who come into life with a psychological atopy in which their threat detection system worry, fear and anxiety is switched to incoming missiles without much opportunity of finer modulation have a long-term vulnerability to many different mental health problems worry becomes rumination, which overflows into agitation, leads to depressive exhaustion and in the most extreme cases paranoia and a desire of relief from the torment of the ubiquitous sense of danger." (K.P Nun, 2015)

But my next question for you is, what happens when one is predisposed with an anxiety disorder and is exposed to inner-city violence and ideology?

First, I will have to give you an example of inner-city ideology which can be hard for the everyday individual to understand. Coming from a similar environment it is something I know all too well about. First, you have to look at the environment one lives in while living in the inner-city take Indianapolis for example where I’m from. Poverty is part of everyday life also along with chronic substance abuse, theft, robbery, and sometimes people are tortured to death women man and child also molestation/rape and extreme violence sometimes resulting in murder or a series of them. people are eventually hopeless In that type of environment where these things are accepted as a part of everyday life and a lot of the time blatantly ignored or if acknowledged it is addressed with extreme violence generally.

So what happens when these things become a social norm and are just taught to be accepted and dealt with rather than things we need to overcome in children with an anxiety atopy? I will tell you first it will automatically instill you with a sense feeling of helplessness and hopelessness, followed by an intense feeling of alienation. You tend to think is this truly normal and the answer most inner-city youth regardless of an atopy come up with the answer yes. (Get it how you live) is a common saying in Indianapolis that expresses just that. With that type of mentality that these things are normal in your environment and should be accepted as a way of life. Already on top of a serious atopy as anxiety, one can run into many different responses in an inner-city environment depending on the individual and exposure to different types of situations.

“Violent contexts are a potent risk factor for mental health problems such as depression among adolescents (Kennedy, Bybee, Sullivan, Greeson, 2010). Youth living in urban, disadvantaged areas are often exposed to violence daily, both within the home and the community (Foster, Kuperminc, & Price, 2004). Growing up in violent contexts may contribute toward feelings of distress, hopelessness, and ineffectiveness at managing one’s environment; these negative perceptions of self and the world may manifest as symptoms of depression (Lynch & Cicchetti, 1998; Zona & Milan, 2011). Although researchers have found consistently that violence exposure is associated with increased risk of depression among adolescents, most of this research included only one form of violence exposure (e.g., only community violence) or aggregate measures (e.g., sum of family and community violence exposure; Olofsson, Lindqvist, Shaw, & Danielsson, 2012; Zona & Milan, 2011). Youth exposed to violence are often exposed to multiple forms of violence (Dong et al., 2004). Furthermore, the unique developmental features of adolescence suggest that violence exposure across ecological domains, including community and family, may each contribute toward depression risk”.

There are many different types of responses and I would personally say stages of responses some of these are sadness, grief, guilt, depression, shame, anxiety, belligerence, revulsion, despair, poor impulse control,According to( Parson, Erwin A. )“Children who were exposed to violence are often confused when they come for treatment, and so struggle between passivity and aggressivity. Although the latter may initially be avoided because it is too closely associated with the behavior of the aggressor, the former may be embraced as a way to distance self from internalized violent impulses The child may later find the aggressive mode to offer an increased sense of inner stability and self-esteem Management In violent trauma, the child internalizes self-images in relation to the traumatizing event, and self in relation to other people at the scene of the event. Thus, "trauma-engineered" identifications serve as the basis for transferential responses in therapy. These are victim-self (identification with the victims, victimizer-self (identification with the aggressor), (rescuer self-identification), (identification with constructive, competent behavior at the scene), and (authority-self (identification with culpable or responsible persons or government institutions."

“In the current study, we expect that violence exposure across contexts, including within the family and community, will each independently increase risk of depressive symptoms among adolescents during the high school years. We also expect that parent and peer support will help reduce the risk of depressive symptoms over time, even in the face of violence exposure over the same period of time. Our study builds on previous research examining violence exposure and depression in the following ways. First, we examine the association between multiple forms of violence independently and over time. Second, we apply a resilience framework to examine risk (e.g., violence exposure) and promoter factors (e.g., social support) over time associated with depression trajectories. Third, we include risk and promoter factors within developmentally relevant contexts for youth. Fourth, we investigate these relationships among youth living in an urban, disadvantaged community at risk for violence." According to University of Michigan.

These are just some examples of a response triggered by inner-city environment and the people who treat these weary youth.

I am an example of an inner-city environment and violence I know first-hand the horrors our world can potentially offer when the mind is damaged and warped by trauma. I personally dealt with responses such as an anticipatory fear of being overwhelmed by strong effects of losing control, the basic undoing of trust, separation anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias related to specific places persons or physical structures in one’s environment, hyper vigilance, constant state of frustration that would overflow into rage and potentially violent acts against peers. I am but one person from an environment that most think of as not real or stuff that you only see in movies I am here today to tell you this is not the case and there are major social factors that need to be corrected in environments such as these it is my purpose in writing this paper that you may learn from me and my experiences in a way that you may just only begin to understand the everyday struggle that we fail to acknowledge in the inner city. It is my firm belief that the first step in the process to reform our inner cities is to address the psychological, social, end economic problems that plague our society as a whole do not think of this as a paper but a word of advice from the inner-city youth we also matter.

Sincerely, Sean E. Landrock

Parson, Erwin A., (1994). Inner City Children Of Trauma: Urban Violence Traumatic Stress Response Syndrome

K.P Nun Format: Article Publication year: 2015, JOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH 51, no. 3, (2015): 285-286

Youth Exposure to Violence: Prevalence, Risks, and Consequences

Depressive Symptoms, Social Support, and Violence Exposure Among Urban Youth: A Longitudinal Study of Resilience.

(U-VTS and Therapists' Responses. In J.P. Wilson & J.D. Lindy (Eds.). Countertransference in the Treatment of

PTSD (pp 157-178). New York: Guilford Publications, Inc.

Stephen L. Buka Sc.D.

Theresa L. Stichick M.A., S.M.

Isolde Birdthistle S.M.

Felton J. Earls M.D.

Article first published online: 24 MAR 2010

2001 American Orthopsychiatric Association

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

Volume 71 Issue 3 pages 298–310, July 2001

Authors:

Eisman, Andria

Stoddard Sara A.

Heinze, Justin

Caldwell, CleopatraH.

Zimmerman, Marc A.

Source: Developmental Psychology. Sep2015, Vol. 51 Issue 9, p1307-1316. 10p.

Document Type: Article