News: "France shootings: How can a child aged four handle trauma?"

Zeena, a four-year-old child, was found with her dead parents inside a car. She was optimal physically, but the acquired trauma in such horrific experience is likely to affect her for the rest of her life. According to a psychologist specialized on children trauma, she would have experienced a really stressful reaction - a massive shock - and activated "a sort of shut-down response" that protected her psychologically. "Now", the police will take up to a week before questioning her to ensure that she won't be re-traumatized or "forced" to re-live the incident.

I can't even imagine how she could handle the situation (I know, it's mostly a "defense mechanism" issue, but it's really striking). Few people have experienced this kind of extremely shocking event, and I think they're the only ones that can say how it feels. This case doesn't affect me directly, but as a future psychologist (or/and psychiatrist or/and neuroscience doctor, perhaps), I'm sure that I'll encounter this kind of problems some day, and if I don't change my mind, I'll do all my efforts to try to help people that faced them.


New words
Witness: Presenciar
Stimuli: Estímul
Grasp: Comprensió
Pans out: Resulta

News & image source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19508900
"New words meaning" found on: http://www.wordreference.com/es/