Speak: A Look Into the Grave Effects of PTSD

Abstract

Melinda Sordino, the main character in the movie Speak (Berner, Myers, Sharzer, 2004), is just about to start high school when she attends a party where she is raped. After her rape, she starts to exhibit symptoms of PTSD which causes a downward spiral where her grades and social life deteriorate for the first semester of school. Her only support comes from her art teacher, Mr. Freeman who helps her to recover. PTSD is more likely to develop in female adolescents than male adolescents after trauma. For those who suffer from PTSD, the common therapies are exposure therapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy which all focus on decreasing the high stress response that comes with the client remembering the event. (126) Introduction

Speak (Berner, Myers, Sharzer, 2004) is about a 14 year old girl, Melinda Sordino, who deals with the after effects of being raped at a party by a senior. In Melinda’s shocked state after the rape, she calls the police intending to report the crime but hangs up almost immediately. The police then track her location and bust the party. Melinda is blamed for the police coming to the party by those present before she can explain why she called them. This situation leads to her ostracization in school during which she slowly withdraws herself from social situations and experiences a decline in mental health.

Melinda builds a negative reputation for calling the cops and is bullied relentlessly at school where her ex-friends, who were almost caught at the party, do nothing and ignore her. Her parents are unaware of the rape so they find her change in personality to be irritating and often dismiss it. Melinda’s sole friend, Heather, is superficial and states multiple times that she only interacts with Melinda because Melinda was the first person to be nice to her at school (Berner et al., 2004). Mr. Freeman, the art teacher, is the only teacher that inspires Melinda to work in class and she becomes closer to him. Melinda’s attacker also attends the same school as her and she finds that the only place she can find solace from him and his friends is in a supply closet which she makes a work space.

Melinda seems to be suffering from symptoms of PTSD which is apparent from the beginning of the movie when she is plagued with flashbacks and nightmares of the night she was raped due to certain triggers. For example, in biology class when she and her partner are asked to dissect a frog, she decides to cut the frog herself. However, she ends up fainting because the frog’s position triggers a flashback of her rape (Berner et al., 2004). Melinda’s insomnia also becomes worse as the months progress due to her nightmares. Melinda’s rape and consequent PTSD changes her social and academic life dramatically and negatively. She displays a drastic change in her social life when her friends cut her out of their lives and she is the subject of bullying at school. This leads her to change how she dresses and acts. Her grades go from Bs to Ds and she is less involved in her academic life, skipping classes and spending time in the supply closet. Due to the evidence presented above, it is hypothesized that Melinda suffers from PTSD.

Symptoms and Etiology

The symptoms for PTSD in adolescents as stated in the DSM-5 include anger, inability to sleep, nightmares, and distance from family and friends (APA, 2013). Other symptoms of PTSD are that the adolescent does not participate in the environment around them and their attitude becomes more pessimistic (Sue, Sue, Sue, Sue, 2017). Melinda is a white female of 14 years of age. According to Sue et al. (2017), 6.6% of female teenagers are diagnosed with PTSD in their life and Americans of European descent have a lifetime prevalence of PTSD of 7%.

While it is suggested that Melinda might be suffering from selective mutism, that is not the case because she states that she chooses not to speak (Berner et al., 2004). According to the DSM-5, selective mutism is an anxiety disorder that occurs when the child cannot speak in specific situations for a month minimum (as cited in ASHA, n.d.). However, Melinda is able to communicate in social situations and her mutism is inconsistent —she is able to speak in front of a class in one scene but refuses to in another when she rebels against an unfair, rude teacher (Berner et al., 2004). Melinda is able to speak to everyone she interacts with multiple times, indicating that she is not suffering from selective mutism. There is no discrepancy in how much she speaks in different environments, either. Her communication level is the same at home and school.

PTSD can develop after an individual has either been the recipient of trauma or has been present when the traumatic incident happened (Sue et al., 2017). While some individuals are diagnosed with acute stress disorder based on the symptoms they are experiencing, others are diagnosed with PTSD when symptoms have been ongoing for a month or more (Sue et al., 2017). Melinda’s symptoms begin after her rape and continue for about five to six months. According to Lupien, McEwen, Gunnar, and Heim (2009), younger individuals are particularly more likely to develop PTSD after an event, especially because of the changes and transitions they are going through (as cited in Lewis et al., 2019). Melinda is just about to start high school, a big transition that increases her likelihood of having PTSD. According to Lewis et al. (2019), if the traumatic incident was committed by someone the individual had some sort of relationship with (romantic, platonic, or otherwise), the individual was more likely to develop PTSD. In Melinda’s case she had befriended the attacker at the party increasing her chances of developing PTSD.

PTSD is common in those that have a negative attributional style and those that are alarmed easily (Sue et al., 2017). Individuals that have other mental health disorders are more likely to develop PTSD (Lewis et al., 2019). PTSD has a higher chance of developing if the adolescent or the adolescent’s family is working class, the adolescent has a low education level, poor family relationships, little to no social support, is of white or African-American or Latino/Hispanic-American descent, female, feels discriminated or prejudiced against, and more (Sue et al., 2017).

Those who are biologically more predisposed to being stressed are also more likely to develop some sort of stress disorder if they experience a stress inducing event (Sue et al., 2017). According to Sue et al. (2017), when someone thinks they’re in danger or are simply stressed, the sympathetic nervous system is activated which elevates certain functions (blood pressure, sweating, etc.). Usually, the parasympathetic nervous system is running in the background which relaxes the body. For those with PTSD, the sympathetic nervous system might be working instead of the parasympathetic even when the body is not threatened (Sue et al., 2017).

Discussion

Melinda’s emotional and mental state as well as her outward appearance and attitude after being raped suggests she has PTSD. Because she is a white female in the working class, her chances of having PTSD are higher. Though Melinda does not get treatment for her symptoms, she is able to start her recovery process at the end of the movie because of Mr. Freeman’s help and her decision to tell her ex-best friend, Rachel, about the rape leads to the punishment of her attacker. Though the movie ends with Melinda telling her mother about the rape, it is implied that Melinda seeks out help on her already begun path to recovery.

There are multiple treatments that Melinda could try to help reduce her PTSD symptoms. One form of therapy for PTSD is prolonged exposure therapy which asks clients to confront the event by remembering it—this directly impacts avoidance behaviors (Sue et al., 2017). Trauma focused cognitive-behavioral therapy is also used to change how clients view the event, especially if they think they are at fault, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is another treatment where the clients think of the trauma while moving their eyes from side to side or with the therapist’s finger and are asked to focus on neutral/positive thoughts (Sue et al., 2017).

According to a meta-analysis completed by Brewin and Holmes (2003), those with higher education and better memory were able to have better outcomes when undergoing therapy that addressed their flashbacks of their trauma. In addition to this finding, Brewin and Holmes (2003) reported that those who suffered a PTSD event or abuse in their childhood had higher reports of self-blame and took more time in therapy to have successful results. Those that view their traumatic incident with anger are more likely to feel that they were taken advantage of and these individuals start to look at others with distrust; these thoughts can take time to reverse (Brewin Holmes, 2003).

Exposure therapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, and EMDR can end up helping the individual deal with distressing flashbacks. Those who are naturally more sensitive to fear are able to mediate such responses after therapy (Sue et al., 2017). Therapy that involves mindfulness also helps those with PTSD to cope with feelings of anger and shame (Sue et al., 2017). Strong relationships with family members and friends can also increase the likelihood of individuals improving (Brewin Holmes, 2003).