Permanent scar on a tender mind

KOLKATA: A few moments on Monday have perhaps changed her life for ever. Forced to witness her mother''s murder — most probably by someone very familiar — two-and-a-half-year-old Chhotti may bear permanent scars for the rest of her life.
Though she might not retain vivid memories of the incident because of her tender age, she may react "erratically and apparently inexplicably" to situations that occur many years later, fear leading psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.
"As a grown-up, she might react to certain situations in a manner others would not," psychoanalyst Ranjit Basu said.
But they are more concerned with the immediate aftermath. She could develop a deep sense of mistrust for every person she knows. She could go on having nightmares in the immediate future. Any person with even a very remote resemblance to her mothers'' killers could also scare her.
"She needs a lot of emotional empathy and her problems need to be handled with a lot of care as she might go into a depression," psychiatrist Debashish Roy said.
"In medical parlance, we call this post-traumatic stress disorders. This is generally experienced two or three weeks after the incident. But this has a treatment and can be overcome, provided the victim gets psychiatric help very soon," he explained.
Both experts are apprehensive of the possibility of personality disorders later in her life. Basu said: "She herself will not be aware why some situations evoke such extreme reactions from her."
Roy was worried about the physical impact too. "To start with, Chhotti may not develop physically like other children. She may also start speaking later if she receives no professional help at this moment," he warned.