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A Close Friend Effected by M.S.

I know a person who underwent a traumatic experience that would forever change his life. As a child he had witness death, disease, hospital visits, and funerals. This child lost his brother, aunts, and was unfortunate to come home to their mother dead on her bed having lost her life to Multiple Sclerosis. He was 10 years old when this happened. After he found his mother laying on her bed, he called his father and then waited in his room until paramedics came. Could you imagine? When his father arrived at the house they found him in his room finishing his homework. This is where you could say when his copping mechanism kicked in. School was his escape from the thought of all he had lost and witnessed. He would later Ace his classes and never have a problem in school. He grew up with a lack of trust for others, limited his relationships, and had the inability of sharing his feelings with ease.

“a lack of appropriate social support for both the child and surviving parent and a failure to provide clear and honest information at appropriate time points relevant to the child's level of understanding was perceived to have a negative impact in adulthood with regards to trust, relationships, self-esteem, feeling of self-worth loneliness and isolation and the ability to express feelings.” (Ellis, Dowrick, & Lloyd-Williams, 2013)

According to the Map of MS Pervalence, The MSIF estimates that more than 400,000 people in the United States and about 2.3 million people around the world have MS. About 200 new cases are diagnosed each week in the United States. (2014) This stressor occurs in a lot of families in the United states, Europe being the second country with a high impact of MS.
This stressor has a great impact, not only the person who was diagnosed with M.S. but the entire family. For a child as young as 10 years to go through this experience it effected his Biosocial Development, Psychosocial Development and Cognitive Development. He chose to focus in his studies as a result of this traumatic experience which connects to his Psychosocial Development and Cognitive Development. As for his Biosocial Development in connection to Psychosocial and cognitive, he became introverted. He truly loved playing basketball and other activities but he became a person who enjoyed staying home and engaging in minimal activities that required so many people to have “eyes on him.” He never enjoyed being in big places where he felt the center of attention or in any situation or job that requires too much engagement from multiple people.

Resource:
            Ellis, J., Dowrick, C., & Lloyd-Williams, M. (2013, February). The long-term impact of early parental death: Lessons from a narrative study. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3569022/

Map of MS Prevalence. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.msdiscovery.org/map-of-MS-prevalence

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