Lesson video

Hello and welcome to your seventh and final lesson in this unit, looking at violent extremism and link to mental health.

I'm Mr. Clarke, and I'm going to be your teacher today.

And I have really absolutely loved spending this time with you during this unit, learning all about how our actions can impact on us and others around us mental health.

Now, just like the other lessons we will be talking about real sensitive topics.

So it is recommended that you have a trusted adult nearby or that you let them know that you are taking part in this lesson.

With that said, let's get on with our final lesson of this unit, looking at violent extremism and the links to our mental health.

To fully take part in today's lesson you're going to need your exercise book or a piece of paper and a pen.

So if you need to go and grab those before we start then just pause this video, go and get them come back and press play, and we'll start.

Today's lesson has already start with our introduction quiz and I really hope you enjoy taking part just as much as I did creating it.

Throughout the rest of today's lesson we're going to be exploring the following areas trauma and PTSD, and also violent extremism.

And then our final area of the day will be guilt.

Now, hopefully you remember, we have looked at guilt previously in another lesson, but at which point you'll then be ready to take part in your seventh and final exit quiz.

Now the key words we've got today are quite complex and they're very long to understand but they're really important that you understand these.

So you may want to write them down as we go through.

The first one is violent extremism.

Now that is defined as violence committed by an individual and or a group in support of a specific political or religious ideology.

And this term is often used interchangeably which means sometimes you might hear it called with as terrorism.

So violent extremism is all of these things and hopefully you remember through our violence and aggression lesson what that word means is a form of behaviour and action.

The other word that's really important to know today is trauma.

Now trauma is a response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that overwhelms an individual's ability to cope.

It can cause feelings of helplessness, diminishing the sense of self and their ability to fill a full range of emotions and experience.

You may also have heard terms such as traumatic experiences and we'll be thinking and talking about that later on in this lesson as well.

So these are your two key words for today.

We will be talking about them a lot throughout this lesson.

So if you need to as mentioned please pause this video, write them down so you've got them near you and then press play when you're ready to carry on.

Your first task of the day is that I would like you to please define mental health.

Now we looked at this back in, oh I think maybe lesson three.

So please now define mental health write down what that means.

Pause this video to do so and when you've got your answer, press play.

So hopefully by now you've got your answer and your definition of mental health.

So mental health is our emotional, psychological and social wellbeing, which means it affects how we think, how we feel and how we act.

The first part of the lesson is looking at trauma and PTSD.

Now PTSD stands for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

So post meaning after something traumatic or stressful has happened.

So you're now understanding what PTSD means and it's linked to trauma and stress as an example, to help you.

I would like you to think about the reasons why someone might develop PTSD.

What are those reasons that someone might end up with what we're calling PTSD.

To complete this task, just pause the video when you've got your ideas wrote down press play again.

So let's look some triggers and reasons for someone developing PTSD.

It could be for childbirth experiences, traumatic.

It may be a serious road accident that have happened, a combination of traumatic experiences.

It might not just be one singular moment.

It might be a buildup.

Again, we go back to this idea of things building on top of each other to the point that we feel unable to cope or find an escape.

Violent personal assaults such as experiencing sexual assault, mocking, or robbery and childhood experiences growing up, whether that be through abuse or neglect as some examples.

So these are what we refer to as triggers, reasons why someone may develop PTSD.

So PTSD will occur straight after an incident of trauma.

Do you think that's true or false? Does something happen then suddenly we've now developed PTSD or does that take time? True or false.

PTSD would occur straight after an incident of trauma.

Pointing out to the answer that you think is correct in three, two and one.

What do we think? Choose if you're right, the answer is both.

PTSD can develop immediately.

So a situation can happen and suddenly it's triggered PTSD, but it also can occur weeks, mumps or sometimes years.

And it's estimated to affect about one in three people who have a traumatic experience.

So also some people will experience something that's very traumatic and difficult for them but that doesn't necessarily mean that they absolutely going to develop PTSD.

People who repeat the experienced traumatic situations may be diagnosed with complex PTSD.

Quite often soldiers or people who have been in war or battle, particularly if we look from history and those after the world war one and world war two lots of soldiers came back with developing complex PTSD and PTSD due to the multiple and repeated ongoing experiences they were faced with during that time.

We're now going to look at the symptoms of PTSD.

And when we're talking about this, we're looking at the symptoms of both PTSD and complex PTSD, because they can overlap.

There may be reliving traumatic event through nightmares and flashbacks.

There may be feelings of isolation, irritability, guilt.

We may have difficulties in sleeping, insomnia, we've explored this in previous topics as well.

There is an increased anger and hostility.

So going back, looking at that increased lightness of violence and aggression and we've looked at that just last lesson.

And a greater urge for revenge versus reconciliation which means they may not have the process to be thinking about actually how to resolve a situation and move on from it.

They're looking more about how they can revenge and go against someone hurting them or whatever it might been that's happened.

And difficulty with trust.

So trust issues, not just in terms of friendship it could also be a romantic relationship or relationships of any form.

There's going to be a real difficulty there particularly around trust.

So which of these are ways in which you think someone might be able to treat PTSD? Which do you think, do you think it can be treated through therapy, counselling, antidepressants or watchful waiting, which means just waiting and being aware of what's happening and noting it down.

Which ways do you think? Point now to the ones which you think are ways which can treat PTSD.

And we'll see if you're all right in three, in two and one.

Let's see, they are all correct.

So these are all ways in which you can treat PTSD, which just highlights the fact that we've talked about consistently throughout all these lessons is every body is different, and everybody is going to need a different way of processing that information and ultimately treating it.

Not one thing fix.

And that's for any of the situations that we've looked at not just as we're looking at here in this scenario of PTSD.

Violent extremism, let's look a little bit more at that.

And let's remember that violent extremism just as a reminder, is violence committed by an individual and or sometimes a group in support of the specific political or religious ideology, so way of thinking.

And this term is often used interchangeably with terrorism which means the words often will come together.

So you may have seen them together fairly often.

A decision to take part in an act of violent extremism is usually an impulsive decision.

So happens spare at a moment impulsive, you think hang a minute, I'm going to do this and you go and do that act or does that take time? So do you think it's true that it happens in the moment and you just go and do it, is that true or is it false? Point now to answer and I'm going to review if you're correct in three, two and one.

Let's see, the answer is of course false.

Although an act of violent extremism may seem unpredictable and almost unplanned, these events are usually pre-planned out for an extended period of time prior to when the attack actually happens.

The process of planning though may be triggered by singular event.

So something may impulsively make them want to act.

But the actual act of that violent extremism is fairly often very much planned out over a period of time before they actually then act it out.

So three words we need to look at here, that's called exploit, vulnerable and manipulate.

And these are really important words when it comes to violent extremism and how people get involved in creating acts of violent extremism.

So can you please now match these words to the correct definitions.

Write them down for me.

I will look back and see if you're correct when you finish.

So when you're finished, just press play.

Let's now match the words with the correct meanings.

If you haven't got the correct meaning wrote down now, don't worry, just look at the answers that I put and correct them if you need to.

The first one is exploit, which means to take advantage of someone in order to profit from them or otherwise benefits oneself.

So to profit may not just be in terms of monetary value or money, to profit from them maybe to use them for their life or for their services.

What was the next one? What did you have down for able to be easily physically, emotionally, or mentally hurt, influenced or attacked? Well the correct answer is vulnerable.

So if someone is vulnerable, that will often mean that they're able to be easily physically, emotionally or mentally hurt, influenced or attack.

Which means our last one has to, of course be manipulate which means to control something or someone to your advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly.

This can often be the way which people will get involved with violent extremism.

They will target people who are potentially vulnerable because of a particular situation or something that's occurred.

They'll manipulate them to make them feel or think certain things.

And once they've done that, they'll exploit them.

They'll use them to carry out that act of violent extremism.

So these three words are really important when we're exploring this topic.

But how does mental health link to what we've been talking about? I mean we've seen that briefly in terms of understanding more about PTSD, but let's explore further.

From what we've learned today and over this unit in a moment I'm going to ask you to pause the video, to complete this task.

And I want you to think about what are the links between mental health problems, such as PTSD and why someone may take part in violent extremism.

For example, we know that people with mental health problems may feel sometimes isolated and that violent extremism can offer a feeling of belonging by joining of a cause.

So that's one reason.

What other reasons can you think of in terms of why mental health problems may link to people acting out or planning acts of violent extremism.

Pause this video and write down your thoughts.

And when you've got some ideas down, just press play.

So here are some of the answers that you may have had.

And if you haven't got any of these, add them alongside your answers too.

Some individuals with PTSD can have a greater urge of revenge.

Remember we talked about revenge versus reconciliation.

So they'll exploit that and they'll use that to their advantage to have that person who's got PTSD, use that idea of revenge that they've got to act out the act of violence extremism.

Special bonds, social bonds, and special bonds are weaker, they've got a lack of close ties.

They can be easily led and targeted because they haven't got to negotiate going through friends or lots of family that are close to them.

Traumatic events such as happened at their childhood as well can lead to increase need for an identity or purpose.

They don't know where they belong or fit in.

And groups are organised by an extremism, can give them that group identity and make them feel part of the community that they perhaps don't yet fell part of.

And they may personally experience violence and extreme environments themselves.

We've seen this in other topics when we've talked about bullying, for example, and why people might bully is because sometimes they've been bullied themselves, and this is the same with extreme violence.

And violence extremism it may happen because of what they've been exposed to when they were younger or any age.

It's important to note that suffering from PTSD or another mental health problem does not and I'm really clear on it does not always directly link to violent extremism, okay? May has however been seen as one of the many risk factors that push and pull individuals.

For government investigations and servants that they've done in looking at the scientific brains and ways that people develop and how they've come about from acts of violent extremism.

They know that there's some correlation but it is just one of the many risks and pull factors that someone might be led to violent extremism not the only one.

And it does not mean that everybody who has PTSD or other mental health problems, will be led down the route of violent extremism.

So we now come to a reflective question as we finish up both this lesson and also the unit.

And I want you to write down and think of what have you learned over this unit that you didn't know before you started.

Because we've covered so much from aggression, violence, alcohol to now violent extremism.

We've covered a whole array of topics.

So think about actually what you learned now that you didn't know before.

I mean, you've had that full and you've wrote a couple of thoughts down, just press play and we'll continue to the end of our lesson.

Amazing, well done for not only completing this lesson but also completing the unit.

You should be really proud of yourself.

It's been an amazing journey and I have loved exploring this topic with you.

As I said, in every lesson your mental health and wellbeing is so important.

So knowing how sort of going after it and how to support those around you with their mental health is the best lesson anybody could learn.

And now you've learned it.

So take what you've learned and now go and complete your final exit quiz.

And remember it doesn't have to just end there.

There are lots of other amazing lessons happening on the Oak Academy.

So make sure you get involved with them.

Hope to see you again in some future lessons.

All the best, good bye.