I voted "no". The damage has been done. It is permanently ingrained in your brain. I don't have any scientific or medical knowledge to back that up-just personal experience and observations.

In my past, there were various situations in which I would react strangely. I never knew why-I just did. It was the memory of the trauma that haunted me and my reaction to it at a young age. I highly doubt that forced counselling at the age of 6 could have prevented these memories from festering.

I understand that several of the posts here deal with getting therapy at an older age, when there is actual decision making processes involved. But, my initial trauma happened at an age where forced counselling wouldn't have helped with the "prevention of PTSD". How do you prevent a memory from resurfacing? I can't-they just happen.

And I also believe that young children that are sexually molested at a young age-even after counselling-will experience the remnants of the trauma throughout their lives-in some form.

From what I remember in child psychology-many many years ago-the child's brain develops different areas until the age of 12. IMO if a trauma occurs at an early age, the brain will engrain and retain that memory in some form.

You could have a million counsellors telling a 6 year old that "it wasn't their fault, and that the person who abused them was wrong, not them"-but what will actually register in that developing mind will be something totally different. It will rationalize as best it can, so that the child will continue living day to day. At least that is what happened to me.

Counselling may be beneficial in showing a young impressionable child various techniques to handle the memories. What happened with me, is that I used the same bad technique (dissociation) with all other traumatics encounters I experienced throughout my life. Perhaps if someone assisted me with the first trauma, I may have been better apt in handling the future ones.

I believe that counselling comes into play to assist the trauma recipient with the management of the memory. But the memory still exists, as will various responses to it. Through therapy we learn to face the trauma with different tools, so that we can continue living. Things don't have to stop because of a PTSD episode. That is why I think counselling would be helpful in guiding the sufferer towards productive management-but not prevent anything.

Sorry-didn't mean to go off on a tangent, just got a little wrapped up in my own past experiences.