Alaneshia Hullett is a 20-year-old who can often be found joking with her sister or aunt in their San Bernardino apartment just north of the 210 Freeway on Citrus Street near Loma Avenue in San Bernardino. But that smile quickly changes to panic when she loses sight of her mother, Danesha Williams, for too long.

“I just start looking for her,” Hullett said as she sat in her kitchen. “It scares me when I can’t find her.”

Her fear is rooted in an event that shook her more than five years ago when she was 15.

The family — living in Riverside County at the time — had just settled in to have pizza for dinner. Hullett had just walked into the bathroom when she heard a series of gunshots.

Unable to find Williams, the then teen called police.

“I just immediately called the cops, and I’m like, ‘Please come out right now. I have my mom, we just heard gunshots fired and she’s nowhere to be found,’” she said, her eyes starting to well up with tears at the memory of that night.

Over the next several moments, officers entered a nearby unit and one officer’s words still ring in her ears.

“He said ‘I got two down.’ I thought my momma was dead,” she said. “I lost it.”

Her mother was not hurt, but the man she was with had been shot dead.

The memories of that night continue to resonate for the soon-to-be-mother. And according to both mother and daughter, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder while still a teen.

Children not immune

PTSD is characterized by three main types of symptoms: flashbacks and nightmares; avoidance of places, people and activities that are reminders of the trauma and emotional numbness; and an increased arousal, difficulty concentrating, feeling jumpy and being easily irritated and angered.

And children are no exception.

Experts agree, children who live in high-crime and low-income areas are at a higher risk for developing PTSD than those who don’t.

For Hullett, her symptoms may have been sparked by the events of that night five years ago, but continuing trauma associated with crime adds to her anxiety and stress.

“I mean, there is still a lot of things happening around here,” Hullett said. “A little boy was murdered just outside. It’s too much.”

Emory University professor of psychiatry Dr. Kerry Ressler and his colleagues say that they are seeing evidence of higher rates of PTSD in Atlanta than in war veterans. Their study found a definite connection between childhood trauma and neighborhood crime with PTSD symptoms.

Years of living in neighborhoods that expose young children to violence and trauma has led to many youngsters being diagnosed with an affliction usually associated with soldiers returning from war-torn countries and active combat zones.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that PTSD afflicts 11 percent of veterans of the war in Afghanistan. Comparatively, a recent national survey found 5 percent of the 10,000 adolescents polled for their study have met criteria for PTSD in their lifetime.

In a city that experienced shootings on a nearly daily basis last year — which resulted in 34 deaths, according to city authorities — children living in some areas of San Bernardino are prime for this diagnosis.

“We do understand that PTSD is related to local violence,” said Michael Schertell, deputy director for children’s services for the San Bernardino Department of Behavioral Health.

Domestic violence in the home, hearing gunshots on nearly a nightly basis, witnessing gang and street violence and even having to walk past crime scene with bodies sometimes lying under tarps and sheets are a reality for many children living in the city, according to Carl Landry, supervisor for the San Bernardino County Probation Department, which is tasked with overseeing youthful offenders.

“Unfortunately, it’s what these children have grown up in and in many cases, it’s what their parents grew up in,” he said. “They don’t know any different. Most of the juveniles I’ve dealt with have these issues.”

According to Family-Informed Trauma Treatment Center’s study, “Understanding the Impact of Trauma and Urban Poverty on Family Systems: Risks, Resilience, and Interventions” from 2010, 60 to 90 percent of young people in the juvenile justice system have experienced traumas.

Recognizing that many of the young people in the juvenile criminal system were suffering from some sort of trauma has led the department to actively work with county mental health services to provide them with services and support.

The county’s Forensic Adolescent Services Team, or FAST, is made up of clinicians and psychiatrists and provide mental health assessments, psychiatric evaluations, suicide evaluations, crisis intervention and some psychotherapy for minors. The team also helps find resources for the minors once they leave the juvenile justice system.

“We provide the help that they need when they’re with us,” said Landry, “but identifying the issues and getting them help early can possibly help prevent them from getting to us.”

Intervention: ‘Earlier the better’

Schertell agrees adding that getting the mental health intervention children need could help with lessening or alleviating symptoms.

“However, done early enough, PTSD is one of those disorders that does respond well in counseling. The earlier the better.”

However, most parents miss the initial symptoms and children don’t get help until their behavior becomes so disruptive school or police officials have to intervene.

“Our department sees children when they are at a more severe level of need,” Schertell said.

After nearly losing her mother, Hullett became withdrawn, her grades began to slip, she would panic whenever she couldn’t physically see her mother or other family members and she became angry. There were fights and outbursts in the home and in school, Williams recalled. Williams later learned these were typical manifestations of trauma-related stress.

“However, some symptoms of PTSD can be assigned to other disorders, including anxiety and mood disorders,” Schertell said.

Experts say this has led to the misdiagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD.

When Williams first tried to get help for her daughter, Hullett was initially diagnosed with the attention deficit disorder.

To help get the children the correct services, Schertell said his department has begun working with school districts and the community to better recognize the symptoms of PTSD.

“What we do is a lot of school-based training in an effort to get teachers to recognize the signs,” Schertell said. “We are also working on community-based programs to teach people in the community how to recognize trauma. To me, what’s more important is to make good referrals to agencies that have done the work necessary to provide the service to these kids.”

Currently, the county department has contracts with several school districts to provide mental health support for students, including Chino, Montclair and Schertell said San Bernardino is looking to expand the program.

Whether a school district is contracted with the county or not does not matter if a child needs assistance, he said.

“We provide help throughout the county,” Schertell said. “If a parent suspects their child may be suffering from PTSD or other disorder, they can simply make a request into the school district. They should be able to ask administration in the school to access the program.”

Hullett said she’s grateful for the help she received as a teen, but said she was left without any assistance as soon as she turned 18 despite the fact that she feels she is still being affected by the traumatizing events of that night five year ago.

“I aged out,” Hullett said. “But that’s OK because I just give myself to God and pray that He will help me with everything that I have left. I trust in Him.”