Recovering from torture

Deepthought

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Yes, another torture thread :)

What are the long term and short term (1-3 months) effects of torture on a fit, almost 14 year old boy? Specifically:

-A beating in the abdomen and leg area. Sometimes, lumps can form in the body if hit in the blood vessels, I think. A blood clot? Do they go away in time, or is it possible that it might stay that way unless surgically removed? I think that's what happened to my brother, except he didn't have it removed. Would the organs heal fully? I know hits to the kidneys can cause peeing blood, and a liver blow hurts for a while.

-Whipping. Mostly done on the back, but why? To avoid damage to organs? It would hurt more if done, say on the chest. Is it possible to whip the whole body, like limbs and the frontal area? Why do people die from relatively few lashes frontally? Sheer pain? Or damage? What kind of damage? There are a few things to consider:
1. Blood loss. Not really a problem if done on the back, but doing so horizontally across the wrist can cause a lot of blood loss, like cutting, yes? Not too much loss from doing so vertically, right? What about other areas of the body?
2. Muscle damage. Hard whippings would cause muscle damage, but the muscle repairs itself. Would the muscle fully heal? How long would it take for full recovery? How long for painful-but-doable movements like walking, getting up from sitting, etc.? Blood clots? Nerve damage? Impaired range of motion? For how long? Also, I know someone who was beaten often as a young woman, she's old now. When the weather gets cold, she has aches, the muscle tissue wasn't normal. Would that happen to a teen? Or since he is young, the MC would get better? Because my thinking is that the whipping isn't over prolonged periods of time, just a one time thing, but intense.
3. Skin damage. If vinegar is poured on the wounds, would it affect recovery? More visible scarring, more prominent? Take longer to heal? Stitches needed? What about pores in the skin, they get destroyed and don't come back, right? In that case, would a person just sweat more from the remaining pores? Or would they overheat? Or both? Maybe the person wouldn't overheat, but just get hotter compared to before under the same situations? Also, what if the person doesn't have strong skin? In boxing, some people cut easily, all the time. On the other hand, Muhammad Ali (my av!) only got cut once or twice and didn't bleed. Maybe the whipping might not be as hard, but the skin would break regardless, but with less muscle damage. Also, what if the person whipping is a grown man, an athlete? Would it make sense to refrain from using full power? Or when someone whips someone, they go all out to try to get an answer? Because the torturer's motivation is to limit permanent damage, physically and psychologically, but if it happens, no big deal.

-Waterboarding. No permanent damage, but psychologically, can it make people claustrophobic? Hydrophobic? Scared to sleep with a pillow in their face?

-Psychological stuff- If someone was drinking coffee and the MC was smelled it and stuff, and the memory associated itself with the torture experience, would he get turned off by it? What about the vinegar, would he avoid that as well in the future? Also, what if he had to meet that same torturer in everyday settings, but no one else knew that the man was the torturer? Would he just avoid him?
 

Lauram6123

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I'm guessing but getting lashes on the back may be because the thickest skin is on the back, so you could inflict the most pain without the risk of doing the most damage (to skin, organs, blood loss etc.)

I know that pouring vinegar on a wound would add an acid burn to the injury, making it take longer to heal and increasing the resulting scar.
 

NeuroGlide

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How long psychological recovery can take:

There's a blog I read by a girl who was repeatably raped by both her parents for child porno thirty years ago. She still has flashbacks caused by triggers, like Christmas and the shade of blue that matches the carpet on which most of the filming occurred.

Her blog is here:

http://www.sublimemercies.com/2013/12/when-christmas-is-trigger-enduring.html
 

Buffysquirrel

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The psychological aspect is complicated and it's not possible to give a one-size-fits-all answer. Some people have a genetic mutation that apparently protects them from the consequences of abuse. Other people don't.

Flashbacks caused by triggers are certainly possible. They're common in people with PTSD, and smells are notoriously strong triggers for memory. And anything that your character associates with being tortured could be a trigger--a smell, a sound, even something he saw.

Your character could have a range of psychological consequences from little-to-none through moderate anxiety right up to a severe case of PTSD. To an extent, it's up to you to decide what consequences will suit your story. It's also possible for him to believe he's unaffected but for others to see a change in him.

With regard to the torturer, again, it's hard to be definitive. Avoidance is possible, as is aggression, as is displaced aggression--ie he doesn't confront the torturer directly, but takes his anger and fear out on someone or something else--as is taking a submissive approach in the hope that the torturer won't hurt him again.
 

Deepthought

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Ah, ok. My main concern is the whipping. I don't want to show that he takes that kind of punishment if in real life it would kill someone. There isn't that much info I can find out about it, other than the stuff already out there. Maybe Quora?
 

Bolero

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From watching Scandal, waterboarding could result in phobia about rain - the character couldn't face taking a shower indoors when it was raining outside.

Whipping someone across their back and ribcage would avoid the soft organs like kidneys and spleen below the rib cage and so theoretically be less likely to kill them.

I thought that quite a few torture victims survive for a short time and then die of blood clots causing strokes - but the source for that is watching Spooks.

Whipping on the soles of the feet is done - I think it used to be referred to as bastinado. It is very painful and it doesn't leave marks on a body that would make it unattractive - as in used on women whose good looks are valued.
 

Deepthought

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From watching Scandal, waterboarding could result in phobia about rain - the character couldn't face taking a shower indoors when it was raining outside.

Whipping someone across their back and ribcage would avoid the soft organs like kidneys and spleen below the rib cage and so theoretically be less likely to kill them.

I thought that quite a few torture victims survive for a short time and then die of blood clots causing strokes - but the source for that is watching Spooks.

Whipping on the soles of the feet is done - I think it used to be referred to as bastinado. It is very painful and it doesn't leave marks on a body that would make it unattractive - as in used on women whose good looks are valued.

Ah, good info, that's what I was looking for. And good shows, I don't watch tv but I'll look up those. Do you think it might be possible to cut out the blood clots, sew the skin up, and replenish with a blood transfusion there and then? And some kind of IV for energy? Or maybe cutting out the clots would just make the blood vessels spill blood inside the body if the skin was stitched up?
 

melindamusil

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Awhile back I read something about a person being sentenced to many "lashes" in one of those nations in the middle east or asia. (It was one of those big controversies - I think it was a woman being punished for something ridiculous. The "law" required several hundred lashes in punishment. I don't remember the exact details, I'm afraid.) Doctors said that if a person was subjected to too many lashes - I think forty - at once, they would surely die from shock, blood loss, etc. These punishments were carried out by issuing 10 or 20 lashes, then letting the injuries heal. A few weeks later, 10 or 20 more lashes. Then it's just repeated - lash, heal, lash, heal, lash - until the person has received all the prescribed lashes. They even have a doctor make sure the person is "sufficiently" healed before they lash 'em again.
 

Deepthought

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Awhile back I read something about a person being sentenced to many "lashes" in one of those nations in the middle east or asia. (It was one of those big controversies - I think it was a woman being punished for something ridiculous. The "law" required several hundred lashes in punishment. I don't remember the exact details, I'm afraid.) Doctors said that if a person was subjected to too many lashes - I think forty - at once, they would surely die from shock, blood loss, etc. These punishments were carried out by issuing 10 or 20 lashes, then letting the injuries heal. A few weeks later, 10 or 20 more lashes. Then it's just repeated - lash, heal, lash, heal, lash - until the person has received all the prescribed lashes. They even have a doctor make sure the person is "sufficiently" healed before they lash 'em again.

Waiting for the wounds to heal wouldn't work, as there is a window of opportunity for about 12 hours. One of the sides has to crack, either the MC or BG. But, for shock and such...I think I could use an injection of some sort to lower the negative effects, or at least to avoid death. Like something for shock on the body.