Below is a list of useful links to help recover from childhood trauma, including for those who have developed BPD or complex-PTSD. Behavioral Tech: A Linehan Institute Training Company. Here you can learn about scientifically validated treatments for complex and severe mental illnesses. NCTSN The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The National Child Traumatic Stress …
Trauma affects children in different ways depending upon the age group they fall into. In this article, I will look at how 3 different age groups may be affected. These are : – very young children (0-3 years) – young children (4-11 years) – adolescents VERY YOUNG CHILDREN: it is a myth that just because …
Childhood Trauma : Reactions to Trauma According to Age Read More »
…those who are unaware of the child’s history of trauma or those who are ignorant of the potential effects of severe, protracted, interpersonal childhood trauma may confound matters further still by attaching pejorative labels to the young person (such as a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder). According to Ford, 2009, symptoms of complex PTSD should …
Seeing Symptoms Of Complex PTSD As Adaptive Capacities. Read More »
When children are suffering from traumatic stress and feel under threat the fight/flight response is activated for reasons of self-defense and self-protection from physical or psychological harm. The fight response may include rage, anger, or physical aggression whereas the flight response may include running away or otherwise trying to physically detach oneself from the source …
What Happens When The Fight Or Flight Response Fail? Read More »
We have seen that those who endure protracted childhood trauma are at increased risk of developing psychological and physical problems later in life, including complex post-traumatic). stress (complex PTSD. We have also seen that such individuals are often exquisitely sensitive to any form of stress and frequently stuck in a state of hypervigilance (i.e. constantly …
‘Shaking Therapy’ For Reducing Stress Associated With Complex PTSD Read More »
“The Queen is controlling, the Witch is sadistic, the Hermit is fearful, and the Waif is helpless”. Christine Ann Lawson, Understanding the Borderline Mother For those of us who grew up with mothers who suffered from a borderline personality disorder (BPD), our childhoods were often painful and anguished. …
4 Types Of Borderline Mother : Witch, Hermit, Waif And Queen. Read More »
– lies spontaneously/impulsively – lies even though he may receive no benefit whatsoever from the lie (indeed, many lies s/he tells will be self-damaging) – has little or no control over his/her lying behavior Roots Of Pathological Lying (Originally Called Pseudologia Phantastica) In Childhood: Research has demonstrated that an individual is more likely to become …
Pathological Lying : Its Link To Childhood Trauma Read More »
There are many ways in which the manipulative parent may manipulate their offspring, including: emotional blackmail verbal aggression implicit or explicit threats deceit use of ‘the silent treatment’ control through money or material goods positive reinforcement of behaviour which is damaging to the child coercion behaving in a passive-aggressive manner projection denial of obviously destructive …
The researchers, Ford and Courtois (2017) have identified eleven characteristics of the very serious condition complex PTSD which can develop as a result of severe, protracted, interpersonal childhood trauma that builds on earlier work by Ford that identified ‘the five ‘I’s’ of complex PTSD by adding six others. These are as follows: Intentional: Complex …
Complex PTSD Characteristics And Dimensions And The Eleven ‘I’S’ Read More »
If we suffer severe, protracted childhood trauma that involved us living in an environment in which we were constantly anticipating danger from an abusive parent or primary carer it is possible that our ‘survival’ brain was so frequently activated that it became dominant at the expense of the development and functioning of the ‘learning’ brain. …
When ‘Survival Brain’ Replaces ‘Learning Brain’ Due To Childhood Trauma Read More »
THOUGHT-ACTION FUSION Indoctrinating the child with certain religious beliefs relating to how one should think can provide extremely fertile ground for the development of the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) due, in part, to a phenomenon known as THOUGHT-ACTION FUSION. The phrase ‘thought-action fusion’ refers to the dysfunctional belief that to merely THINK about doing something …
How Religious Indoctrination In Childhood Can Fuel OCD Read More »
Severe, catastrophic, prolonged, and/or repetitive childhood trauma can lead to a shattered, fractured, disintegrated and fragmented sense of self which can manifest itself in various ways including: DAMAGE TO ‘SELF-STRUCTURE’: According to Zepenic (2016), severe trauma can adversely affect what he refers to as the ‘self-structure’ in the following ways: impaired sense of self-cohesion impaired …
A Shattered Sense Of Self Due To Childhood Trauma Read More »
Above image: Creative Commons Licence There has been some controversy regarding the difference between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex posttraumatic stress disorder (complex PTSD) amongst researchers and members of the medical profession. During the early 1990s, the psychologist Judith Herman, in her seminal book Trauma And Recovery, noted that individuals who had suffered severe, …
What Is The Difference Between PTSD And Complex PTSD? Read More »
Childhood Trauma And Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Survivors of extreme trauma often suffer persistent anxiety, phobias, panic, depression, identity, and relationship problems Many times, the set of symptoms the individual presents with are not connected to the original trauma by those providing treatment (as certainly was the case for me in the early years of …
Childhood Trauma And Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Read More »
Sufferers of both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex posttraumatic stress disorder (Complex PTSD) experience terrifying flashbacks. Such flashbacks can be split into three categories as follows: VISUAL FLASHBACKS SOMATIC FLASHBACKS EMOTIONAL FLASHBACKS Below, I briefly describe the form each of these three types of flashback take: VISUAL FLASHBACKS: As a result of a …
Three Types Of Flashback: Visual, Somatic And Emotional Read More »
N.B. If you suffer from pain it is important to ensure it does not have a physical cause by consulting an appropriate professional. One of the hallmarks of complex PTSD is a perpetual feeling of being under threat, stemming from constantly feeling afraid and vulnerable during childhood. This is true even though …
Is Your Chronic Pain Linked To Muscle Armouring? Read More »
A study conducted by Zachirini et al. (2013)investigated the prevalence of disturbed thought in 290 in-patients who had been diagnosed with BPD (borderline personality disorder). The quality of disordered thinking measured in these 290 BPD in-patients was compared to the quality of disordered thinking measured in 72 non-BPD in-patients who had another (i.e. different) Axis …
Odd, Quasi-Psychotic And True Psychotic Thinking In BPD Sufferers Read More »
Within dysfunctional families, according to various psychologists (e.g. Wegscheider-Cruse and Kellogg), each family member develops a dysfunctional role. The number of roles, and how they are defined, varies somewhat but eight roles, representative of those so far proposed, are as follows: THE ENABLER THE DO-ER THE HERO THE MASCOT THE LOST CHILD / LONER THE …
8 Dysfunctional Roles Within The Dysfunctional Family Read More »
The traumatized state has been likened to the effects of the simultaneous depression of both a car’s gas pedal (accelerator) and brake. I explain why below: Our physiological state of arousal is determined by the interplay between our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and these two systems have the following functions : THE SYMPATHETIC AND …
Being Traumatized ‘Like Having Foot On Brake And Gas At Same Time.’ Read More »
One of the major effects of childhood trauma, especially if it has led us, as adults, to develop conditions such as borderline personality disorder or complex posttraumatic stress disorder, is that it can radically alter our most fundamental and core beliefs about how the world and our lives operate. In this way, prolonged and significant …
Childhood Trauma And ‘Shattered Assumptions’ Theory Read More »
Signs an adult was abused as a child include the following : 1) DISSOCIATION : Symptoms of dissociation can range from mild to severe: Mild symptoms of dissociation include ‘zoning out’ and feeling in a daze, whereas severe symptoms of dissociation may include amnesia, time loss and feeling out of control. 2) UNSTABLE RELATIONSHIPS WITH …
