According to Mobbs, the brain consists of two areas involved in how we experience fear as shown below : It is becoming increasingly recognized that overactivity in the brain’s fear circuitry may be of fundamental relevance to not only complex-PTSD and PTSD, but to many other psychiatric disorders as well and it clearly follows, therefore, …
HELPING TO HEAL CHILDHOOD TRAUMA WITH NEUROFEEDBACK Read More »
FIXATION ON THREAT Those with complex PTSD frequently find it very hard to prevent themselves by over-focusing, sometimes to an obsessive degree, on perceived threats, particularly threats that remind them of their childhood adverse experiences. And, because of such fixation, complex PTSD sufferers may find it extremely hard to redirect their attention to necessary, everyday …
Why Complex PTSD Sufferers May Over-Focus On Perceived Threat. Read More »
Frightening And Frightened Parents Most people are aware that if children grow up in an environment in which they are constantly made to feel fearful (for example, due to parental abuse or the frequent witnessing of domestic violence) their emotional development is put at risk. However, many people are less aware that it is not …
Parental Transmission Of Fear And Anxiety Onto Their Children Read More »
I spent many years in a state of unremitting, merciless, tormenting and excruciating agitation so I am all too familiar with how devastating and utterly debilitating the effects of stress can be. Indeed, I was left almost totally unable to function, even in the most basic ways. Powerful psychiatric drugs and ECT failed to …
Examining Stress And Relaxation In Relation To Childhood Trauma Read More »
931-word article METACOGNITIVE THERAPY (MCT) Metacognitive therapy (MCT) was developed by Dr. Adrian Wells and Dr. Gerald Matthews in the early 1990s. It shares elements in common with but is distinct from, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). The main difference is that whilst CBT concentrates upon the negative CONTENT of a person’s thoughts and strives to alter that …
Metacognitive Therapy For Borderline Personality Disorder And Other Conditions Read More »
802-word article What Happens When We Don’t Accept Anxiety But, Instead, Try To Fight And Struggle Against It? Trying to fight anxiety, research suggests (and, certainly, my own experience of anxiety would tend to confirm this) can actually AGGRAVATE the problem and lead to greater feelings of distress. Stating the shatteringly obvious, none of …
‘Accepting Feelings Of Anxiety Reduces Mental Pain And Suffering Read More »
It is becoming increasingly well known how the body is intrinsically connected to symptoms of PTSD and complex PTSD, and, accordingly, the vital role of physical therapies in helping to ameliorate these conditions. Indeed, in the UK, more and more doctors are prescribing interventions such as free gym memberships in order to help treat …
According to Bowlby, if we bonded with our mother or primary carer in infanthood/early childhood in a healthy way so that strong bonds of love and trust developed between us then we, as adults, will develop a SECURE ATTACHMENT STYLE. However, if the reverse is true, Bowlby suggested that we are far more likely to …
Is Your Attachment Style Preoccupied, Dismissing or Fearful? Read More »
Indoctrinating the child with certain religious beliefs relating to how one should think can provide extremely fertile ground for the development of 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 unacceptable is as morally …
How Religious Indoctrination In Childhood Can Fuel OCD Read More »
We have seen from many other articles that I have published on this site that severe and protracted childhood trauma can greatly impair our ability to control our stress levels as adults (meaning we are more adversely affected by stress than the average person, both in terms of our physical and mental health). Cortisol is …
Effects Of Childhood Trauma On The Stress Hormone Cortisol Read More »
Above: Traumatic childhood ‘priming events’ sow the seeds of future anxiety and anxiety disorders. Such anxiety is especially likely to be manifested in response to ‘triggers.’ See below for an explanation. In their book, Unlearn Your Pain: A 28-day process to reprogram your brain, Schubiner and Betzoi propose that understanding ourselves and the true origin …
Mind-Body Syndrome: Insight Into Childhood Priming Key To Anxiety Cure Read More »
Stress can be defined as ‘a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances’ and is, of course, an inevitable part of life. Whilst we often complain about stress due to the fact that too much of it can have damaging or even catastrophic effects upon our wellbeing, …
3 Types Of Childhood Stress : Positive, Tolerable And Toxic Read More »
The term agoraphobia derives from the Greek word ‘agora’ which translates as ‘open place’ or ‘market place’ so ‘agoraphobia’, in literal terms (as opposed to clinical terms) means fear of ‘open places’ or ‘fear of the market place.’ Agoraphobia is listed by DSM-5 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition – sometimes …
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 …
Being Traumatized ‘Like Having Foot On Brake And Gas At Same Time.’ Read More »
I have written elsewhere on this website about how, if we experienced significant and protracted childhood trauma, we are at increased risk of developing social anxiety in adulthood. This is especially the case if we have been constantly criticized and denigrated during childhood by our parents / primary caretakers and we have internalized their …
Childhood Trauma, Social Anxiety And The Spotlight Effect Read More »
A study carried out by Sarkar et al. at Imperial College, University of London and published in the scientific journal Clinical Endocrinology suggests that, if a mother is highly stressed during pregnancy, her consequent excessive production of stress hormones may adversely affect the brain development of her unborn child from about seventeen weeks after conception …
Possible Adverse Effects Of Maternal Stress On The Unborn Baby’s Brain Development. Read More »
A study involving 98 pairs of mothers and infants (the infants were aged from 12 months to 14 months) was carried out to investigate how the level of the mother’s stress affected the level of the infant’s stress (as measured by the reactivity of their respective nervous systems). METHOD : The mothers were separated from …
How Parents’ Anxiety Levels And Behaviors Affect Their Child’s Anxiety Read More »
We have seen from other articles published on this site that severe and protracted childhood trauma, resulting in the child being frequently subjected to extreme stress, can damage the development of the part of the brain known as the amygdala, which is intimately involved in generating feelings of fear and anxiety. Indeed, in individuals …
Remembering traumatic events is in some ways beneficial. For example, it allows us to review the experience and learn from it. Also, by replaying the event/s, its/their emotional charge is diminished. However, sometimes the process breaks down and the memories remain powerful and frightening. Sometimes they seem to appear at random, and at other …
Traumatic Memory : Flashbacks, Fragments, Nightmares And Repression Read More »
Many children who grow up in dysfunctional family homes find themselves living in a state of hypervigilance, never knowing how their parents are going to respond to them at any given time (for example, this is often the case in homes where one or both parents are alcoholics or in homes where the parents are …
Effects Of Unpredictable, Toxic Childhood Stress And Stress Inoculation Read More »
