“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 »
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 »
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 »
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 …
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 »
For example, an eleven-year-old child who was abandoned by his/her primary carer at age four may throw tantrums similar to those one might expect of a four-year-old when left with an unfamiliar babysitter. In other words, he may regress behaviorally to the developmental stage at which s/he became frozen. Such regressive …
Child Trauma, Arrested Psychological Development and Age Regression Read More »
“It was as if her life had been brought to a full stop: she couldn’t look forward, couldn’t picture what tomorrow might bring.” Ragnar Jonasson, The Darkness From the age of about 14 or so, shortly after I had been thrown out of my narcissistic mother’s home and had gone to live …
Complex PTSD And ‘A Sense Of A Foreshortened Future.’ Read More »
What is the best complex PTSD treatment? The NHS (UK) recommends that those suffering from complex PTSD undergo three stages of treatment. These are as follows : 1) STABILISATION 2) TRAUMA-FOCUSED THERAPY 3) REINTEGRATION Let’s look at each of these a little more closely : STABILIZATION: NHS guidelines suggest that during the first …
3 Stages Of Complex PTSD Treatment: Stabilisation, Therapy And Reintegration. Read More »
Some people who experienced significant childhood disorder go on to develop dissociative identity disorder (DID) which causes the different aspects of the person’s personality to be poorly integrated and fragmented which leads to them operating relatively independently of one another. These fragmented aspects of the personality are often simply referred to as ‘parts’ by psychologists …
What Are The Effects Of Repressed Anger Towards Parents? If our parent/s caused us significant psychological suffering when we were growing up, we may have built up a great deal of anger towards them, but we may, too, have repressed that anger and its cause (i.e. buried it deep inside our unconscious). This …
If we suffered significant childhood trauma it is likely we were not instilled with an adequate sense of self-acceptance or self-assurance when we were young. Perhaps we were made to feel inadequate and inherently flawed as individuals. Such feelings can extend well into our adult lives, or, without therapy, last the whole of our lives. …
Childhood Trauma Leading To Intense Self-Criticism And Shame Read More »
Most of us are already familiar with the concept of the ‘fight or flight’ response to perceived danger, namely that when presented with a threat our bodies respond by preparing us to fight against it or run from it. This response served our ancestors if they came face-to-face with a dangerous predator or encountered a …
My father walked out on my mother when I was eight. Always highly disturbed, my mother became yet worse and threw me out of the house when I was thirteen. This made it necessary for me to go and live with my father and his new wife, where I was not wanted. Indeed, the sense …
Childhood trauma clearly puts the child who experiences it under great stress; the more protracted and intense the traumas, and the more traumas the child suffers, all else being equal, the more stress is inflicted upon the child. A very major and frequently cited study (The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, conducted between 1995 and 1997)) …
How Childhood Trauma Can Reduce Life Expectancy By 19 Years. Read More »
