Childhood Trauma RecoveryOver 750 free articles by psychologist and childhood trauma survivor David Hosier MSc on effects of childhood trauma on mental health, therapies, self-help and related topics
Did your parents often demean you, devalue you, swear at you or humiliate you?
Did your parents physically abuse you?
Were you often physically neglected (eg not fed properly, forced to wear dirty clothes, or not taken to the doctor when ill, perhaps because your parents were drunk or under the influence of illicit drugs)?
Did you lose one of your parents during your childhood (eg because of death, divorce, separation abandonment)
Did you often witness your mother/step-mother being subjected to physical abuse?
Did anyone in your household (who was at least five years older than you) ever sexually assault you?
Did you feel you were not close to your family, that they did not support you and that they did not love you or regard you as special?
Did any member of your household go to prison when you were growing up?
Was any member of your household suffering from a mental illness whilst you were growing up (including clinical depression)
Did anyone in your household suffer from an addiction when you were growing up (eg to alcohol or illicit drugs?)
Score one point for each of the questions you answered ‘YES’ to.
(The greater the number of adverse childhood experiences suffered, and the greater the severity of these, the more damaging to psychological development they are likely to have been).
To read my article summarizing the potential effects of childhood trauma, CLICK HERE.
There are also over 750 other articles on this site about more specific effects of childhood trauma, as well as about possible treatments, therapies and self-help techniques.
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Above eBooks now available on Amazon for immediate download. CLICK HERE (other titles also available)
As we have seen in several of the previously published articles on this website (eg click here), severe childhood trauma can lead to the development of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you are concerned you might suffer from the condition, it is important to seek advice from a relevantly qualified mental health professional.
However, if you want to find out if you have symptoms which PTSD can cause, you may find it interesting and useful to look at the list of items below and count up how many apply to you. REMEMBER, THE TEST DOES NOT REPLACE A PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSIS.
SELF-REPORT POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) TEST :
(score 1 point for each item you answer YES to)
1) Have you been exposed to a traumatic event or events?
2) Did the trauma cause you to experience feelings of intense fear/ horror and powerlessness/impotence/helplessness
3) Does it sometimes feel as if you are reliving or re-experiencing the trauma (ie flashbacks)
4) Do you experience nightmares which are associated with the trauma that you experienced
5) Did the traumatic experience involve you witnessing serious injury/death or did it involve you being seriously injured/threatened with death?
6) Do you have thoughts or mental images related to the trauma which are intrusive, difficult to control and hard to dispel from the mind?
7) When something reminds you of the trauma, or you find thoughts about it intruding on your mind, does it cause serious distress?
8) Do you avoid things that remind you of the trauma? Examples include activities, people and places
9) Do you find you have less interest in activities that you used to enjoy?
10) Are you unable to remember something significant that occurred during the trauma (this is sometimes referred to as repression)
11) Do you try to avoid speaking about what happened during the trauma?
12) Do you find yourself more irritable than you were before the trauma occurred and that you get angry much more often?
13) Do you suffer from insomnia (such as finding it hard to get off to sleep and/or waking too early)?
14) Has your concentration become impaired since the trauma?
15) Do you find you no longer wish to interact with others as much as you did prior to the trauma and that you now have difficulty trusting other people?
16) Do you fear that, because of the trauma you suffered, it will significantly, negatively impinge upon your future life in areas such as career, relationships and life span?
17) Has your ‘startle response’ become more sensitive since the trauma?
18) Have the symptoms that you’ve experienced since the trauma lasted for a minimum of one month so far?
19) Since the trauma, do you find it harder to feel emotions (eg feeling ‘numb’ for much of the time) and/or harder to display emotions to others?
20) Do you feel hypervigilant (ie feel as if you are constantly on ‘red alert’) for much of the time and constantly have a sense of impending disaster?
21) Have what used to be your everyday routines been disrupted by how you now feel (eg social life, work)?
A guide to interpreting your score :
0-3 It is not likely that you have PTSD
4-9 It is likely you have PTSD
10 + It is very likely you have PTSD
DISCLAIMER – This does NOT provide you with a diagnosis, it is just a guide. If you suspect you have PTSD, or a related condition, you are strongly advised to seek the relevant professional advice.
The eBook above are available on Amazon for immediate download. CLICK HERE
Borderline Personality Disorder Tests And Self Diagnosis
Many people who believe that they may have borderline personality disorder (BPD) search out self-diagnosing tests on the internet, or borderline personality disorder tests. Whilst it is very important to exercise extreme caution when it comes to self-diagnosing, a doctor may diagnose you as having BPD if you suffer from 5 or more of the following symptoms and these symptoms are sufficiently severe to adversely affect your everyday life and functioning. The symptoms below are in line with UK government guidelines (NICE – National Institute for Medical and Clinical Excellence, 2009).
7) sometimes believing things which are not true (doctors call these delusions) or seeing or hearing things which are not there (doctors call these hallucinations).
DISCLAIMER – ‘Self-diagnosis’ and ‘borderline personality disorder tests’ can only give a rough indication as to the probability of having a certain condition. If you suspect you have BPD, or any other psychiatric illness, it is imperative to seek the opinion of a fully qualified professional.
Other conditions which often exist along side BPD :
People with BPD often also have other mental health conditions which include, in particular :
BPD is a sensitive and controversial diagnosis, so it is important to remember that, if you do not agree with the first diagnosis you are given, it is sensible to seek a second opinion.
Above eBook available for immediate download on Amazon. $4.99 CLICK HERE for further details.
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 my treatment, necessitating me to undertake my own extensive research, of which this blog is partly a result) and, of course, treatment will not be forthcoming if the survivor suffers in silence.
Any treatment not linked to the original trauma will tend to be ineffective as THE UNDERLYING TRAUMA IS NOT BEING ADDRESSED. Also, there is a danger that a wrong diagnosis may be given; possibly the diagnosis will be one that may be interpreted, by the individual given it, as perjorative (such as a personality disorder).
Individuals who have survived protracted and severe childhood trauma often present with a very complex set of symptoms and have developed, as a result of their unpleasant experiences, deep rooted problems affecting their personality and how they relate to others. The psychologist, Kolb, has noted that the post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms survivors of severe maltreatment in childhood might develop ‘may appear to mimic every personality disorder’ and that ‘severe personality disorganization’ can emerge.
Another psychologist, Lenore Terr, has differentiated between two specific types of trauma: TYPE 1 and TYPE2. TYPE 1 refers to symptoms resulting from a single trauma; TYPE 2 refers to symptoms resulting from protracted and recurring trauma, the hallmarks of which are:
– emotional numbing – dissociation – cycling between passivity and explosions of rage
This second type of trauma response has been referred to as COMPLEX POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (COMPLEX PTSD) and more research needs to be conducted on it; however, an initial questionnaire to help in its diagnosis has been developed and I reproduce it below:
COMPLEX PTSD QUESTIONNAIRE
1) A history of, for example, severe childhood trauma
2) Alterations in affect regulation, including – persistent dysphoria – chronic suicidal preoccupation – self-injury – explosive or extremely inhibited anger (may alternate) – compulsive or extremely inhibited sexuality (may alternate)
3) Alterations in consciousness, including – amnesia or hypernesia for traumatic events – transient dissociative episodes – depersonalization/derealization – reliving experiences, either in the form of intrusive post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms or in the form of ruminative preoccupation
4) Alterations in self-perception, including – a sense of helplessness or paralysis of initiative – shame, guilt and self-blame – sense of defilement or stigma – sense of complete difference from others (may include sense of specialness, utter aloneness, belief no other person can understand, or nonhuman identity)
5) Alterations in perceptions of perpetrator, including
– preoccupation with relationship with perpetrator (includes preoccupation with revenge) – unrealistic attribution of total power to perpetrator (although the perpetrator may have more power than the clinician treating the individual is aware of) – idealization or paradoxical gratitude – sense of special or supernatural relationship – acceptance of belief system or rationalizations of perpetrator
6) Alterations in relations with others, including
– isolation and withdrawal – disruption in intimate relationships – repeated search for rescuer (may alternate with isolation and withdrawal) – persistent distrust – repeated failures of self-protection
7) Alterations in systems of meaning – loss of sustaining faith – sense of hopelessness and despair
Why Is Complex PTSD Becoming More Common?
And the incidence of complex PTSD is increasing. What are the possible reasons for this increase in the prevalence of this very serious psychiatric disorder?
First, it is possible that as the general population and clinicians become more aware of the existence of the disorder and its link to childhood trauma it is becoming increasingly reported and diagnosed. However, there are several other possible explanations and I examine these briefly below :
POSSIBLE REASONS FOR THE INCREASE IN PREVALENCE OF COMPLEX POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (Complex PTSD) :
Research shows that a lack of social support makes individuals much more vulnerable to the adverse effects of stress. And, today, children tend to have less access to others who could provide them with emotional support than has been the case in the past due to, for example :
communities that are not as close-knit as in the past
less contact with wider family (e.g. aunts, uncles, grandparents) than in the past as wider family members are becoming more geographically dispersed than in past
3) Increase in number of working mothers :
This can lead to infants having inconsistent early care as they me be shuttled around from day-care to nursery care to babysitters and so on possibly leading to a variation in quality of care and less opportunity for the infant to develop his/her bond with the mother
4) Parental preoccupation with their careers :
In a ‘go-getting’ society, in which status and wealth are of fundamental importance to many people, individuals are becoming very driven, even obsessively driven, in connection with their careers, sometimes leading to workaholism; this leaves such persons with less time to interact in any really meaningful way with their offspring or leads to such exhaustion that they simply do not have enough energy left over for such meaningful interactions.
5) Unhelpful effects of media :
Young people are becoming increasingly obsessed with media, such as computer games and so on, which leaves them with less time for psychologically nourishing face-to-face interaction with friends and family.
6) Unhelpful effects of living in consumer society :
Society has become increasingly obsessed with acquiring consumer goods and the accumulation of these is often linked in people’s minds to their ‘status’ and ‘worth as a human being.‘ Such attitudes may lead young people to develop false values which in turn may aggravate psychological problems.
Anyone who feels their condition may be reflected by the above is urged to seek professional intervention at the earliest opportunity.
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