What Are The Differences Between The Traumatized And Normal Brain?
I have already written at length about how severe and protracted childhood trauma can physically damage the brain’s development, adversely affecting both its structure and functionality, which, in turn, can contribute to the development of very serious psychiatric conditions such… Read more
Why Complex PTSD Sufferers May Avoid Eye Contact
A study by Lanius et al. was conducted to cast light upon why many with individuals suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including those suffering from complex-PTSD, often find it excruciatingly uncomfortable every time the rules of social etiquette compel… Read more
How Childhood Trauma Can Make Us Constantly Hypervigilant
What Is Meant By Hypervigilance?
A person who is hypervigilant feels constantly ‘on edge’ , ‘keyed up’ and fearful. S/he experiences a perpetual sense of dread and of being under threat despite the fact, objectively speaking, there is no present… Read more
Factors That Make Complex PTSD More Severe
What Factors Make The Symptoms Of Complex PTSD Even More Serious?
We have seen from several other articles that I have published on this site that the experience of a traumatic childhood is linked to the development of complex PTSD… Read more
Study Shows PTSD Sufferers Can Be Willing To Risk Life For Cure
Anybody who has suffered from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) / complex post traumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) knows that the mental torment and anguish it entails can be extreme and unremitting.
Frustratingly (putting it mildly), such pain is impossible to… Read more
PTSD And ‘A Sense Of A Foreshortened Future.’
The DSM 4 (Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Illness, 4th Edition) lists one of the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a ‘sense of a foreshortened future.‘ It is this specific symptom that I wish to concentrate upon… Read more
Hypervigilance And Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Complex PTSD).
If we have grown up in a chronically stressful and traumatic environment in which we often experienced anxiety, trepidation, stress and fear we are at high risk of developing a fundamental, core belief (on a conscious and/or unconscious level) that… Read more
Yoga For Complex PTSD
Studies into the effectiveness of yoga already suggest that it can help to ameliorate both physical and psychological problems including diabetes, arthritis, fibromyalgia, depression and anxiety.
There also now exists evidence (e.g. van der Kolk, 2014, see below)) that it… Read more
What Are The Differences Between BPD And Complex PTSD? : A Study
Because there is a considerable overlap in symptoms between those suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD) and those suffering from complex posttraumatic disorder (complex PTSD) , those with the latter condition can be misdiagnosed as suffering from the former condition… Read more
Neurocounseling And Its Relevance To Treating Complex-PTSD
The term neurocounseling refers to a form of therapies that seek to take advantage of the relatively recent neuroscientific discovery that the human brain has far more NEUROPLASTICITY than was previously believed to be the case.
What Is Neuroplasticity?… Read more
Retraumatization Caused By Psychiatric Care Institutions
Retraumatization :
If the trauma we experienced as children was severe enough, we may, as adults, at one time or another, require residential psychiatric care (such as inpatient treatment on a psychiatric ward in a hospital, as was necessary in… Read more
Trauma Triggers : Definition And Examples
TRAUMA TRIGGERS are events/occurrences that remind us (on either a conscious or unconscious level) of our original traumatic experiences causing us to feel extreme distress similar to that felt at the time of that original trauma.
We are particularly likely… Read more
What Is ‘Trauma Informed’ Therapy?
Many individuals who seek treatment and therapy for problems such as alcoholism, drug addiction, clinical depression, severe anxiety, anger management issues and eating disorders (or a combination of such problems) often have an underlying problem: they have experienced severe and… Read more
Possible Adverse Physical Effects of CPTSD
Unfortunately, as well as psychological effects, if we have developed complex post traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) as a result of our childhood experiences (click here to read my article on the difference between PTSD and CPTSD), the condition can also… Read more
Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Stress Related Disorders.
Stress can be defined as the perception that the psychological demands being made upon us exceed our ability to cope with them. It has been well documented that the experience of stress (especially chronic stress) is linked to both physical… Read more
