News News Article - Abused Children May Get Different Form Of Ptsd

[BlackbirdSinging]

With childhood trauma there is no 'normal' baseline to return to, ever, and the adult trauma on top of it is par for the course.

Thank you thank you thank you thank you for saying this! I've always kind of had this feeling that when a person is abused as a child.. myself included.. as in BEFORE they have ever properly developed coping mechanisms or really ever found their voice to speak up for themselves they are in effect silenced before they can speak.

And since an average normal hadn't yet had the chance to be developed an entirely different kind of normal is developed than what the social norm follows. And I think that if there was conditioning involved that speaks to ..I'll speak for myself here.. feeling like I was marked for more abuse by other people. Because I then went about life ALREADY conditioned and as a child I didn't realize it. And I think that might be how I ended up "attracting" more abusive people into my life throughout my life as my trauma is complex. My normal was built around abuse long before I was even 10 years old. So to what you were saying about returning to a normal baseline.. what is that? You know?

 

[Pencil]

a normal baseline

A normal baseline is being intact, having a basic belief that the world can be good or pleasant, that other people can be trusted, that there is someone there for you, that there is a safe place, that your boundaries are valid and need to be respected by others - the belief that one has a basic RIGHT to boundaries, the ability to receive and give love, knowing what 'healthy' love is - and that if it isn't healthy, it isn't love, that one has a right to appropriate anger, and that appropriate anger is healthy, etc etc etc. Perhaps we should make a complete list .... This is what children in healthy families learn, and what we have to learn with enormous effort as adults.

So, yes Blackbird, it is exactly what I meant :) But for me the most important is being more or less INTACT.

 

[Springer80]

Thank you thank you thank you thank you for saying this! I've always kind of had this feeling that when a person is abused as a child.. myself included.. as in BEFORE they have ever properly developed coping mechanisms or really ever found their voice to speak up for themselves they are in effect silenced before they can speak.

Thanks BlackBird...and I think that no matter what you do, until you can reconcile this, it will be the undertow which shapes all parts of your life no matter how much effort you put in elsewhere.

 

[Meadowsweet]

I think the individual aspects of trauma are something that can be explored with the individual in therapy.But PTSD is PTSD, or PTSD with other symptoms that meet other disorders.

I do believe that childhood trauma gave me a predisposition to be abused as an adult and lots of other dysfunctions in my personality. But, while there was always something not quite 'normal', I didn't develop symptoms that match PTSD diagnosis until I was attacked in my thirties.

So, before that time, I don't believe I had a different kind of PTSD, I just didn't have PTSD at all. It doesn't lessen the effect of childhood stuff, but my brain was reacting to it differently before the last attack.

 

[Lucycat]

I think the individual aspects of trauma are something that can be explored with the individual in therapy.But PTSD is PTSD, or PTSD with other symptoms that meet other disorders.

I am not sure I even believe that. On here so many people describe their individual symptoms. Some have more or less intrusion - memories/nightmares. Anger can be suppressed or increased. Excessive sleeping or insomnia. Concentration difficulties, avoidance. Increased anxiety and emotional arousal - or flat with no feelings or emotions. The list goes on. Everybody is different, within the spectrum.

Some people are diagnosed with PTSD and depression. Others will say depression is a part of the disorder and not an added extra. Others will say it is distress rather than depression. The attention, behaviour and emotional difficulties are sometimes diagnosed as ADHD, again others will say it is a part of the PTSD.

Although there is a diagnostic criteria for PTSD it remains subjective - about how the diagnosing doctor perceives the level of impairment or dysfunction.

I don't think the therapy should be based on the trauma, so much as on the psychological difficulties that result. Of course these will include exploring the trauma, but the aim, surely is to resolve psychological distress as you cannot change history.

Having said all this, I have read the original article and found it quite interesting. I was diagnosed with complex PTSD which I know many say is a rubbish diagnosis. This small study seems to indicate that there are distinct differences in PTSD from childhood trauma. I agree more rigorous studies are required to demonstrate any true differences, but I do hope that further exploration will happen.

 

[Survivor2Thriver]

Great thread. Thank you everyone!

~Normal is a setting on a dryer~