Self Verification

Developed by William Swann, the theory of Self Verification is that once individuals develop firmly held beliefs about themselves, they come to prefer that other people see them as they see themselves - even if their self-views are negative.

Replace traumatic memories with positive ones

Emotional memories engage different brain structures than do normal memories, and are stored in a particularly powerful and lasting way by the brain.

There is evidence for a self-reinforcing "memory loop" whereby the brain's emotional center triggers the memory center, which in turn further enhances activity in the emotional center.

Because of this, traumatic memories can have a powerful effect on human behavior – including placing restrictions in the way that people go about their daily lives.

Survivors may avoid places, smells or objects that remind them of the traumatic experience, because they may trigger severe anxieties.

Learned knowledge may dissipate, but emotional memories still remain.

According to researcher Karsten Baumgärtel, “It is entirely possible for facts to vanish completely from the memory, whereas in extreme cases emotional recollections remain stored for a whole lifetime.”

Isabelle Mansuy, Professor of Cellular Neurobiology explains that, “Emotional memories are not simply erased. Oppressive negative memories need to be actively replaced by positive memories.”

How are you replacing the negative experiences in your life?

Marriage as crucible

My husband's prediction about a mutual friend: "All the issues that she thought were dealt with will come springing back up out of her once she gets that ring on her finger..."

Children, foster care and PTSD

Link to articles about how to help and treat children who have PTSD as a result of abuse: http://hubpages.com/profile/krillco

Child Welfare Trauma Training Toolkit

http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=ctr_cwtool

Some of the many insights available in this valuable resource:
"Trauma can change children’s world views, their sense of safety, and how they interpret the meaning of the behavior of others—including people who are trying to help them...

"Children often have multidimensional trauma histories, and adults should not assume that they know what was most traumatic for the child. The event(s) thatled to child welfare involvement may not be the child’s most significant trauma experience...

"There is a difference between physical safety and psychological safety. Child welfare workers should not only aim to keep a child physically safe but should also provide a psychologically safe setting for children and families when inquiring about emotionally painful and difficult experiences...

"System-Induced Trauma: (def).Traumatic removal from the home, traumatic foster placement, sibling separation, or multiple placements in a short amount of time."

At the Root of Addiction

"Addiction is never really about fun...
It's always about pain."

- A Field of Darkness by Cornelia Read

Psychosocial Trauma and Restitution

Searching for Life: The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the Disappeared Children of Argentina

"The concept of “psychosocial trauma” developed by Ignacio Martin-Baro can help us understand the restitution process. He believed that when an injury that affects people has been produced, nourished, and maintained through a certain set of social relations, then individual solutions are not effective.

"The social context responsible for the injury has to be taken into account. A new “social contract” to heal the trauma is needed, incorporating individual and socio-political factors into the equation.

"In the case of the disappeared children, their loss of identity represents a trauma affecting not only their individual lives but also their relationship with society. For this relationship to be restored, the social distortions that took place need to be exposed.

"Restitution brings into focus the trauma’s social dimension, as it provides the wider context for each individual story. Truth and justice must be part of the picture, if the children are to construct a meaningful future for themselves as individuals and as members of society."

This statement makes no sense

Quote from Erick Nicklas, associate commissioner of the Family Permanency Division: "The whole idea of foster care is not to disrupt children's lives."

Foster Care Alumni and Relational Permanence

http://www.chapinhall.org/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1466

Gina Miranda Samuels interviewed 29 young adults who aged out of foster care in order to understand their existing support networks and how they learned to cope with people coming in and out of their lives.

Wearing a Mask to Face the World

http://translucence.multiply.com/journal/item/284/Masks_Repost

"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.”
- Andre Berthiaume

Abuse, Females and Testosterone Levels

“Trauma, at any age, produces anatomical changes in the brain, and even if those changes do not have an obvious effect on behavior, they can still shape our deepest responses to anxiety.

“A NIMH study (discovered that) abused girls were found to have abnormally high levels of testosterone, increases in immune system abnormalities and abnormal changes in the regulation of heart rate under stress.”

Source: Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.

Feeling like a "failed anorexic"

Recovery from anorexia comes with a deep sense of shame, because it feels somehow like a failure. Caroline Knapp has referred to this as “the post-anorexic riddle of identity, a sense of wild shapelessness.”

Aimee Lui writes accurately that;
“Eating disorders sabotage identity… You’ve failed to reduce yourself to a perfect object…

“For years you’ll move along just fine, gaining weight, gaining confidence, gaining all the trappings of a thriving life, and then, unexpectedly, a shadow of your past will resurface in the face of a long-lost friend or a moment on revived anxiety, and your bright new self will cringe, yearning for that old mask of perfection.”

Sheila Reindl has valuable insight into this area as well:
“We all have to integrate the light with the dark… the noble and ignoble aspects of ourselves. That’s a normal developmental task. It’s just harder for people with eating disorders.”

Source: Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.

Anorexia and Bulemia

According to Shelia Reindl, “With anorexia, the act of losing weight serves as a metaphor for feeling that one is emotionally invisible… (it’s a) disciplined emptiness. So, for her, the message is that you don’t have to be perfect to be loved.

“The bulimic, on the other hand, binges and purges in secret – hiding the beast she knows is in there. The issues of shame are stronger. I think that’s why, when anorexics hit a bulimic patch in recovery or difficulties later in life, they often want to go back to the anorexia. It feels cleaner and tidier – they didn’t have to deal with all these messy feelings and conflicts.”

Reindl’s research has demonstrated that the most enduring obstacle to healing in the aftermath of anorexia and bulimia is vulnerability to a sense of not being enough, not having enough, feeling empty, unlovable, unworthy.”

Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.

Can You Inherit Anorexia?

“Researchers often say that genetics load the gun of eating disorders, and environment pulls the trigger.”

Aimee Lui believes that genetics make the gun, environment loads it, and that an experience of unbearable trauma is what actually pulls the trigger.

Source: Lui, Aimee. Gaining: The Truth About Life After Eating Disorders.

Childhood trauma and emotional maturity

Adults often underestimate what children experience, the extent of their reactions and what they need to know.

Childhood trauma can disrupt child or adolescent development, interfering with the growth of emotional maturity. Repeated exposure to trauma can affect a child's brain and nervous system.

Children suffer a dual response:
- The impact of the trauma on themselves
- The emotional distress of a child's caregiver

Adult support is a strong protective factor. Impacted adults may make at-risk children more vulnerable.

Common trauma responses in children include impaired concentration, difficulty in learning new things, aggression, recklessness, reduced inhibitions, somatic complaints and school refusal.

It is normal for a child who has experienced trauma to:
- Be hypervigilant and constantly alert
- Be jumpy and startled easily by loud sounds and sudden noises
- Feel exhausted
- Have a worsening of chronic medical problems
- Have difficulty concentrating
- Exhibit poor judgment
- Exhibit denial of emotions or lack memory of events

Sometimes children revert to a younger developmental stage (bed-wetting, thumb-sucking, clinging). Teenagers might respond by taking on the role of a parent, acting as an adult and taking charge of the situation. Or, the teen might try to escape in sex, drugs and alcohol.

Children who are traumatized can develop depression, anxiety, mood disorders and/or behavior disorders.

Source: Traumatic Stress in Children, NRCFCPPP, January 8, 2008

To forgive is not to forget

From E.R. Bird's book review of 'I Am Not Joey Pigza' by Jack Gantos:

"I think the important thing about this book is that it makes it clear that forgiveness is different from stupidity. You can forgive someone and remember what they put you through. Forgiveness is not the same as memory loss."

Results of Casey Field Office Mental Health Study

http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publications/CFOMH.htm

The aftermath of child traumatic stress

Child traumatic stress occurs when children and adolescents are exposed to traumatic events or situations, and this exposure overwhelms their ability to cope with what they have experienced.

Traumatic events can include physical and/or sexual abuse, assault, serious accidents or illnesses and the loss of important relationships or caregivers.

The issue of trauma has only recently received attention within the juvenile justice department, and children’s services in general. For this reason, very few agencies routinely screen for trauma or offer trauma-specific treatment interventions for youth in their care.

Severe and/or long-term trauma has a chemical effect on the body which changes the body’s normal stress response into an alarm response.

As a result, young people might internalize their feelings through depression and anxiety, or act out their feelings in the form of aggression, conduct problems and oppositional/defiant behavior.

Young people are faced with the task of dealing with past trauma, recognizing its current impact and learning ways to manage or overcome the emotional and behavioral problems caused by PTSD.

Effective strategies are those that:
- Educate survivors about biochemical reactions associated with PTSD
- Empower survivors with strategies to self-regulate their response to triggers
- Encourage survivors by giving them a safe place to share their story in an atmosphere of acceptance

Source: Ford, J., et al, Trauma among youth in the juvenile justice system. National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice, Research and Program Brief, June 2007.

What do you think?

According to preventative psychologist JoAnn Derek, females are predisposed to experience higher levels of fear and anxiety, and remember painful experiences in greater detail than males.

Source: Keeling, Libby. Writer applies brain research to child development. Sept. 3, 2007.