CHILDHOOD TRAUMA : TREATMENTS AND THERAPIES
By David Hosier MSc
childhoodtraumarecovery.com publications
Second Edition
COPYRIGHT David Hosier 2014
Contents
1.Childhood Trauma: Recovery
2. Overcoming Relationship Difficulties Caused by Childhood Trauma
3. How to Manage Anger Resulting from Childhood Trauma. Part 1.
4. How to Manage Anger Resulting from Childhood Trauma. Part 2.
5. Childhood Trauma: Coming to Terms with what We have Lost.
6. How Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can Aid Recovery from Childhood Trauma
7. Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy: Challenging Our Negative Thoughts.
8. How Neurological Problems Relating to Childhood Trauma can be Addressed
9. Electro-Convulsive Therapy (ECT) and My Experience of It.
10. Childhood Trauma and Self-Harm : How it can be Addressed.
11. Psychotherapeutic Interventions that Research Suggests are Helpful for Individuals Suffering with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
12. Borderline Personality Disorder: Raising Our Self-Esteem.
13. Exciting Early Research Findings on the Medication Propranolol’s (a Beta-Blocker) Effectiveness for Treating Symptoms of Trauma.
14. Research on Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation as a Treatment for Trauma.
15.Childhood Trauma: Can ’Buried Traumatic Memories’ be Uncovered by Hypnosis?
16. Childhood Trauma: Aiding Recovery through Diet and Lifestyle.
17. Childhood Trauma: Borderline Personality Disorder - Should Sufferers Tell Others They Have It?
18. Childhood Trauma: Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR).
19.Childhood Trauma: Identity Problems and How to Tackle Them.
20. Childhood Trauma: Treating the Root Cause of Related Symptoms.
21. What Neuroimaging Tells Us about Hypnosis.
22. A New Cognitive Theory of Hypnosis: Cold Control.
23. Childhood Trauma: How Those who Suffer Social Anxiety can Reduce SelfConsciousness.
24. Combining Hypnosis with Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy.
25.Controversies: Alarming Study - How Psychiatrists can Get It Wrong.
26. Childhood Trauma: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Anxiety.
27. Large Study Suggests Antidepressants Work No Better than Placebos.
28.The Use of Hypnosis to Treat Trauma.
29. Trauma: How Cognitive Processing Therapy can Help.
30. Brain Differences in Severe Anxiety Sufferers and Pros and Cons of Various Medications
31. ’Fighting’ Anxiety can Worsen It: Why Acceptance Works Better.
32. How to Cope with Difficult Memories.
33. Childhood Trauma: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for Anxiety. Part 2.
34. Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) : Further Treatment Options.
35.Simple Questions We can Ask Ourselves to Reduce Anxiety
36. Childhood Trauma: Food and Nutrition which may Help with Resultant Depression.
37. Childhood Trauma : Treatment by Hypnosis Combined with Other Therapies.
38. Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
39. Addressing Effects of Childhood Trauma with Dialectical Behavior Therapy: An Introduction.
40. Addressing the Effects of Childhood Trauma with Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Part 2
41. Mindfulness : Effective Technique for Treating Conditions Related to Childhood Trauma
42.Treating Conditions Related to Childhood Trauma by Getting Right Fats in Diet.
43. Hypnotherapy to Break Vicious Cycle of Anxiety.
44. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT).
45. Some Lesser Known Therapies for Treating Effects of Severe Trauma
46. Mindfulness Meditation: An Escape Route Away from Obsessive, Negative Ruminations.
47. Compassion Focused Therapy for Effects of Childhood Trauma.
48. Hypnotherapy Treatment to Reduce Damaging Behaviours Caused by Trauma - 1) Smoking
49. Recovery: How the Brain can ’Rewire’ Itself (Neuroplasticity).
50. Trauma Leading to Dysfunctional Eating Behaviour - Hypnosis for Weight Loss.
51. Eighteen Possible Ways to Help Overcome Fear (1-5).
52. Eighteen Possible Ways to Overcome Fear (6-18).
53. What is Positive Psychology?
54. Traps to Avoid for a Contented Life.
55. Overcoming Fear.
56. Hypnotherapy - Dispelling the Myths.
57. Benefits of Self-Hypnosis for Emotional Health.
58. How to Build Emotional Resilience.
59. Childhood Trauma - Ways to Help Us Stop Over-Thinking about It.
60.Schema-Focused Hypnotherapy for Trauma
61. Brain Scans Clearly Show Effects of Hypnosis.
62. How Hypnosis Alters Brain Activity - Top University Study.
63. Intermittent Explosive Disorder (I.E.M.) and Childhood Trauma.
64. Self-Hypnosis.
65. Hypnotherapy So Effective Now Free on NHS in UK.
66. Hypnotherapy So Effective Now Available on NHS in UK. Part 2.
67. 10 Top Tips to Help Healing from Child Trauma
68. Child Trauma andTrauma Focused Therapy (TFT)
69. Overcoming Social Anxiety : The ’Acting As If’ Technique.
70. Overcoming Aggressive Behaviour Linked to Childhood Trauma. 5 Step Method.
71.Recovery from Childhood Trauma - Improving Our Mindset.
72. Childhood Trauma and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
73. PTSD - 3 Steps to Mastering its Effects.
74.Posttraumatic Growth - How Trauma can Positively Transform Us.
75. Avoidant Personality Disorder (APD) - Treatments.
76. Deep Brain Stimulation - A Cutting-Edge Treatment for Depression
77. EMDR Helps Us Mentally Process Trauma.
78. Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Stress Related Disorders.
79. Study Shows 73% Recover from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).
80. Recovery of Repressed or Buried Memories of Abuse
81. Treatment for Trauma Related Nightmares.
82. Cognitive Hypnotherapy for Fear and Anxiety.
83. What is the Evidence for the Effectiveness of EMDR?
84. Why BPD is Sometimes Mistakenly Diagnosed.
85. Human Stress : Why We Should Envy Gazelles.
86. Findings of Research into Mindfulness Meditation.
87. Metacognitive Therapy for Anxiety and Depression.
88.Physical Symptoms of Stress and How to Reduce Them.
89.Repressed Memories : The Need for Further Research.
90. Ten Questions We can Ask Ourselves to Challenge Our Negative Thoughts.
91. How Posttraumatic Growth Relates to Coping Strategies.
92. The Brain, Neuroscience and Meditation.
93. Finding Optimism and Positive Moods : The Neuroscience. Part
94. Finding Optimism and Positive Moods : The Neuroscience. Part 2. (2013-11-28 15:20) 159
1. Childhood Trauma: Recovery.
Research shows those who suffer childhood trauma CAN and DO recover.
Making significant changes in life can be a very daunting prospect, but those who do it in order to aid their own recovery very often find the hard work most rewarding.
Some people find making the necessary changes difficult, whereas others find it enjoyable.
THE DECISION TO CHANGE
Change does not occur instantly. Psychologists have identified the following stages building up to change:
1) not even thinking about it
2) thinking about it
3) planning it
4) starting to do it
5) maintaining the effort to continue doing it
THE RECOVERY PROCESS
Each individual’s progress in recovery is unique, but, generally, the more support the trauma survivor has, the quicker the recovery is likely to occur.
Often recovery is not a steady progression upwards - there are usually ups and downs (eg two steps forward...one step back...two steps forward etc) but the OVERALL TREND is upwards (if you imagine recovery being represented on the vertical axis of a graph and time by the horizontal). Therefore, it is important not to become disheartened by set-backs along the recovery path. These are normal.
Sometimes, one can even feel one at first is getting worse (usually if traumas, long dormant, are being processed by the mind in a detailed manner for the first time). However, once the trauma has been properly consciously reprocessed, although this is often painful, it enables the trauma survivor to work through what happened and to form a new, far more positive, understanding of him/herself.
Once the trauma has been reworked (ie understanding what happened and how it has affected the survivor’s development) he or she can start to develop a more positive and compassionate view of him/herself (for example, realizing that the abuse was not their fault can relieve strong feelings of guilt and self-criticism).
Once the reworking phase has been passed through, improvement tends to become more consistent and more rapid.
2. Overcoming Relationship Difficulties Caused by Childhood Trauma
It has already been stated that as survivors of childhood trauma we often find it very difficult to trust others. We may avoid close relationships in order to avoid the possibility of being hurt.
Whilst this can allow us to feel safe from harm, it can also lead to extreme loneliness.
Research shows that without good social support the childhood trauma survivor is much more likely to suffer emotional problems. Having just one person to confide in, though, can help to SIGNIFICANTLY ALLEVIATE emotional distress.
Because of our negative experiences in childhood, we might often have NEGATIVE BIASES in our thinking when it comes to considering relationships. These are sometimes based on FEAR.
Below are some examples of negative biases we might have when thinking about relationships. 1) everyone has always hurt me, therefore this person will too; I won’t try to form a close relationship with him/her.
2) he/she has let me down. That means he/she will always let me down and is completely untrustworthy.
3) there’s no way I’m going to the party - they’ll be lots of people I don’t know and it’s certain they’ll all hate me.
HOWEVER, in all three examples it is likely our beliefs are erroneous and based on a negative thinking bias caused by our childhood experiences. Below are some ways it would be reasonable for us to mentally challenge our beliefs held in the three above examples.
1) I am OVERGENERALIZING. My past experiences don’t mean everyone in the future is bound to always hurt me.
2) He/she is usually good to me; therefore there might be a perfectly reasonable explanation why he/she seems to have let me down on this particular occasion.
3) I’m being far too harsh on myself - I may be lacking some confidence at the moment but this does not mean people will hate me. Anyway, I can work on ways to gradually rebuild my confidence.
Indeed, there is a therapy called COGNITIVE-BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY which helps people to get into the habit of challenging their habitual, unhelpful, negative thinking patterns in a similar way to how I’ve illustrated above. I will look at this in more detail in later posts, but, in the meantime, there are many very good books and ebooks on cognitive-behavioural therapy from online bookstores such as Amazon, Google Books and Kindle.
DEVELOPING SOCIAL SKILLS:
One way to do this is to observe others who already possess good social skills - the type of things they do may include:
-smiling reasonably often
-using a reasonable amount of eye contact
-giving genuine compliments (but not overdoing it)
-using the other person’s name when talking to them (but, again, not overdoing it)
Others that can be observed to help develop social skills may include friends, strangers or even characters from TV or cinema. It can be of particular benefit to observe how others deal with difficult situations.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that when developing social skills, it is best to build up gradually, rather than to throw ourselves immediately into an especially challenging social event.
3. How to Manage Anger Resulting from Childhood Trauma. Part 1.
Childhood trauma and managing anger
Anger is not a bad thing if it is APPROPRIATELY EXPRESSED.
As we begin to realize that what was done to us as children was wrong, anger often emerges (especially when we start to understand all the ramifications of how we have subsequently been affected by it).
Repressing anger (’bottling it up’) is often painful and stressful. We can also get to the point when we can contain it no longer and this might result in it being MISDIRECTED (expressed against the wrong person) or in it being expressed in a DESTRUCTIVE and DAMAGING way (to both ourselves and those we interact with).
It is much better if anger is MANAGED and only expressed in a manner which is beneficial.
For some, expressing anger gives rise to a feeling of power, the power that was denied us in childhood, and can therefore feel that by expressing this anger we are in some way protecting ourselves or taking back ’control’ (though, almost always, uncontrolled outbursts of anger backfire very unpleasantly). The adrenaline associated with such anger can sometimes lead to it being expressed in a very intense way. Whilst this may be understandable, then, such expressions of anger ULTIMATELY HARM THE PERSON EXPRESSING IT.
THREE CATEGORIES OF ANGER:
1) PRIMARY ANGER.
This is anger which is REASONABLE given what has occurred - it is directly related to what has happened and is not influenced by extraneous factors.
2) SECONDARY ANGER.
The psychologist Aaron Beck, during the 1980s, defined this type of anger as RESULTING FROM FEAR or HURT. WE USE IT TO TRY TO PROTECT OURSELVES AGAINST FURTHER TRAUMA. This type of anger can be EXPLOSIVE and feel as if IT IS ’TAKING US OVER’. It may occur in response to:
- perceived rejection
- a perceived slight
- a perceived threat
All of the above may trigger memories, consciously or unconsciously, of the original trauma; this can explain the (seemingly) disproportionate intensity of the reaction.
3) PAST ANGER.
This refers to anger we are currently feeling but which STEMS FROM THE PAST. When it is TRIGGERED BY CURRENT EVENTS, the anger we express, similar to the anger illustrated in 2 above, can be disproportionate (to the current event). For example, we may see a mother in the street screaming aggressively at her child which in turn triggers memories of how we ourselves were treated in childhood.
4. How to Manage Anger Resulting from Childhood Trauma. Part 2.
It is better to express anger in a healthy and helpful way rather than to REPRESS or DENY it (in the case of the latter, it can profoundly, negatively affect our peace of mind or lead us to TURN THE ANGER IN ON OURSELVES or DISPLACE it (i.e. take it out in an inappropriate way on those who do not deserve it).
AMBIVALENCE.
It is natural to feel anger towards the person/s who caused our childhood trauma but the anger we feel is often COMPLICATED BY FEELINGS OF AMBIVALENCE if the person/s who caused our trauma also did good things for us. Such ambivalence can feel very painful and confusing, leaving us feeling CONFLICTED. In simple terms, we develop mixed, and very often contradictory, feelings towards the person/s.
Alternatively, we may excuse the person/s who caused the trauma by telling ourselves they behaved as they did due, for example, to the extreme stress they themselves were under.
This may make it more difficult to feel the anger, and, as a result, we may feel EMOTIONALLY NUMB ( a kind of dissociative state).
Whilst anger should not be forced, if we find it difficult to connect to our anger the following exercise may be useful:
1) to imagine ourselves at the age we suffered the trauma, remembering how young and vulnerable we were (if you have a photograph of yourself at the relevant age to look at this could be helpful).
2) think about what occurred and how it made us feel
3) think of the ways in which our lives have been damaged as a result, and how many years have been lost (it is important to do this in a safe way and reading my post on COPING MECHANISMS could be helpful in order to help ensure this).
When we can start to feel the anger without it overwhelming us, we can try to focus on our anger for longer periods of time.
Now we turn to how to deal with these angry feelings:
HOW TO DEAL WITH FEELINGS OF ANGER.
We often respond to anger in ways that only damage us. This may include turning the anger in on ourselves (eg self-harm, self-hatred), turning it on others who do not deserve it (DISPLACEMENT) or perhaps turning to drink and/or drugs to temporarily dissipate the pain and anguish our feelings entail.
However, clearly it is important to deal with our anger in a CONSTRUCTIVE way. One way to do this is to express it ASSERTIVELY (i.e. in a CONTROLLED, APPROPRIATE and RESPECTFUL manner).
To express anger towards a particular person, in a SAFE and appropriate way, can be achieved in the two ways outlined below:
1) INDIRECTLY:
here, the person is not confronted face-to- face. Examples would be to write a letter (it is not even necessary to send it; merely writing down our feelings towards the person with whom we are angry can be a step forward, alleviating the painful feelings associated with repressing anger) or to role play (perhaps getting a friend to play the part of the person we are angry with).
2) DIRECTLY:
In order to make sure this is done appropriately and safely, planning and preparation are definitely helpful.
5. Childhood Trauma: Coming to Terms with what We have Lost.
Many who suffered childhood trauma grow up feeling that there childhood has been ’stolen’ from them. They may have grown up feeling worthless and uniquely unloveable, lacking, too, in feelings of safety and security. They may also grow up with a lack of confidence and find it extremely difficult to trust anyone or to believe that they will not be betrayed again. They may have experienced no joy or carefreeness in childhood such as other children take for granted.
As an adult, realizing what one has lost will often give rise to powerful feelings of sadness and grief. This is quite normal. Indeed, grief is an intrinsic component of the recovery process.
We may find ourselves grieving for the kind of parents we would have wished for, but, in reality, never had.
If the relationship with our parents or those who who were supposed to be caring for us and looking after us in childhood was deeply fractured, we might, nevertheless, hold out hope that these deeply problematic relationships will improve now that we’re adults; but we may, in due course, discover this is most unlikely to happen. In such cases, we may find ourselves grieving all over again - this time for the loss of our hope. Ideally, we will eventually come to accept this depressing state of affairs and realize, also, that we may never fully understand why we were treated as we were.
Some people are already familiar with the stages of grief, but, for those who are not, I will very briefly summarize them below:
1) a sense of feeling numb (as we saw in a previous post, this is also sometimes referred to as a DISSOCIATIVE state).
2a) a strong, sometimes overwhelming, yearning for what has been lost, which can develop into:
2b) a preoccupation or obsession with what has been lost
3) anger can follow which itself may lead to:
4) feelings of guilt, particularly if we have expressed our anger in a way which is unhelpful to us (lowering ourselves yet further in our own view) or to others.
Eventually, one emerges from the grieving process the other side and the feelings of emotional pain and suffering are ameliorated. However, a less intense general sense of loss may remain, but often we can cope with this and move forward in our lives.