Before trauma

Trauma

Post Traumatic Growth

• Shortness of breath
• Shallow breathing
• Muscle tension
• Headaches
• Back aches
• Stomach aches
• Racing heart beat
• Aches and pains
• Fatigue

• Irrational Beliefs (e.g. causation of trauma)
• Distrust
• Distorted Self-Image
• Poor focus and concentration
• Loss/Betrayal of Social Contract
• Accurate, but unhelpful, cognitions
• Difficulty concentrating or paying attention to teachers at school or caregivers at home
• Preoccupation with the traumatic event
• Recurring distressing dreams or nightmares
• Intrusive thoughts, images or memories of what happened
• Questioning spiritual beliefs
• Inability to process the significance of the event

• Feeling anxious, nervous or fearful
• Being upset or easily angered
• Being irritable or uncooperative
• Feeling depressed or sad
• Experiencing mood fluctuations
• Feeling jumpy or startling easily
• Having feelings of despair, hopelessness, guilt or shame
• Feeling emotionally numb, empty or disconnected
• Feeling a lack of interest in things they used to enjoy
• Worrying that a past traumatic event will happen again
• Feeling unable to protect themselves in the future
• Feeling permanently damaged by the trauma

• Having difficulty falling or staying asleep and/or having nightmares
• Experiencing changes in appetite
• Experiencing trauma avoidance
• Crying easily
• Withdrawing from friends or family
• Acting jumpy or startling easily
• Regressive behaviors
• Clinging or demanding behavior with parents and caregivers
• Experiencing increased conflicts or arguments with family or friends
• Having tantrums or more aggressive behavior
• Talking repeatedly or compulsively about the event
• Participating in traumatic re-enactment (in play, etc.)
• Refusing or not wanting to go to school; changes in school performance or attendance
• Using alcohol or drugs
• Acting recklessly, or doing dangerous things
• Participating in self-injury
• Modeling maladaptive behaviors (such as sexualized, violent, or bullying behaviors)
• Experiencing traumatic bonding

• Distrust or fear of God
• Constant feelings of unworthiness
• Burnout
• Depression or anger
• Withdrawal and cynicism
• Inability to relate normally to people who represent the source of the emotional injury
• Unhealthy fear and guilt

• Relationship problems
• Experiencing increased conflicts or arguments with family and/or friends
• Participating in traumatic re-enactment when triggered
• Having tantrums or more aggressive behaviors
• Talking repeatedly or compulsively about the event/events

• Developmental Trauma – (results from abandonment, abuse, neglect in infancy and childhood)
• Sexual abuse – (sexual harassment, molestation, rape, etc.)
• Spiritual abuse – (resulting from a spiritual leader or system that tries to control, manipulate, or dominate a person, including mind/thought control and isolation)
• Community violence (a wide range of events including riots, sniper attacks, gang wars, drive-by shootings, workplace assaults, terrorist attacks, torture, mass shootings, bombings, war ethnic cleansing, and widespread sexual, physical, and emotional abuse)
• Family violence (includes physical, psychological, verbal abuse, domestic violence)
• Serious medical diagnosis/illness (arises as an aftereffect of a traumatic surgery or medical procedure; includes news that one has a serious or terminal illness)
• Generational/historic (“Essentially, the devastating trauma of genocide, loss of culture, and forcible removal from family and communities are all unresolved becomes a sort of ‘psychological baggage continuously being acted out and recreated in contemporary culture’” –Social Justice Report, 2008.

The great news is that not everyone who has traumatic experiences develops symptoms of trauma. The other great news is that although trauma can be debilitating and disruptive in a person’s life, trauma can also be constructive and lead to positive outcomes. A person who develops traumatic reactions to exposure to trauma can learn to cope become resilient and experience Post-traumatic Growth, experiencing positive view of self and realizing their inner strengths. https://ptgi.uncc.edu/what-is-ptg/

• Create a “Safe Space” – emotional and physical safety is important to trauma survivors
• Engage in talk psychotherapy and body psychotherapy (e.g. TFCBT, Trauma-focused therapy, EMDR, Sensorimotor therapy, Somatic Experience Therapy etc., Trauma-based Yoga etc.)
• Build healthy relationships – restore trustworthiness and transparency
• Encourage peer support – support groups
• Weep with those who weep…rejoice with those who rejoice (this is a biblical advice – Romans 12:15)
• Pray and meditate
• Provide psychoeducation – about normal reactions to abnormal (trauma) events, abnormal reactions to normal events
• Encourage collaboration and reciprocity (the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit, especially privileges granted by one to anther)
• Empower, give voice and choice to trauma survivor

• Be aware – become trauma-informed
• Respond with compassion – respond to the need don’t react to the behaviors
• Triage
• Support and empower
• Refer to a professional

Acute Trauma: “A Single traumatic event that is limited in time. A dog bite, earthquake or major motor vehicle accident, being raped, robbed are all examples of acute traumas” (Child Welfare Committee, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) 2008, p 6)

Chronic Trauma: Chronic trauma may refer to multiple and varied (traumatic) events such as a child who is exposed to domestic violence at home, is involved in a car accident, and then becomes a victim of community violence, or longstanding trauma such as physical, repeated sexual abuse or war.” (CWC/NCTSN, 2008, p 6)

Complex Trauma:  “Complex trauma is a term used by some experts to describe both exposure to chronic trauma—usually caused by adults entrusted with the child’s care, such as parents or caregivers—and the immediate and long term  impact of such exposure on the child.” (CWC, NCTSN, 2008, p7). It is layered, often repeated and ongoing

Hypervigilance: “Abnormally increased arousal, responsiveness to stimuli, and scanning of the environment for threats”. Hypervigilance is a symptom that adults and youth can develop after exposure to dangerous and life-threatening events.

Resiliency: a pattern of positive adaptation in the context of past or present   adversity”

Traumatic Reminders: “A traumatic reminder is any person, situation, sensation, and feeling or thing that reminds a child/person of a traumatic event. When faced with these reminders, a child/adult may re-experience the intense and disturbing feelings tied to the original trauma (CWC/NCTSN), 12008, PfRY.

Hyperarousal: Hyperarousal is when the autonomic nervous system (ANS) is in

a constant state of activation (like a faulty smoke alarm). Symptoms: Outbursts of anger, states o

of extreme rage and aggression, irritability, feelings of panic and anxiety, difficulty

concentrating, and constantly being “on guard”

Hypo-arousal: When hypo-arousal occurs, a person disengages and dissociates under stress –the person is “spacy, zoned out, numb and frozen. His/her body wants to shut down. It is not something that the person chooses, the body just reacts – The National Institute for Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine).

Post-Traumatic Stress Growth: It is positive change experienced as a result of the struggle with a major life crisis or a traumatic event. Posttraumatic growth tends to occur in five general areas:

1. Relating to others
2. New possibilities
3. Personal strength
4. Spiritual change
5. Appreciation for life

https://ptgi.uncc.edu/what-is-ptg/

The nature and impact of Depression

The English word “depression” comes from the Latin word “depressio” which means “to press down and make lower”.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5^th edition (DSM-5), American Psychiatric Association (APA, 2013) specifies that the presence of five or more of the following symptoms for 2-weeks or more, occurring nearly every day point to a major depressive condition.

At least one of these symptoms must be either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure; the symptoms must result in significant distress for the person and must impair his/her functioning in in social, occupational and other areas:

Symptoms of depression may include:

• Depressed mood most of the day (feeling sad, empty, hopeless; in children or youths this could be irritable mood)
• Significantly less interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities
• Significant weight gain or weight loss when the person is not dieting
• Significant decrease or increase in appetite
• Sleeping too much or being unable to sleep
• Fatigue or loss of energy
• Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt (which may be delusional)
• Difficulty thinking and concentrating, unable to make decisions
• Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide

Interventions

The following is not an exhaustive list ways to reduce or eliminate symptoms of depression:

• Physical activities – such as exercise and yoga
• Psychotherapy only
• Psychotherapy and medication therapy
• Spiritual practices – meditations, prayers, bible readings

(Visit the Resource page on this website for more resources about depression)

The nature and impact of Anxiety

Anxiety does not have an age requirement, it affect children, youths and adults. So what is anxiety? The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5^th edition (DSM-5), American Psychiatric Association (APA, 2013), states that anxiety disorders include disorders that share the following features:

• Excessive fear to real or perceived immediate threats
• Persistent worry about panicking or anticipating future worries
• Breathing rapidly
• Increased heart rate
• Difficulty sleeping
• Trouble concentrating or

Types of Anxiety Disorders

• Separation anxiety disorder – a childhood disorder characterized by anxiety that’s excessive for the child’s age and related to separation from parents or significant others
• Social phobia – involves excessive anxiety, fear and avoidance of social situations due to fear of embarrassment, self-consciousness and concerns about being judge or viewed negatively by others
• Specific phobias – characterized by excessive anxiety when exposed to a specific object or situation and a desire to avoid it.
• Generalized anxiety disorder – includes persistent and excessive anxiety about “many things” activities or events – even ordinary, routine issues. This worry is out of proportion to the actual circumstance, is difficult to control and affects and be accompanied by other types of anxiety or depression
• Anxiety can provoke panic attacks in some people – this involves repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks). You may have feelings of impending doom, shortness of breath, chest pain, or a rapid, fluttering or pounding heart (heart palpitations). These panic attacks may lead to worrying about them happening again or avoiding situations in which they’ve occurred

Interventions

Anxiety can be treated with:

• Mindfulness/body exercises such as deep breathing, thought stopping, and muscle relaxation
• Psychotherapy only
• Psychotherapy and medication therapy
• Spiritual practices – meditations, prayers, bible readings

(Visit the Resource page on this website for more resources about anxiety)

Adoption – “The Primal Wound”

Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting of another, usually a child, from that person’s biological or legal parent or from a child welfare system. Legal adoptions permanently transfer all parental and legal rights and responsibilities from the biological parent or parents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoption

There are many good and noble reasons why people adopt another person. Some adoptions are smooth and the outcomes are wonderful! Others are fraught with challenges, struggles, disappointments and heartaches and the outcomes are far from what the adoptive parents expected.

Healing Joy Wellness wants to send words of thanks and encouragement to anyone who opened their hearts and home and adopted a child or youth. God bless you!

For those who are facing challenges of understanding the Adopted Child, we seek to provide resources to help. One source of help is Nancy Newton Verrier’s book – The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child:

This book will revolutionize the way we think about adoption. In its application of information about pre- and perinatal psychology, attachment, bonding, and loss, it clarifies the effects of separation from the birthmother on adopted children. In addition, it gives those children, whose pain has long been unacknowledged or misunderstood, validation for their feelings, as well as explanations for their behavior. The insight which Ms. Verrier brings to the experiences of abandonment and loss will contribute not only to the healing of adoptees, their adoptive families, and birthmothers, but will bring understanding and encouragement to anyone who has ever felt abandoned.

(Visit the Resource page on this website for more resources about adoption and managing challenging behaviors of adopted children and youths)