From Maggie Scarf’s book: Secrets, Lies, Betrayals
\n\u201cTrauma exposes a child to his own absolute helplessness and lack of control of his world at the very time when he is struggling with the crucial developmental issues of competence and mastery.\u00a0 At the same time, traumatic experiences strike at the heart of a youngster\u2019s sense of self for a very different, somewhat paradoxical reason: Early in life, children are wonderfully grandiose and experience themselves as central to and the cause of anything and everything that occurs around them.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (p86)<\/p>\n
\u201cTrauma: A Wound to the Self
\n\u201cSuch events are highly likely to leave you in a state of chronic bodily arousal, with a highly uncomfortable overreactivity to life\u2019s minor insults, threats, and dilemmas.\u00a0 This physiologically based state, a bodily condition of dysregulation, makes it very hard for a person to soothe herself, calm down, and regain stability in the wake of any negative event, even one that had nothing to do with the painful experiences of the past.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 (p89)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe humans are after all, social creatures, who grow up in the protective environments provided by our caretaking families.\u00a0 Thus, when bad things happen at the hands of the very people who are supposed to love and nurture us, our basic conception of ourselves and of the world we inhabit is inevitably impacted in enormous ways.\u00a0 Physical or emotional battering \u2014 or cold indifference and neglect \u2014 within the family group is at some basic level the most traumatic occurrence of all.\u201d (p93)<\/p>\n
She quotes trauma expert Bessel Van der Kolk: \u201cThe real trauma, and the actual cause of most post-traumatic suffering, is \u2018attachment trauma\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Maggie Scarf’s book: Secrets, Lies, Betrayals \u201cTrauma exposes a child to his own absolute helplessness and lack of control of his world at the very time when he is struggling with the crucial developmental issues of competence and mastery.\u00a0 … Continue reading