Trauma & PTSD Treatment

In regards to PTSD  researchers have proved that people who had more adversity in their childhoods are more likely to develop PTSD when presented with adversity later in life.  If our world didn’t feel safe in childhood, when we are in the face of danger later, it feels intensified. I often describe this as “getting salt poured on old wounds.” It hurts more because the wound is there. For people that had idyllic childhoods, the salt will bounce off the intact skin. So to say it another way, if we learned as a young child that the world isn’t safe (because our home wasn’t safe) when we are faced with adversity it intensifies this belief that we are not safe- and can intensify the anger, frustration, depression associated with PTSD.  Also when talking about PTSD it’s important to empathize that when we are under that much stress that dangers our life, of course we are going to have a reaction to it. Think about it, every situation we are in shapes who are. For those of us that have been to war, that were molested, mugged, raped, etc it isn’t a natural experience to go through and our nervous system needs to detangle how it was interpreted at the cognitive level and at the emotional/physical level process it and resolve it so the body does not continue to respond to stimuli that triggers the original issue. The situation The incidents of PTSD themselves (like being in war or attacked) need to be processed and resolved too, but the adverse childhood experiences also need to be addressed to improve resilience for future events. When we pull out the issue at  the root (childhood) the rest of the weed gets pulled out too