The Book!! Or, Procrastinated Memoirs.
This Be The Verse
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
Philip Larkin
A Developmental Approach to Understanding Complex PTSD
Marylene Cloitre, PhD
New York University Child Study Center
In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, while the diagnostic criteria of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were being formulated and empirically validated, a parallel and independent line of inquiry was tracking and characterizing the negative consequences of childhood abuse on the mental health and functional status of affected children and adults.
Since that time, debate has ensued about whether the effects of this type of trauma, called “Complex PTSD” or “Complex Trauma” (DESNOS , Herman, 1992) are more than or different from those more associated with PTSD as defined in the DSM III and IV. The characteristics of the stressors associated with Complex PTSD versus classic PTSD are conceptualized as quite distinct. Classic PTSD is typically associated with single-incident events that are unexpected and overwhelm the individual’s capacity for effective response during the stressor; they are associated predominantly with feelings of fear.
In contrast, complex trauma represents stressors that occur repeatedly and chronically, like sexual or physical abuse, often from early in life, over the course of childhood and in the context of the family. While fear is often a strong affective component, feelings of shame, demoralization, confusion and betrayal are often salient; related to the enduring inability to escape from the situation and involving assault or exploitation by those known to and often responsible for the support and care of the individual.
[...]
Complex PTSD often describes an astounding array of symptoms in addition to classic post traumatic stress symptoms These include dissociation, self-injury, suicidality, disordered eating, revictimization, promiscuous attachments and sexual behaviors. Alternatively there are frequent reports of avoidance of relationships and sexual activity, social withdrawal and feelings of isolation and alienation.
In sum, the individual can either experience too much feeling, and be overwhelmed, or too little feeling and report emptiness (or both). Interpersonally, individuals with Complex PTSD can be overly-engaged and preoccupied with interpersonal relationships or interpersonally distant and avoidant (or both).
[...]
So, for example, certain apparently disparate behaviors such as self-injury and disordered eating, so often described by clients as efforts to reduce emotional distress, can be understood as reflecting the same underlying difficulty namely disturbances in emotion regulation.
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD)
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) is a condition that results from chronic or long-term exposure to emotional trauma over which a victim has little or no control and from which there is little or no hope of escape
[...]
The degree of C-PTSD trauma cannot be defined purely in terms of the trauma that a person has experienced. It is important to understand that each person is different and has a different tolerance level to trauma. Therefore, what one person may be able to shake off, another person may not. Therefore more or less exposure to trauma does not necessarily make the C-PTSD any more or less severe.
[...]
C-PTSD is caused by a prolonged or sustained exposure to emotional trauma or abuse from which no short-term means of escape is available or apparent to the victim.
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder
These elements include [...] the loss of a sense of safety, trust, and self-worth, [...] Most importantly, there is a loss of a coherent sense of self
[...]
C-PTSD better describes the pervasive negative impact of chronic repetitive trauma than does PTSD alone.
[...]
C-PTSD may share some symptoms with both PTSD and borderline personality disorder. Judith Herman has suggested that C-PTSD be used in place of BPD.
.
how do you fix (or re-learn) the things that went wrong developmentally? it seems like the more stable i get in a general sense, the worse i actually am in a specific sense.
--
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. If you feel inclined, comment there.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
Philip Larkin
A Developmental Approach to Understanding Complex PTSD
Marylene Cloitre, PhD
New York University Child Study Center
In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, while the diagnostic criteria of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were being formulated and empirically validated, a parallel and independent line of inquiry was tracking and characterizing the negative consequences of childhood abuse on the mental health and functional status of affected children and adults.
Since that time, debate has ensued about whether the effects of this type of trauma, called “Complex PTSD” or “Complex Trauma” (DESNOS , Herman, 1992) are more than or different from those more associated with PTSD as defined in the DSM III and IV. The characteristics of the stressors associated with Complex PTSD versus classic PTSD are conceptualized as quite distinct. Classic PTSD is typically associated with single-incident events that are unexpected and overwhelm the individual’s capacity for effective response during the stressor; they are associated predominantly with feelings of fear.
In contrast, complex trauma represents stressors that occur repeatedly and chronically, like sexual or physical abuse, often from early in life, over the course of childhood and in the context of the family. While fear is often a strong affective component, feelings of shame, demoralization, confusion and betrayal are often salient; related to the enduring inability to escape from the situation and involving assault or exploitation by those known to and often responsible for the support and care of the individual.
[...]
Complex PTSD often describes an astounding array of symptoms in addition to classic post traumatic stress symptoms These include dissociation, self-injury, suicidality, disordered eating, revictimization, promiscuous attachments and sexual behaviors. Alternatively there are frequent reports of avoidance of relationships and sexual activity, social withdrawal and feelings of isolation and alienation.
In sum, the individual can either experience too much feeling, and be overwhelmed, or too little feeling and report emptiness (or both). Interpersonally, individuals with Complex PTSD can be overly-engaged and preoccupied with interpersonal relationships or interpersonally distant and avoidant (or both).
[...]
So, for example, certain apparently disparate behaviors such as self-injury and disordered eating, so often described by clients as efforts to reduce emotional distress, can be understood as reflecting the same underlying difficulty namely disturbances in emotion regulation.
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD)
Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) is a condition that results from chronic or long-term exposure to emotional trauma over which a victim has little or no control and from which there is little or no hope of escape
[...]
The degree of C-PTSD trauma cannot be defined purely in terms of the trauma that a person has experienced. It is important to understand that each person is different and has a different tolerance level to trauma. Therefore, what one person may be able to shake off, another person may not. Therefore more or less exposure to trauma does not necessarily make the C-PTSD any more or less severe.
[...]
C-PTSD is caused by a prolonged or sustained exposure to emotional trauma or abuse from which no short-term means of escape is available or apparent to the victim.
Complex post-traumatic stress disorder
These elements include [...] the loss of a sense of safety, trust, and self-worth, [...] Most importantly, there is a loss of a coherent sense of self
[...]
C-PTSD better describes the pervasive negative impact of chronic repetitive trauma than does PTSD alone.
[...]
C-PTSD may share some symptoms with both PTSD and borderline personality disorder. Judith Herman has suggested that C-PTSD be used in place of BPD.
Anger directed against the self or others is always a central problem in the lives of people who have been violated and this is itself a repetitive re-enactment of real events from the past. Compulsive repetition of the trauma usually is an unconscious process that, although it may provide a temporary sense of mastery or even pleasure, ultimately perpetuates chronic feelings of helplessness and a subjective sense of being bad and out of control. ( Van Der Kolk, B. A. (1989). "The compulsion to repeat the trauma. Re-enactment, revictimization, and masochism". The Psychiatric clinics of North America 12 (2): 389–411. PMID 2664732.)
.
how do you fix (or re-learn) the things that went wrong developmentally? it seems like the more stable i get in a general sense, the worse i actually am in a specific sense.
--
This entry was originally posted at Dreamwidth. If you feel inclined, comment there.