Kimberly Revis Callis's Blog, page 9
February 2, 2013
Paper: Accumulated Childhood Trauma and Symptom Complexity
I love when I find full scientific papers for free online!
The Journal of Traumatic Stress has published a paper entitled, Accumulated Childhood Trauma and Symptom Complexity by John Briere [Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA and the National Child Traumatic Stress Network] and Stacey Kaltman and Bonnie L. Green, Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical School, Washington, DC.
Abstract:
The relationship between accumulated exposure to different types of traumatic events (cumulative trauma) in childhood and the total number of different types of symptomatology reported (symptom complexity) in adulthood was examined in a sample of 2,453 female university students. There was a linear relationship between the number of trauma types experienced by participants before 18 and symptom complexity. This effect remained even when controlling for specific traumatic events, suggesting a generalized effect of cumulative trauma.
The authors explored the effects of multiple traumas in childhood, using twelve trauma types. Doing a quick check of my own trauma inventory, I realized that I experienced nine of these trauma types, some of them repeatedly, for years. It’s no wonder that my symptoms compounded, especially given the added experience of multiple traumas in my adult life.
The clumsy process of my psychological recovery makes a bit more sense to me, especially given the fact that some of the traumas overlap, or are related to each other somehow. Treating Complex PTSD is already a difficult process, treating Complex PTSD with multiple trauma types is even more challenging.
The authors also provide a conclusion that rape and physical abuse traumas are unique indicators for complex psychological symptoms, which — in my opinion — are further compounded when those traumas occur in a familial setting.
The authors do not provide conclusions on therapy or recovery in this paper.
http://www.johnbriere.com/JTS%20sx%20complexity.pdf
January 21, 2013
Book: Solume Solutions for Survivors of Sexual Abuse
By Hannah Smith, Nathan Chowilawu-Eshe, Marvin King, Andee Bingham, Susan Carter, Renee Dietz, Bethany Heinesh and Kimberly Callis.
No one should ever have to go through the physical and emotional toll caused by sexual abuse. Unfortunately, too many people do know what it is like to be a victim of this type of abuse and what it has cost them. For these survivors, however, they did not let this horrific experience destroy their lives forever. They found a way to get past the emotional and physical pain by finding strength from within and empowerment they never knew they had.
http://solumesolutions.com/shop/solume-solutions-for-survivors-of-sexual-abuse/
January 15, 2013
Article: Childhood trauma leaves its mark on the brain
Reblogged from ScienceBlog, 15 January 2013
It is well known that violent adults often have a history of childhood psychological trauma. Some of these individuals exhibit very real, physical alterations in a part of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex. Yet a direct link between such early trauma and neurological changes has been difficult to find, until now.
Publishing in the January 15 edition of Translational Psychiatry, EPFL Professor Carmen Sandi and team demonstrate for the first time a correlation between psychological trauma in pre-adolescent rats and neurological changes similar to those found in violent humans.
Read more at http://scienceblog.com/59120/childhood-trauma-leaves-its-mark-on-the-brain/#WQ7sC77HGLBYAEWo.99
January 5, 2013
Journal Excerpt: Dwelling in Fear
I could go somewhere else… but I am afraid.
I could do more for myself, get out into life again… but I am paralyzed with fears.
I know some of what frightens me, but not all of it. That is the biggest fear of all… what would trigger me to fall apart again if I went out into the world? I wish I could just find what is wrong with me and fix it.
Sometimes I think that I am mostly afraid of myself because I let myself become broken. There is nothing really that anyone else can do to me that is worse than what I have done to myself.
I fear that if I let myself go back into a real life, I will just hurt again. I would let myself love the wrong person, or be loved the wrong way, or lose myself to what someone else wants me to be…. only to come back screaming when they’ve triggered some memory with a simple touch or careless word.
But I am so lonely and unfulfilled. My mind, which used to play with puzzles of business and risk, is empty of intended thought. It’s just a wandering of lost places and people I’ve left behind, to ashamed to admit what I am going through or reveal what I have lost.
I drown in wishes. I wish I was better. I wish I could finish something. I wish I could sleep, eat, hope, care.
I find myself wondering if there is anyone else out there. Hiding in their houses. Living lives that are ever-diminishing in challenge and surprise because fear has taken hold. Are they suffering like me, shrinking away into withered shells, wanting something… anything… to happen that will make them want to breathe again?
There was a time when I would run from my fears, never dwelling in them. I would run, not literally, but I would take off somewhere when I was afraid.. or simply needed to feel alive. I would just go, move, leave, find that Somewhere Else to be.
But now I am afraid of Somewhere Else. I stay home. I hide. I close the blinds and shut out the world and all its doings. I have no where left to run and no energy left in me to run from fear, so it stays with me.
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,400 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.
Click here to see the complete report.
