Category Archives: Trauma

Explaining the symptoms of PTSD or C-PTSD

July 30, 2017 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Education, Our stories, Trauma 20 Comments

Author’s Note: It took me over a month to write this because simply describing what it is like to struggle with the symptoms of C-PTSD resulted in triggering fear, anxiety, and flashbacks.  I persisted with this narrative because I want people who have never experienced the complexities of this illness to have a better understanding of what someone with PTSD or C-PTSD might be trying to manage.  If you personally struggle with anxiety, have PTSD or C-PTSD, or you are triggered by descriptions of fear or trauma, you should not read this.  It is hard to read. It was hard to write.

In the car today, a good friend (I rarely leave the house without someone with me) asked me if I had looked at the condominiums in town for potential rentals when I was in the middle of my housing search last year.  I had, and he asked what I had thought of them and why I had not opted to live there. I told him that the basement in one I looked at

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Two studies aim to bring funding and attention to neurofeedback in the treatment of PTSD

June 1, 2017 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Solutions, Trauma 3 Comments

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“Almost half the nation’s children have experienced at least one or more types of serious childhood trauma, according to a new survey on adverse childhood experiences by the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). This translates into an estimated 34,825,978 children nationwide, say the researchers who analyzed the survey data.” – Jane Ellen Stevens, ACEsTooHigh.com

Research from the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) shows that people who suffer early childhood neglect and abuse get sick more often throughout their lives and with more serious illnesses than the average population. They also become addicted at much higher rates and are far more likely to attempt and commit suicide. As a result of all of these factors, as a cohort, people who have experienced an overwhelming amount of abuse and neglect as children will die 20 years ahead of their peers.

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A system of care for traumatized children

March 14, 2017 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Solutions, Trauma 6 Comments

By the Hon. Ramona Gonzalez
Board Director, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
La Crosse County Circuit Court, Wisconsin

Sally is a seven-year-old girl who just disclosed physical abuse to her teacher. Over the next few days, Sally must relate her story multiple times to a social worker, an attorney, a foster parent, a police officer, and a judge. Each time she recounts her abuse, she spends the entire day unable to concentrate, and at night has she bad dreams preventing her from sleeping. By the end of the week, Sally is exhausted. She has barely slept, her grades are falling, and she is beginning to wonder why she spoke about the abuse in the first place.

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Be worried about boys, especially baby boys

February 14, 2017 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Epigenetics, Neurobiology, Trauma 6 Comments

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We often hear that boys need to be toughened up so as not to be sissies. Parent toughness toward babies is celebrated as “not spoiling the baby.” Wrong! These ideas are based on a misunderstanding of how babies develop. Instead, babies rely on tender, responsive care to grow well—with self-control, social skills and concern for others.

A review of empirical research just came out by Allan N. Schore, called “All our sons: The developmental neurobiology and neuroendocrinology of boys at risk.”

This thorough review shows why we should be worried about how we treat boys early in their lives. Here are a few highlights:

Why does early life experience influence boys significantly more than girls?

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I’m not cured, but I am healing

December 4, 2016 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Chronic disease, Epigenetics, Neurobiology, Resilience, Solutions, Trauma 8 Comments
Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Donna Jackson Nakazawa

More than 133 million American adults — one in two of us — suffer from a chronic condition, including autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, digestive disorders, migraines, back pain, depression, diabetes, cancer and chronic pain. A recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that those of us in our 40s, 50s and 60s are twice as likely as our parents were to suffer from debilitating chronic conditions in middle age.

I’m one of those statistics. I’ve spent much of the past decade navigating my life around health crises. Twice I’ve been paralyzed by Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an autoimmune disease similar to multiple sclerosis, but with a more sudden onset and a wider array of possible outcomes. Other diagnoses — low blood cell counts, thyroiditis and the need for a pacemaker — have also complicated my health and my life.

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A memoir about surviving ACEs

October 31, 2016 By in Adverse childhood experiences, Child abuse, Child trauma, New York, Resilience, Trauma 12 Comments

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I became a professional reader long before I was a writer when I was living in homeless shelters, subsidized housing, and welfare hotels with my mother in New York City.

Most of the middle class and affluent black folks I would come to know in the future would wince and give me a look I couldn’t read when I would tell the story that I outline in my new memoir, The Beautiful Darkness: A Handbook for Orphans. All some intolerant, ignorant bigots need is to continue to hear about the dysfunction of black families or the lie that we are all poor (living in inner cities) and broken and hopeless. But unfortunately, in my case, the dysfunction was just part of what I lived through as a kid.

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Racing ACEs gathering and reflection: If it’s not racially just, it’s not trauma-informed

October 24, 2016 By in ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Community prevention programs, Solutions, Trauma 18 Comments

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The following memo was written by a group of people who participated in the Racing ACEs gathering. 

It’s 2016. Local and national protests rise against an ongoing stream of state-sanctioned murders. African-American lives are being lost at a frequency and in a manner that decry ethnic cleansing. Sacred Indigenous land is being desecrated for profit. African-American, Native American, Latino American, Asian American, and poor communities are facing dislocation, police violence, and a range of traumas that compose the frayed ends of America’s historically racist national fabric.

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