Month: December 2009

+PTSD AND SEVERE ABUSE SURVIVORSHIP – CONCLUSION

alchemynow4 Comments

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This is the concluding post (PART 4 – see links below to 1st 3 posts) about how Trauma Altered Development (TAD) changes an infant-child abuse survivor’s reaction to ALL trauma.   Van der Kolk writes about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the book, Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body, and Brain – Hardcover (Jan 2003, W.W. Norton and Co.) by Daniel J. Siegel, Marion F. Solomon, and Marion Solomon, chapter 4 (pages 168-195) written by Bessel A. van der Kolk:  “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and The Nature of Trauma.”

In his concluding statement of his chapter, van der Kolk writes:

“The rediscovery of trauma as an etiological [causing] factor in mental disorders is only about 20 years old.  During this time there has been an explosion of knowledge about how experience shapes the CNS [Central Nervous System, including the brain] and the formation of the self.  Developments in the neurosciences have started to make significant contributions to our understanding of how the brain is shaped by experience, and how life itself continues to transform the ways biology is organized.”

Again, in talking about infant-child abuse survivors, I would throw the term ‘mental disorders’ out the window.  (Yet how did my mother’s TAD lead her to be HOW she was in the world?]  Trauma Altered Development (TAD) happens at birth (and before) as these trauma experiences shape the CNS and brain’s formation and ‘the formation of the self’.

We cannot minimize, ignore, deny or under estimate the power early trauma has to affect an infant-child’s development.  Van der Kolk is writing in 2003.  Many advances in research and discovery about the impact early experience has on forming an individual have been made in these intervening seven years.  Evidence of early trauma’s power to change people is piling up around us.

“How life itself continues to transform the ways biology is organized” has to be considered in the light that certain of our developmental stages, once passed through in our early life, cannot later be redone under better conditions.  Science has to sort out which is which – which changes are permanent and which changes can be altered at a later age.

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Van der Kolk continues:

“The study of trauma has probably been the single most fertile area within the disciplines of psychiatry and psychology in helping to develop a deeper understanding of the interrelationships among emotional, cognitive, social and biological forces that shape human development.  Starting with PTSD in adults, but expanding into early attachment and coping with overwhelming experiences in childhood, our field has discovered how certain experiences can “set” psychological expectations and biological selectivity.  Research in these areas has opened up entirely new insights into how extreme experiences throughout the lifecycle can have profound effects on memory, affect regulation, biological stress modulation, and interpersonal relatedions [sic].  These findings, in the context of the development of a range of new therapy approaches, are beginning to open up entirely new perspectives on how traumatized individuals can be helped to overcome their past.”

OK, I will first take issue with the last statement van der Kolk makes in his conclusion.  We have to sort out those with Trauma Altered Development (TAD) due to adaptation to extreme traumatic stress during the critical windows of their development from those who did not suffer from trauma that changed them in their development.  I belong to the first group.  Now that I know that fact, I can understand that I will NEVER be able to “overcome” my “past” in any fashion such as this author is suggesting here.

This is a critically important point for TAD survivors to understand.  Our traumatic infant-child experiences changed how we formed so that both the trauma experiences and our physiological responses to them are built into our body!  We cannot, obviously, leave our trauma changed body in our ‘past’, and any suggestion that we should or can do is worse than ludicrous.

I do not believe that any ‘help’ for me can start with PTSD in my adulthood.  For reasons pointed out in my previous posts on this topic (see below) I am no longer convinced that I even have PTSD.  I never had a pretrauma state from which to measure a posttraumatic state against – nor do I have a pretrauma state (or condition of my body) to return to.

Maybe it would help me understand myself better if I rework van der Kolk’s words so they make more sense to me as a TAD survivor:

“The study of trauma …[can help us] to develop a deeper understanding of the interrelationships among emotional, cognitive, social and biological forces that shape human development.  Starting with … early attachment and coping with overwhelming [malevolent, traumatic] experiences in childhood, our field has discovered how certain experiences …[form a developing infant-child body so that] psychological expectations and biological selectivity [are profoundly affected and permanently altered as a result].  Research in these areas has opened up entirely new insights into how extreme [traumatic] experiences throughout the lifecycle can have profound effects on memory, affect regulation, biological stress modulation, and interpersonal …[relations – but most definitely and profoundly when these experiences happen during development and change it so that all life experiences, including any later trauma experience, is processed in a different way]  These findings… are beginning to open up entirely new perspectives on how traumatized individuals [changed from birth cannot] …be helped to overcome their past.”

We cannot overcome our past.  We can begin to learn about the changes that happened to us so that we can begin to learn how to live well in spite of them.

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Interesting website my sister sent me the link to – am exploring it – has really COOL TRAUMA CHARTS!  Take a look at them, especially the third one which about describes how I feel all the time — and the way I felt for the entire first 18 years of my life — minus the hostility and rage because I did not have the luxury of that experience.  It is important to remember that depression is considered ‘an anxiety disorder’.

The experience of all these experiences related to trauma built themselves into our body through early infant-child maltreatment from our beginning.  The top right cluster of experiences on that bottom chart are ‘hyper’  or ‘GO’ sympathetic arm responses of our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) and the lower left ones are the ‘hypo’ or ‘STOP’ parasympathetic ones (remember, like a ‘pair a brakes’).  Fundamental changes in how our ANS formed happened to us through our Trauma Altered Development (TAD).

Again, I have to consider this information through my Trauma Altered Development (TAD) severe infant-child abuse survivorhood filter – I do not have an ‘ordinary’ non-trauma built body – my nervous system does not have a safe, secure calm set point……I am different…..so how does this information apply to me/us?  We have to figure this out…..
Somatic Experiencing Foundation for Human Enrichment — Mission Statement

The Foundation for Human Enrichment – FHE is a non-profit, educational and research organization dedicated to the worldwide healing and prevention of trauma. We provide professional training in Somatic Experiencing and outreach to under served populations and victims of violence, war and natural disasters.

What is Somatic Experiencing® (SE)?

”Somatic Experiencing® is a body-awareness approach to trauma being taught throughout the world. It is the result of over forty years of observation, research, and hands-on development by Dr. Levine. Based upon the realization that human beings have an innate ability to overcome the effects of trauma, Somatic Experiencing has touched the lives of many thousands. SE® restores self-regulation, and returns a sense of aliveness, relaxation and wholeness to traumatized individuals who have had these precious gifts taken away. Peter has applied his work to combat veterans, rape survivors, Holocaust survivors, auto accident and post surgical trauma, chronic pain sufferers, and even to infants after suffering traumatic births.

This is the primary website for the SE training, support of health professionals in Somatic Experiencing® and connecting trauma victims to the approximately 5,000 SE® Practitioners across the globe.”

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FROM MY POINT OF VIEW — considered from the above:

“SE® restores self-regulation, and returns a sense of aliveness, relaxation and wholeness to traumatized individuals who have had these precious gifts taken away”

TAD survivors cannot be restored or returned to anything like what these presenters are describing.  “These precious gifts” were taken away from us from the time of our birth — or even before!!  We have to understand what this means to us — nobody is going to do it for us!!  I never had a ‘sense of aliveness, relaxation or wholeness’ ever formed into my body in the first place — or any ‘ordinary’ ability to self-regulate (formed into our body-nervous system-brain fundamentally through our caregiver attachment experiences before the age of one).  Nobody can give me back what I never had.

So, how do I FIND these ‘precious gifts’ for myself NOW?  My Trauma Altered Development is a consequence I have suffered from my entire life as a result of having had my Human Rights as a Child stripped from me and violated through 18 years of abuse, torment and trauma.

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This post follows:

From December 2, 2009 +PTSD AND SEVERE ABUSE SURVIVORSHIP – PART THREE

from November 30, 2009 +PTSD AND SEVERE ABUSE SURVIVORSHIP – PART TWO

from November 28, 2009 +PTSD AND SEVERE CHILD ABUSE SURVIVORSHIP – PART ONE

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PLEASE NOTE:  Do not take anything I say as a reason to alter any ongoing treatment, therapy or medication you are receiving.  Consult with your provider if you find something in my writing that brings questions to your mind regarding your health and well-being.

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Please feel free to comment directly at the end of this post or on

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Your Page – Readers’ Responses

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OK, and this for FUN?

President Obama and ET?  “The Vatican Astrobiology conference from November 6-8 , for the first time legitimized discussion of extraterrestrial life and its implications for the Catholic Church.”

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+ALIGNING OUR NATION WITH UNITED NATIONS CHILD RIGHTS IS AGAINST OUR OWN LAWS

alchemynow7 Comments

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The following comment has brought something to my attention that extremely troubles me.  Perhaps I am experiencing some of the reactions and feelings that others might experience when faced with the reality that child abuse really does occur after they have spent their lives in oblivious ignorance of this fact.

Those of us who have suffered from infant-child abuse and neglect already know, of course, that extreme maltreatment of infants and children happens in our nation.  Yet here I am today, evidently having spent my life time somehow believing that the United States of America exists at some high level of the social food chain and would, given our advantages in the world, OF COURSE lead the world on all fronts that have to do with caring for and protecting our children.

NOT TRUE I find today, thanks to the following comment:

posted comment by Pat Gordon-Smith
patsky.blogspot.com

90.211.0.50

Submitted on 2009/12/03 at 8:47am

The Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights was superseded in 1989 by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child — CRC – http://www.cirp.org/library/ethics/UN-convention/

It is a detailed interpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the special case of children whose journey between wholly dependent infancy and legally independent adulthood means that, for a greater or lesser period between birth and age 18, they must rely on others for their physical, financial and emotional security.

Every country in the world has ratified the CRC apart from two – Somalia and the USA, although last week Somalia indicated its intention to sign. This was reported on the Jobsanger blog, where I posted a response (http://jobsanger.blogspot.com/2009/11/statement-on-childrens-rights.html).

Your conclusions seem bang on to me. I agree that, in the US, recognition of children’s rights should be a matter for the federal government. Perhaps you and blogger Ted McLaughlin might join forces in putting pressure on the president for just that.

Good luck.

IN RESPONSE TO:

+VIOLATING THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

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I just printed and read the December 12, 1989 United Nations General Assembly document from the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  I highly encourage my blog’s readers to do the same.  President Clinton did sign this, but it has never been presented to our Senate.

I did a Google search for the United Nations 10- member elected Committee on the Rights of the Child, which was established as a result of the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child to help nations improve the conditions of their children.

Article 44 of the Convention’s 54 Article Annex report on the Rights of the Child says,

1.  States Parties undertake to submit to the Committee, through the Secretary-General of the United Nations, reports on the measures they have adopted which give effect to the rights recognized herein and on the progress made on the enjoyment of those rights.”

This is emblazoned at the top of the Google search page:

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 20 November 1989, and ratified by all nations except the United States and Somalia. www.unicef.org/crc

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Any great, grand illusion I may have had about our nation’s commitment to the well-being of children – no matter what – has evaporated.  I feel chilled, sickened, saddened and scared.  I want to know on what grounds, and using what reasoning, what licensure, was our nation the ONLY one other than completely unstable Somalia to refuse involvement with this global effort to identify, recognize, clarify and describe the Human Rights of Children, or to participate with an enforced accountability for the treatment and protection of our nation’s children.

This 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child was held during the same time period (1985-1990) that the 75% of our young adults who are now unfit for military duty to our nation were born.

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This United Nations Background Note on Children’s Rights outlines global issues and progress made on behalf of earth’s children up until 1995 and includes the following:

A Global Pact on Children’s Rights

“After a lengthy period of careful negotiations, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted in November 1989 by a vote of the General Assembly. By September of the following year, the Convention had obtained the 20 ratifications required for its entry into force as international law. Its importance as a foundation of modern human rights law was later underscored at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna….”

America evidently wants no part of ‘international law’?  Ask the Indigenous People of our nation how well the USA honors its treaties.

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“The failure to ratify the treaty so far is in part due to potential conflicts with the constitution and because of opposition by some political and religious conservatives to the treaty.”

This scares me – why 75% of our youth ended up being misfits today?  How far are we willing to let the condition of our children deteriorate before we recognize that the states are not up to the job of ensuring a standard of Child Rights that even matches the United Nations suggestions?

Evidently we cannot participate in a global Child Right action because it is against our own law:

“American laws for the protection of children are at the state, rather than the federal level, and the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution restricts the authority of the federal government to pass legislation in this area.”

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“International human rights instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Optional Protocols are negotiated among United Nations Member States and are legally binding on the individual States that become parties to the instrument. There are two ways for a State to become a party: by signature and ratification or by accession.

In ratifying the Convention or an Optional Protocol, a State accepts an obligation to respect, protect, promote and fulfill the enumerated rights—including by adopting or changing laws and policies that implement the provisions of the Convention or Protocol.”

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This appears to be the kind of American reaction to these United Nations global efforts to provide for and protect the Rights of Children that leaves our nation hanging out in nowhere-ville in the company of Somalia, a nation without any government at all:

Updated February 25, 2009

Boxer Seeks to Ratify U.N. Treaty That May Erode U.S. Rights

By Joseph Abrams

– FOXNews.com

Sen. Barbara Boxer is pushing the Obama administration to move forward with ratification of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a controversial treaty that has never gained much support in the U.S.

“Sen. Barbara Boxer is urging the U.S. to ratify a United Nations measure meant to expand the rights of children, a move critics are calling a gross assault on parental rights that could rob the U.S. of sovereignty.

The California Democrat is pushing the Obama administration to review the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, a nearly 20-year-old international agreement that has been foundering on American shores since it was signed by the Clinton administration in 1995 but never ratified.

Critics say the treaty, which creates “the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion” and outlaws the “arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy,” intrudes on the family and strips parents of the power to raise their children without government interference.

Nearly every country in the world is party to it — only the U.S. and Somalia are not — but the convention has gained little support in the U.S. and never been sent to the Senate for ratification……” [READ FULL ARTICLE HERE – I find the ‘opposition’ sickening]

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Of course, there’s this, found at the Smart Girl Politics blog:

“Home Schooling families stepped up to represent not only their rights, but the rights of all Americans. The grassroots movement that took place yesterday must continue on a larger scale by educating all Americans about the danger of this U.N. treaty and placing calls to their elected officials.

Once again, our liberal friends in Washington, who claim to love America, are covertly hoping to ratify CRC making it the law of the land here in the United States helping to strip away the rights of parents in America and allow the U.N. to dictate what proper parenting looks like at a global level.

Both Drudge http://www.drudge.com/news/122366/us-may-join-un-childrens-treaty and Free Republic http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2278566/posts reported on this development on June 24, 2009, but this has been on the back burner for Barbara Boxer as reported earlier this year by FoxNews.com. “Sen. Barbara Boxer is urging the U.S. to ratify a United Nations measure meant to expand the rights of children, a move critics are calling a gross assault on parental rights that could rob the U.S. of sovereignty.” http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/25/boxer-seeks-ratify-treaty-erode-rights/

According to J. Michael Smith, HSLDA President, in Washington Times Op-ed—U.N. Treaty Might Weaken Families “

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June 23, 2009 post comment on Drudge Report:

“The US was a major player in getting the Convention on the Rights of the Child up and running. In fact, the US signed on to the convention 14 years ago, but has not ratified it. (Just like Somalia.) However, the US has signed and ratified a pair of optional protocols: “Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict” and “Optional Protocoal on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.” President Obama has described this country’s failure to ratify the convention as “embarrassing.” The text is located here: www.crin.org ”

As mentioned above, these are the

Optional Protocols

Two Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child exist:

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Fortunately I have found some hope in this impressive website concerned with the Rights of the Child:

CRIN – Child Rights Information Network found at http://www.crin.org/

THEIR MISSION:

“CRIN’s mission is to equip the global child rights community with the information it needs to ensure the implementation of children’s rights.

CRIN presses for rights, not charity and is passionate about putting children’s rights at the top of the global agenda by addressing root causes and promoting systematic change. Its guiding framework is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Our activities are based on the belief that information is a powerful tool for realising children’s rights – and such information should be made as widely available and accessible as possible. As such, CRIN aims to bridge the gap between the information-rich and the information-poor by maximising the potential of new information technologies, and ensuring that those unable to use them are not excluded.

As a network of, at the last count, over 2,000 members in 150 countries, we aim to capture the expertise and the knowledge of our members, making this available to all actors involved in the implementation of the CRC.”

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Please take a moment to follow this link and read CRIN’s Factsheet on Children’s Rights.  Print it, display it, believe it, share it.

For every single one of us who has suffered the trauma of infant-child maltreatment and abuse, we know the truth of these words within every cell of our body.  These facts give us the common ground we need in order to understand the essence of what was done to us, what happened to us as a result, and why.

Our basic human Child Rights were violated.  We were not protected.  We were harmed, hurt – and changed.

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Your Page – Readers’ Responses

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+PTSD AND SEVERE ABUSE SURVIVORSHIP – PART THREE

alchemynowLeave a comment

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I find that the only standard I can consistently depend upon in my considerations about what constitutes malevolent treatment versus adequate, benevolent treatment lies within the context of the United Nations Universal Declaration of the Human Rights of Children.  Safe, secure, appropriate and adequate early care that leads to an infant-child’s optimal development lies on a continuum at the opposite end from early malevolent conditions that present nearly a constant challenge and threat to survival itself.

The basic needs of children are defined in this Declaration.  In looking at my own history of survivorhood (I was never allowed to be a child, and therefore I no longer consider that I had a childhood at all) it is clear to me that every one of my rights as an infant-child were violated.  It was in that malevolent environment of deprivation that I was exposed to the degrees of trauma that were severe enough to create within the physiology of my body Trauma Altered Development (TAD).

From my earliest beginnings as a being physically separate from my mother was suffered from a lack of safe and secure attachment.  Deprived of that most fundamental resiliency factor, my body-brain-mind-self had to do the best that I could do to continue to grow and develop within that terrible environment that threatened my very existence.

This third post on the topic again continues an exploration of how TAD changes an infant-child abuse survivor’s reaction to ALL trauma.   Van der Kolk writes about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the book, Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body, and Brain – Hardcover (Jan 2003, W.W. Norton and Co.) by Daniel J. Siegel, Marion F. Solomon, and Marion Solomon, chapter 4 (pages 168-195) written by Bessel A. van der Kolk:  “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and The Nature of Trauma.”

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I begin writing today by considering the last sentence of the scanned book pages that were posted on November 30, 2009:

“….progress in understanding the function of attachment in shaping the individual and rapid developments in the neurosciences gave a new shape to these old insights [about the importance of trauma].”  (page 177)

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Van der Kolk next considers “The Psychobiology of Trauma” in his writing:

“Modern research has come to elucidate the degree to which PTSD is, indeed, a “physioneurosis,” a mental disorder based on the persistence of biological emergency responses.”  (page 177)

In my thinking, naming PTSD ‘a mental disorder’ ignores the overwhelming evidence that the entire human body is included in the ‘persistence of biological emergency responses’ that the author is talking about.  From my point of view, it is the consideration of how severe infant-child maltreatment and abuse changes the development of the ENTIRE BODY of the little one that matters to those of us who survived this degree of early trauma.

‘Biological emergency responses’ BUILT our bodies.  These responses signaled our DNA how to express itself.  These responses signaled our developing nervous system and brain on all levels about how to adapt to trauma.  Our developing nervous system was also intimately involved in these responses as it formed, also.  It is at this most basic, profound level of our physiological development from our beginnings that we have to understand how our development changed in ways that a non-TAD ‘ordinary’ body did not.

The adaptive changes that happened to us took place on far, far deeper levels than just the level of mind.  Mind is simply the topmost layer of our existence that I see as being related to our body as smoke is to fire.  I do not have a ‘mental disorder’.  My entire being is ordered in a very particular way in accordance with what surviving my infant-child trauma required.

It is this Trauma Altered Development that created my survival based, trauma centered ordering of my entire being that I seek to understand.  I am not convinced that van der Kolk has anything more than a passing surface notion of what these TAD changes actually ARE, how they affect us, or even if they legitimately belong to anything like a PTSD diagnostic category.

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Van der Kolk continues by saying:

“To understand how trauma affects psychobiological activity, it is useful to briefly revisit some basic tenets of neurobiology.”

I do not like the term ‘psychobiological activity’ because it implies that anyone on the outside can ever have any accurate information about what another person’s ‘psyche’ is like.  That is why researchers try to more completely understand the human ability to form a Theory of Mind.  MIND belongs to each of us as individuals, and everyone has their own.  Nobody can ever come to understand what the subjective experience of MIND is like for another person.

‘Neurobiology’ is a different thing.  This is a realistic descriptive word that refers to a part of a person that can, within the current limitations of science, be understood and described because it is physically real on the molecular level.  But neurobiology is not the same thing as MIND.

Van der Kolk continues:

“McLean (1990) defined the brain [my note:  The brain is a biological reality as part of our nervous system, from which an individual’s MIND originates.  Brain and MIND are not the same thing.] as a detecting, amplifying, and analyzing device for maintaining us in our internal and external environment.  These functions range from the visceral regulation of oxygen intake and temperature balance to the categorization of incoming information necessary for making complex, long-term decisions affecting both individual and social systems.  In the course of evolution, the human brain has developed three interdependent subanalyzers, each with different anatomical and neurochemical substrates:

(1)  the brain stem and hypothalamus, which are primarily associated with the regulation of internal homeostasis,

(2) the limbic system, which is charged with maintaining the balance between the internal world and external reality, and

(3) the neocortex, which is responsible for analyzing and interacting with the external world.

”It is generally thought that the circuitry of the brain stem and hypothalamus is most innate and stable, that the limbic system contains both innate circuitry and circuitry modifiable by experience [my note:  This emotional area of the brain forms through early caregiver attachment interactions birth to age one, forming MUCH earlier than the neocortex], and that the structure of the neocortex is most affected by environmental input (Damasio, 1995).  If that is true, trauma would be expected to leave its most profound changes on neocortical functions, and least affect basic regulatory functions.  However, while this may be true for the ordinary stress response, trauma – stress that overwhelms the organism – seems to affect people over a wide range of biological functioning, involving a large variety of brain structures and neurotransmitter systems.”  (pages 177-178)

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I am going to scan in the book pages that follow in van der Kolk’s description of how trauma affects people.  I believe his statement on the bottom half of page 190 is extremely important:

“…the development of a chronic trauma-based disorder is qualitatively different from a simple exaggeration of the normal stress response….”

We need to stretch that concept as far as we possibly can if we are going to understand how severe trauma from malevolent infant-child abuse and neglect changes our entire development – nothing about us is excluded.  Any possible aspect of our development that can adapt its development in order to help us endure and survive early trauma – does so.

Our problem comes when the reality of our early trauma is denied along with the depth, breadth and width of its impact on our development.  What may be true for a non trauma altered development person cannot be assumed to be true for us.  Yes, we know what the following descriptions of consequences FEELS like – but we also know that we never knew any other, different way of being in the world.

Due to the changed development we experienced as we survived our early severe traumas, anything that we might begin to understand now as being more like  ‘ordinary’ in our physical – and correspondingly in our mental — ability to experience our self in our body in our lifetime, will happen as we begin to understand how deeply trauma formed us in the first place so that we will NEVER experience trauma (or life) in the same way as will a person who did not experience Trauma Altered Development when they were little.

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The scanned pages below (from the book mentioned above!) is complicated information, but it is a place for us to truly begin to understand ourselves – the way were MADE in the severely abusive and trauma-filled environments we were formed in.

On page 184 van der Kolk notes that “PTSD patients” have problems

“…with “taking in” and processing arousing information, and to learn from such experiences.”

Sorry, but I am not a ‘PTSD patient’.  I am a 58-year-old woman who has suffered from an extra-ordinary body, altered in all its developmental stages in adaptation to trauma, that has never been able to ‘take in’ even ordinary information, let alone ‘arousing information’, or to ‘learn from’ the experiences of my life in an ordinary way.

What on earth do we expect to happen to little people who must continue to develop and survive even while they have little or no access to even their most basic Universal Human Rights?  Infant-child development IS ALTERED under these conditions.  It is time that we realize this is the most truly horrific consequence of early abuse and trauma.  We don’t get to experience ANYTHING the same way as non-early-traumatized people do – not even later traumas.

(note:  I believe in ‘degrees of damage’ – the 75% of our sub-par young adults in this country have suffered some degree of damage that has changed the course of their development away from optimal and BEST!  We cannot afford to ignore that fact – deprivation and violation of the Universal Human Rights of Children causes changes in the way their body and brain develop.  There is a very real, physiological process through which trauma and deprivation get passed on down the generations.  We know it is happening when we see the consequences in degrees of lack of well-being –- which are detectable no matter what our age.)

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(The following is from page 186 on left or right handedness and trauma)

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This post follows:

from November 30, 2009 +PTSD AND SEVERE ABUSE SURVIVORSHIP – PART TWO

from November 28, 2009 +PTSD AND SEVERE CHILD ABUSE SURVIVORSHIP – PART ONE

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PLEASE NOTE:  Do not take anything I say as a reason to alter any ongoing treatment, therapy or medication you are receiving.  Consult with your provider if you find something in my writing that brings questions to your mind regarding your health and well-being.

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Please feel free to comment directly at the end of this post or on

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Your Page – Readers’ Responses

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+FANTASTIC PBS FREE ONLINE DOCUMENTARY ON THE EVOLUTION OF OUR UNIQUELY HUMAN MIND

alchemynowLeave a comment

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This is a real treat, and FREE!

PBS Documentary – The Mind’s Big Bang – evolution of our mind – from the first time we made BEADS for personal ornamentation.  Cool!  We found decoration that reflected social relationships — tools, technology and social identity.  AND, we began to build on the knowledge of the older, wiser ones among us.

This film also clearly describes the development of Theory of Mind, which allows us to be — sneaky!  It talks about the evolution of language….two thirds of all our talking is about GOSSIP!

There’s a free toolbar you can download that open’s up a universe!!

NOTE:  The theory of Mind developmental stage that is formed between ages 4 – 5 is where I believe my mother’s Borderline mind went permanently astray!  Also, you can do other things on your computer as this documentary plays if you want to!  What a deal!  Be sure to control the size of the image by clicking that little square at the end of the slider-bar under the picture.

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Please feel free to comment directly at the end of this post or on

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Your Page – Readers’ Responses

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+VIOLATING THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

alchemynow3 Comments

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When any of the Universal Human Rights of Children are violated, those who violate and those who allow the violation to occur are equally accountable for the criminality of their actions.

Today I am reminded of the biggest picture not only about the condition of the youth, children, infants and their parents within our nation.  This picture is about Human Rights – not only as they apply to adults, but also as they apply to the offspring we are raising among us.

What do these words mean?

Equal Justice, Equal Opportunity, Equal Dignity

I found a wonderful video about Human Rights presented at this above link presented by our friends on their website, Treasures of Wonderment.

I then went to the United Nations website where I found the full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

“On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights….Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.””

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Considering my concerns about the current poor condition of the youth of our nation, and thinking about how every passing present moment of our lives are passing continually into the past as we step into the future, I wonder about the decline in well-being that our nation is obviously experiencing as demonstrated not only by this lack of well-being of our youth but also of the parents who raise them.

Do we in America today deny that we have these Universal Human Rights and that our children also have Universal Human Rights?  What are we lacking as a nation that is creating these conditions of distress within our population?  What elements are missing that the required environment of safe and secure attachment to ourselves, to our children, to one another and to the world we live in seems to be increasingly missing within our own nation?

What standards can we use in order to take a clearer look at ourselves?  Why NOT consider the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the most complete set of guidelines existing on our planet about our concerns?

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Every one of the 30 Articles contained within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are vital to ensure human well-being.  All these Rights fit together into a whole.  It is my particular concern today about the well-being of our nation’s infants, children, youth and their parents that most concerns me, so I paid particular attention to Articles 25 and 26 as I read this Declaration:

Article 25.

  • (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
  • (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

  • (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
  • (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
  • (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

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Do the rights of children solely lie with their parents?  What happens if parents do not and cannot ensure the rights of their children?  What happens if and when parents directly violate ANY of the United Nations Human Rights as they apply to children?  What ARE the Universal Human Rights of children?  Do they have any?

On November 20, 1959 the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights.  I found a United Nations page with links on the rights of children, and also found the official version of the Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights.

I also found the following on the United Nations website.  It is in these few words that the picture becomes clear not only about what children need, but what their Universal Human Rights are in plain and simple language:

Declaration of the Rights of the Child – Plain Language Version

1.  All children have the right to what follows, no matter what their race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, or where they were born or who they were born to.

2.  You have the special right to grow up and to develop physically and spiritually in a healthy and normal way, free and with dignity.

3.  You have a right to a name and to be a member of a country.

4.  You have a right to special care and protection and to good food, housing and medical services.

5.  You have the right to special care if handicapped in any way.

6.  You have the right to love and understanding, preferably from parents and family, but from the government where these cannot help.

7.  You have the right to go to school for free, to play, and to have an equal chance to develop yourself and to learn to be responsible and useful.

Your parents have special responsibilities for your education and guidance.

8.  You have the right always to be among the first to get help.

9.  You have the right to be protected against cruel acts or exploitation, e.g. you shall not be obliged to do work which hinders your development both physically and mentally.

You should not work before a minimum age and never when that would hinder your health, and your moral and physical development.

10.  You should be taught peace, understanding, tolerance and friendship among all people.

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Those who are survivors of any degree of deprivation of any of these rights anywhere on our planet – including within our own nation — are caused suffering through criminal actions.  When any of these Universal Human Rights of children are violated, it is to this that we must pay the closest attention:

6.  You have the right to love and understanding, preferably from parents and family, but from the government where these cannot help.

I do not believe that in our nation the Universal Human Rights of Children should be left to the care of the governments of our separate states.  I believe that the guarantee of these Rights needs to be protected by our federal government.  I believe we need to develop a federal standardization in regards to children’s Rights that is applied equally across all 50 states on every level that impacts the well-being of our nation’s children – from conception forward.

This would include all child protection services, including all services designed to identify maltreatment, all services designed to remedy critical issues within a child’s home of origin in a speedy and competent manner, and all services that are designed to place children in living environments where ALL their Universal Human Rights will be guaranteed.

I also believe that our children’s public education needs to be standardized on a national level and should NO LONGER be left, in any way or on any level, up to the incompetent design and administration of individual states.

It seems obvious to me that considering the findings that 75% of our youth are suffering from serious lack of well-being that even finding ways to shore up inadequate parenting will not resolve the profound problems our nation is facing in regard to Universal Human Rights of our children.  We need an across-the-board revision of our educational system by the federal government, and this need has reached critical proportions.

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Either we are a nation that is willing to stand behind these Rights as defined by the United Nations or we are not.  It seems obvious to me where the great grey area of “maybe yes, maybe no” has gotten us.  We have approached a ‘crisis management needed’ stage within our nation.  We need to move up the hierarchy of who is going to take care of our nation’s children – and how.

If parents are not equipped to guarantee the Universal Human Rights of their children, and if our individual states are not equipped to do it, then it is our federal government’s responsibility to step up to its job of guaranteeing these rights through every possible means at its disposal.

Violating the Universal Human Rights of Children is a criminal act.  Allowing anyone to violate these rights is a criminal act.  These Rights are not arbitrary.  They are absolute, fundamental and necessary.  There is no room for grey.  Either we are a nation of criminals or we are not.

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PBS Documentary – The Mind’s Big Bang – evolution of our mind – There’s a free toolbar you can download that open’s up a universe!!

+HARSH REALITY, NOT EVEN A QUESTION – WE HAVE BECOME A NATION OF FOOLS

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What is wrong with our nation that over 75% of our nation’s young adults born between 1985 and 1990 appear to be sloppy, incompetent fools?  Talk about NEGLECT and bad parenting!!!  How and why did we let things get THIS BAD?

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“Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009 the generals and admirals of Mission: Readiness, along with US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, released a new report that details the fact that 75% of young Americans are unable to serve their country because they have either failed to graduate high school, engaged in criminal activity, or are physically or mentally unfit.”

For state-by-state data, the press release and report, go to the press conference page.  You will find here that even this 75% statistic is considered to be too LOW!

This link goes to the excellent full report, well worth the reading.  Be sure to look for more details about the data collection for this study in this complete report HERE, which includes a full presentation about the need for early childhood development education and parent coaching, as well as the following statement:

“….state and federal governments together are paying over $20 billion a year to identify and care for the victims of abuse or neglect in America….Individual children who grow up to drop out of school, abuse drugs and become career criminals cost society, on average, over 2.5 million dollars each.”

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It is too bad that this study did not collect child abuse information, similar to that collected by the Center for Disease Control in their recent studies, along with the other statistics so that we could clearly determine patterns of Trauma Altered Development in correlation with the problems over 75% of our nation’s young adults are now demonstrating.

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I must be living in a bubble.  I am stunned and shocked by the findings of this report that a minimum of “75% of young Americans are unable to serve their country.”  Is our great nation already experiencing this drastic of a decline in our standards and quality of life that this 75% figure measuring a disaster of fitness among the masses of our nation’s youth seems to bother so few?  Yes.  It seems obvious that this is true.

What is wrong with the parents of these children?  What are they doing?  It seems obvious to me what they are NOT doing – paying attention and providing anything like a high quality of life for their children that prepares them for a high quality life in adulthood.

These statistics reflect serious neglect and negligence, at a minimum.  I do not believe the ‘problem’ lies within the schools.  The responsibility of raising healthy and competent children lies with the parents that bring them into the world.  Is this the best that our nation’s parents can do?  Do we have nearly an entire nation of unfit parents?  We must, because evidently we have nearly an entire nation of completely unfit young adults.

If 75% of our nations young adults are this unhealthy and unprepared for competent adulthood, how in the universe are they prepared to provide healthy parenting to any children they may bring into the world?

Something is WRONG here – and I mean right HERE – in this once-was-a-proud-strong nation called America!  Are we destroying our own nation from the inside?

Have we willingly and knowingly turned ourselves into an uneducated, ignorant, lazy, unhealthy, sloppy, placid, valueless drug using nation of misfits, criminals and fools?

I need to revise my entire mental concept of ORDINARY!!  If being useless to oneself, one’s offspring, one’s nation and one’s global civilization is the accepted standard of ordinary in our nation, I want no part of ordinary!!  Or is it the other way around so that most parents have suffered enough traumas that they had no chance at ordinary in the first place?

The inequity in the distribution of fitness versus lack of fitness among our youth is staggering!  This massive group of pathetic youth is entering the age when they will be running our country and making decisions that will impact the future of our globe.  Or, are we content to let the less than 25% of our population run our entire nation while the rest of our population further deteriorate into nothing more than complete social parasites?

Are the non-traumatized, securely attached, advantaged people having fewer (if any) children while the traumatized, insecurely attached and disadvantaged are having more?  Are we seeing the consequences of a generation of daycare and latchkey children whose mother’s abandoned the home for the public work place?

There is no amount of money on this globe that our government could possibly throw into our ‘educational system’ to resolve this massive of a problem.  The government is not any more responsible for raising our nation’s children than our school systems are.

Parents HAVE to more positively participate in the PARENTING of their children.

We have obviously reached this dismal and appalling point in our national decline because far more than the majority of the parents of our nations either do not give a damn or are completely unfit themselves!

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