Emotional Flashbacks Complex PTSD/ What Ails Us

Watch this space, people! The resident blog bitch is about to be back. Somber, serious, sassy, and soooo ready to crack the whip. Till then, take a look at what I found on the Island of Misfit Toys. A handbook, if you will, a how-to manual for the fatally fucked up. Read on: Emotional Flashback Management in the Treatment of Complex PTSD

Emotional Neglect: A Primary Cause of Complex PTSD?

... I was surprised that a number of clients with moderate and sometimes minimal sexual or physical childhood abuse were plagued by emotional flashbacks. Over time, however, I realized that these individuals had suffered extreme emotional neglect: the kind of neglect where no caretaker was ever available for support, comfort or protection. No one liked them, welcomed them, or listened to them. No one had empathy for them, showed them warmth, or invited closeness. No one cared about what they thought, felt, did, wanted, or dreamed of. Such trauma victims learned early in life that no matter how hurt, alienated, or terrified they were, turning to a parent would actually exacerbate their experience of rejection.The child who is abandoned in this way experiences the world as a terrifying place. I think about how humans were hunter-gatherers for most of our time on this planet—the child's survival and safety from predators during the first six years of life during these times depended on being in very close proximity to an adult. Children are wired to feel scared when left alone, and to cry and protest to alert their caretakers when they are. But when the caretakers turn their backs on such cries for help, the child is left to cope with a nightmarish inner world—the stuff of which emotional flashbacks are made.