PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions.

~ Susan Pease Banitt

Susan Pease Banitt Emotions Healing Mental Health Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Psychology Ptsd Spirituality Stress Trauma Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress Traumatized Yoga

Being in a state of denial is auniversally human response tosituations which threaten tooverwhelm. People who were abusedas children sometimes carry theirdenial like precious cargo without aport of destination. It enabled us tosurvive our childhood experiences, and often we still live in survival mode decades beyond the actual abuse. We protect ourselves to excess because we learned abruptly and painfully that no one else would.

~ Sarah E. Olson

Sarah E. Olson Abuse Survivor Child Abuse Defense Defense Mechanism Denial Protection Psychology Repression Secret Secret History Self Protection Survival Survivor Trauma Traumatic Memories Traumatic Stress Victim

Dissociation is the ultimate form of human response to chronic developmental stress, because patients with dissociative disorders report the highest frequency of childhood abuse and/or neglect among all psychiatric disorders. The cardinal feature of dissociation is a disruption in one or more mental functions. Dissociative amnesia, depersonalization, derealization, identity confusion, and identity alterations are core phenomena of dissociative psychopathology which constitute a single dimension characterized by a spectrum of severity.Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience 2014 Dec; 12(3): 171-179The Many Faces of Dissociation: Opportunities for Innovative Research in Psychiatry

~ Verdat Sar

Verdat Sar Child Abuse Developmental Psychology Dissociation Dissociative Disorder Dissociative Identity Disorder Neglect Psychiatry Psychology Psychotherapy Trauma Traumatic Stress

It is dangerous to use our own ability to access non-traumatic memories as a standard against which we judge a trauma victim’s response.

~ David Yeung

David Yeung Abuse Survivors Child Abuse Disbelief Judgement Memory Not Believeable Ptsd Recovered Memories Repressed Memories Survivors Trauma Memory Traumatic Memories Traumatic Stress

The traumatic moment becomes encoded in an abnormal form of memory, which breaks spontaneously into consciouness, both as flashbacks during waking states and as traumatic nightmares during sleep. Small, seemingly insignificant reminders can also evoke these memories, which often return with all the vividness and emotional force of the original event. Thus, even normally safe environments may come to feel dangerous, for the survivor can never be assured that she will not encounter some reminder of the trauma.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Flashbacks Memory Nightmares Ptsd Recovered Memories Repressed Memories Trauma Trauma Memories Trauma Memory Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress Traumatization Traumatized Triggers

When you go through a traumatic event, there's a lot of shame that comes with that. A lot of loss of self-esteem. That can become debilitating.

~ Willie Aames

Willie Aames Ptsd Quotes Self Esteem Shame Trauma Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress

Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods.

~ Peter A. Levine

Peter A. Levine Gift Healing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Relief Trauma Trauma Experiences Trauma Healing Traumatic Epiphonies Traumatic Stress Traumatized

First, the physiological symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder have been brought within manageable limits. Second, the person is able to bear the feelings associated with traumatic memories. Third, the person has authority over her memories; she can elect both to remember the trauma and to put memory aside. Fourth, the memory of the traumatic event is a coherent narrative, linked with feeling. Fifth, the person's damaged self-esteem has been restored. Sixth, the person's important relationships have been reestablished. Seventh and finally, the person has reconstructed a coherent system of meaning and belief that encompasses the story of trauma.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Complex Ptsd Healing Healing Abuse Healing Process Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Psychotherapy Ptsd Recovery Recovery From Abuse Therapy Trauma Trauma Therapy Traumatic Stress

In situations of captivity the perpetrator becomes the most powerful person in the life of the victim, and the psychology of the victim is shaped by the actions and beliefs of the perpetrator.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Abuse Abuse Survivors Abuser Belie Belief System Captivity Complex Ptsd Core Beliefs Domestic Violence Healing Healing From Abuse Healing Insights Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrator Powerless Powerlessness Prisoner Ptsd Recovery From Abuse Stockholm Syndrome Survivors Trauma Traumatic Stress Victim

Because if I am living an honest life, and my eyes are open, and I'm trying my hardest to be good and kind, then anything I'm doing is fine to tell people.

~ Penelope Trunk (Journalist)

Penelope Trunk (Journalist) Ethics Morality Ptsd Trauma Traumatic Stress

This book appears at a time when public discussion of the common atrocities of sexual and domestic life has been made possible by the women’s movement, and when public discussion of the common atrocities of political life has been made possible by the movement for human rights. I expect the book to be controversial—first, because it is written from a feminist perspective; second, because it challenges established diagnostic concepts; but third and perhaps most importantly, because it speaks about horrible things, things that no one really wants to hear about.

~ Judith Lewis Herman

Judith Lewis Herman Abuse Atrocities Challenging Status Quo Controversial Denial Of Abuse Denial Of Child Abuse Denial Of Incest Domestic Violence Feminist Horror Of Life Horror Of Rape Horror Of War Human Rights Human Rights Violations Political Life Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Sexual Abuse Society Denial Terrorism Torture Trauma Traumatic Stress Unspeakable Women S Movement Women S Rights

When preparing for Book One, I talked to a couple of psychiatrists about psychosomatic phenomena, neuroses and dissociative conditions, for example the so—called hysterical blindness suffered by many who saw the Killing Fields in Pol Pot’s Cambodia: their eyes objectively see, but they are not aware of it and are blind because they believe they can’t see. One specialist told me that among modern Western people, ’metaphorical’ symptoms such as Fredy or those Cambodians evince are much rarer now than earlier in the twentieth century or before. Nowadays most people are better equipped by education to verbalise their neuroses, and have lots of jargon in which to do so. For most of the dissociative dimension, I could draw on things I knew from within myself.

~ Les Murray

Les Murray Blindness Conversion Disorder Dissociation Dissociative Hysteria Hysterical Dissociation Mental Disorder Mental Illness Neuoroses Neurosis Neuroticism Pol Pot Psychogenic Psychosomatic Trauma Trauma Survivors Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress Traumatized

Trauma destroys the fabric of time. In normal time you move from one moment to the next, sunrise to sunset, birth to death. After trauma, you may move in circles, find yourself being sucked backwards into an eddy or bouncing like a rubber ball from now to then to back again. ... In the traumatic universe the basic laws of matter are suspended: ceiling fans can be helicopters, car exhaust can be mustard gas.

~ David J. Morris

David J. Morris Combat Ptsd Flashbacks Mental Disorder Mental Distress Mental Illness Military Psychiatry Military Quote Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Time Trauma Survivors Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress Traumatized Veterans

Much, much later. when I am back home and being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I will be enabled to see what was going on in my mind immediately after 11 August.I am still capable of operating mechanically as a soldier in these following days. But operating mechanically as a soldier is now all I am capable of.Martin says he is worried about me. He says I have the thousand-yard stare'.Of course, I cannot see this stare. But by now we both have more than an idea what it means.So, among all the soldiers here, this is nothing to be ashamed of. But as it really does just go with the territory we find ourselves in. it is just as equally not a badge of h

~ Jake Wood

Jake Wood Acute Stress Reaction Army Army In Afghanistan Army Quote Automaton Casualty Of War Combat Ptsd Crock Of Shit Dead Inside Depersonalised Depersonalization Depersonalized Detached Dissociated State Dissociative Dumb Emotionless Flashback Flashbacks Idolisation Idolized Mechanical Military Military Psychiatry Military Quote Naive Naive Soul No Longer Human Nothingness Numb Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Posttraumatic Stress Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Robotic Soldier Stare Thousand Yard Stare Traumatic Stress Traumatized True Warrior Unemotional Warrior Warrior Qoutes Wounded Warriors

Dr. Peter Levine, who has worked with trauma survivors for twenty-five years, says the single most important factor he has learned in uncovering the mystery of human trauma is what happens during and after the freezing response. He describes an impala being chased by a cheetah. The second the cheetah pounces on the young impala, the animal goes limp. The impala isn’t playing dead, she has “instinctively entered an altered state of consciousness, shared by all mammals when death appears imminent.” (Levine and Frederick, Waking the Tiger, p. 16) The impala becomes instantly immobile. However, if the impala escapes, what she does immediately thereafter is vitally important. She shakes and quivers every part of her body, clearing the traumatic energy she has accumulated.

~ Marilyn Van Derbur

Marilyn Van Derbur Fight Flight Freeze Play Dead Survivors Trauma Trauma Experiences Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress Traumatized

Unlike simple stress, trauma changes your view of your life and yourself. It shatters your most basic assumptions about yourself and your world — “Life is good,” “I’m safe,” “People are kind,” “I can trust others,” “The future is likely to be good” — and replaces them with feelings like “The world is dangerous,” “I can’t win,” “I can’t trust other people,” or “There’s no hope.

~ Mark Goulston

Mark Goulston Dangerous World Lack Of Trust Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Sense Of Self Shattered Souls Stress Trauma Traumatic Stress Work View

Complexly traumatized children need to be helped to engage their attention in pursuits that do not remind them of trauma-related triggers and that give them a sense of pleasure and mastery. Safety, predictability, and fun are essential for the establishment of the capacity to observe what is going on, put it into a larger context, and initiate physiological and motoric self-regulation.

~ Sarah Benamer

Sarah Benamer Abused Child Abused Children Attachment Theory Attachment Trauma Childhood Trauma Childhood Traumas Complex Ptsd Healing From Abuse Self Regulation Sense Of Safety Trauma Traumatic Stress Traumatization Traumatized

Those who were molested or beaten as children or teenagers might later be vulnerable to sexual abuse or violence, because their natural impulses to protect themselves and protest (physical and verbal) were extinguished. Expectation of hurtful treatment by others or one's own failed capabilities can stubbornly persist despite overwhelming evidence that such is no longer the case.

~ Babette Rothschild

Babette Rothschild Child Abuse Childhood Abuse Complex Ptsd Physical Assault Rape Revictimisation Self Defense Self Help Sexual Assault Survivor Trauma Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress Victims Vulnerability

July 15, 1991Nita: My mother was a paragon of our neighborhood, People always come up to us with hugs, saying You have the most wonderful mother. l'd think. “Don't you see what's going on in this house?” To this day, if somehow even in jest raises their hand to me, I will do this (raises hands to protect face and cowers) I cringe. Then they look at me like, what's your probem? You don't get that from a great childhood.

~ Sarah E. Olson

Sarah E. Olson Defensive Hypervigilance Jumpy Overreact Overreaction Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Trauma Trauma Survivor Traumatic Stress Traumatized

Trauma is any stressor that occurs in a sudden and forceful way and is experienced as overwhelming.

~ Stephanie S. Covington

Stephanie S. Covington Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Psychological Trauma Ptsd Stressors Trauma Traumatic Stress Traumatized

Traumas produce their disintegrating effects in proportion to their intensity, duration and repetition. (1909)

~ Pierre Janet

Pierre Janet Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Ptsd Ptss Trauma Traumatic Experiences Traumatic Stress

To take a specific example, a researcher in the Journal of Traumatic Stress interviewed 129 women with documented histories of child sexual abuse that occurred between the ages of 10 months and 12 years. Of those, 38 percent had forgotten the abuse. Of the remaining women who remembered, 16 percent reported that they had for a period of time forgotten but subsequently recovered their memories. [46] Thus, during that time a false negative recorded for those women. These are the sort of distinctions for which Elaine Showalter in Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media fails to account.

~ Janet Walker

Janet Walker Academic Research Child Sexual Abuse Elaine Showalter Epidemics False Memories False Negatives Feminists Hysterical Hysterics Incest Incestuous Misleading Pseudo Science Pseudoscience Recovered Memory Repressed Memories Repressed Memory Sexual Abuse Survivors Trauma Traumatic Stress Women Survivors