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kristin
Senior Contributor

Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

Hi all,

I have finally found something in writing about the links between these two. The more I have understood my own trauma and MI (and learned about others') the more I have had a strong sense that all these different diagnoses are different presentations of the effects of trauma. So here it is:

"many mental health patients report a history of traumatization, regardless of diagnosis. Thus it is difficult to sort out which symptoms and disorders are associated with traumatization, and which are not. Many patients who have serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, bipolar I and II, and other psychotic disorders have a history of traumatization"

From the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation website

I'll be very interested to hear what you all think about it... @kenny66 @Rick @Loopy @Alessandra1992 @Ellie @peace @Neb @BatGuano @kato @Aonaran  etc (sorry everyone else - I can only list up to 10 apparently before I break the mention function!)

Looking forward to hearing from others.

Kind regards,

Kristin

45 REPLIES 45

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

Thanks @Kristen. So what I gather from that reading is how truly damaging trauma is that it affects the mind to such a degree that it alters it in various ways.

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

The clinic where I have been admitted has a high proportion of armed forces persons suffering PTSD from the trauma they have experienced in dealing with fatalities of assylum seekers at sea etc. So even peripheral trauma can have a devastating effect.

I read some paper that post war Vietnam had the highest rate of trauma induced mental illness in the world at that time.

Within the clinic 100% of the people I know there with schizophrenia are the subject of abuse and childhood trauma. The same applied to the the two young girls I met there with anorexia.

I also saw some articles linking childhood abuse and MI later in life to such abuse. In my case the conventional wisdom is that my traumatic childhood was definitely a contributing factor with my schizophrenia and PTSD.

I guess the theory would be in my case that genetically there may be a predisposition to schizophrenia and that a number of other factors such as abuse and trauma added to it.

There is an interesting article in "the conversation" UTS journal from 28/10/2015 about complex trauma and MI.

It would seem impossible to ignore the fact that childhood trauma particularly has an effect later on in life in regards to mental health.

Oh, I forgot to mention. My flatmate is a paranoid schizophrenic who also suffered from shocking childhood abuse and the associated trauma.

 

 

 

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

Hi @kristin 

That is very interesting to read, do you have a link to the the full article?

i, well as far as i know have not had any trauma in my life to warrant the effects to have happened, but i am still exploring my terrible memory and lack of it also.

i know that perhaps my traumatization comes from my drug use from early childhood right through to last year, and it could be that possibility which has in turn made me more Prone to developing Mi, I know that i have a long history of drug use and that the use of such drugs during the ages of 14 - 25 in males, will affect the brain growth, i have read that males brains are still maturing/learning/developing? until mid to late 20's, in females it is apparently around 18 - 20

The multitude of psychologists i have seen, i think i am currently seeing my 7th or 8th psychologist, every single one has always been angling towards childhood trauma as abuse.... i don't have any memories of abuse, but i have alot of blanks..... i believe i am a slightly tricky case, especially for my specialists, because i am not a definative segment, i think i have different parts of many different disorders which makes it difficult knowing how i function, perhaps there is trauma there, and i just don't know it, i hope to get answers in the near future

Thank you

 

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

@kristin 

@kristin 

Below is a researched piece I'm working on for publication.

I'm basically taking the data from several research projects and collating it in a way which is understandable to a non clinician. Such as myself.

I have found that understanding that there is actual physical damage done to various parts of the brain during the time of abuse there is a sense of relief that this is not volitional but a biological imperative.

This may not engender more control sadly, but it does take the edge off the issues of our self inflicted guilt and shame regarding condition based behaviours. It also explains them.

I don't know whether it will be helpful but I have found that even today as I'm very acute and struggling not to drown, knowing that it is a normal response for a damaged neural network at least short circuits the desire to blame myself for weakness of character. That is a massive consideration!

 

 

 

 

                                           ABUSE SURVIVORS AND COMPLEX DIAGNOSES

 

 

Stress can set off a ripple of hormonal changes that permanently wire a child's brain to cope with a malevolent world (Teicher, 2002)

 

Traumatised children (and adult survivors) become increasingly responsive to relatively minor stimuli as a result of decreased frontal lobe functioning (learning and problem solving) and increased limbic system (amygdala) sensitivity (impulsiveness) (Streeck-Fischer & van der Kolk, 2000).

 

A study by Teicher et al. (1993) found a 38% increased rate of limbic abnormalities ('emotional brain') following physical abuse, 49% after sexual abuse, and 113% following abuse of more than one type combined (cited in Streeck-Fischer & van der Kolk, 2000)

 

For over a hundred and fifty years we have known that childhood abuse causes permanent negative changes in the brain. These changes are a formative consequence that survivors of childhood abuse must live with. These consequences often take the form of complex mental illness. Eg.Post-traumatic stress disorder,Panic attacks,Depression,Dissociation,Dissociative Identity Disorder,Bipolar,Schizophrenia,Eating disorders,Personality disorders.

 

Unlike in simple mental illness these illnesses often overlap and create a confusing and difficult to treat and manage confluence of symptoms.

 

Survival Stress is the trigger to this. It is well known that effects of this ongoing survival based stress become permanent. (Stress can set off a ripple of hormonal changes that permanently wire a child's brain to cope with a malevolent world (Teicher, 2002).)

 

So imagine, if you will, the perceptions and reactions of a child's permanently damaged neural architecture in the body and mind of an adult. Here we have a person who through no fault of their own or genetic predisposition have mental health issues that are difficult to diagnose and seemingly impossible to treat. So this person must then manage a condition which pervades so much of the life they are trying to live. Often desperately. 

 

As abusers rarely limit themselves to simply one form of abuse, we find even more complex overlap of mental illness symptomology. So much research has been undertaken to recognise the links between early childhood abuse and complex mental illness that there is no doubt that the effects are real.

 

Efficacious treatments for these permanent conditions though, are the major gap in pharmaceutical and therapeutic research and development. Thus far people with a complex mental illness have few treatment options. The main barrier to treatment would appear to be the permanent nature of neural changes in the brain.

 

With a significant population of childhood abuse survivors, (2011-12, there were 252,962 notifications of suspected child abuse and neglect made to state and territory authorities (a rate of 34.0 notifications per 1,000 Australian children) (CFCA Fact Sheet— May 2013) there is an enormous group of people left without any hope for a traditional recovery.

 

So, what do we say to these people? What hope can we provide? Society as a whole has allowed this to happen. What will society do to try and make it right?

 

Like any permanent disability we cannot and should not speak in terms of rehabilitation to a former state of wellness. This is because there has never been a state of wellness.

 

So the best we can provide right now is intervention. Not so much for people currently experiencing these conditions but an early intervention targeted to the victims of the abuse itself. I know that this may be considered obvious. But as things stand in Australia even today, it is recognised that many victims fall through the gaps in our fragmented child protection system. (This recognition has seen the development of a National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 (Council of Australian Governments, 2009).)

 

It is a major concern that this significant population is still "falling through the gaps". A lack of understanding and empathy within the mental health and health sectors is having a negative impact on the holistic health of people with complex diagnoses. When many professionals talk about mental illness they are really only referring to simple mental illnesses. And when services are providing support they are thinking in terms of these noncomplex disorders. There appears to be a disconnect in the mindset and knowledge of service providers and this disconnect leaves them and their clients completely 'at sea' and neither one seems to know how to get un-lost.

 

 

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

Hey @kato 

I'd try posting the link but I had the post held up by a mod for apparently breaching the guidelines to do with selling things on the forum. The only thing I could see that this mob sell are memberships and professional MH courses. Oh and they have a find a therapist page but it's very clunky and I can't find anyone in Aus on it even if I search using Melbourne - it is a US website. 

Anyway if you Google "ISSTD Trauma FAQ state of the art" you should get the rest.

Kind regards,

Kristin

 

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

Hi @kenny66 &  @peace ,

Yes there are lots of different types of trauma, not necessarily just what you've experienced physically, but also witnessed. Hence children who grow up with domestic violence or a war environment or a violent neighbourhood are affected, even if not directly abused themselves (if both witnessed and suffered then I guess at least double whammy).

So those in @Loopy 's situation, emerg services personnel, returned services too - and yes Vietnam vet PTSD sufferers have made a huge impact on both the support available and the research available. Though sadly many of them get the same horrible short shrift from veteran's affairs as Loopy and the policewoman I posted about the other day got from their respective pds.

Kenny I'm so sorry to hear about your fm, sadly it is so common an experience. Please give him (and yourself) a virtual hug and my heartfelt compassion. Thanks for sharing about the other survivors at the clinic. 

Interestingly I have been reading Judith Herman's Trauma and Recovery which is considered a seminal work in the field. She talks about early psychoanalysts (Freud et al) discovering that "hysteria" (now PTSD) in women was caused by CSA. In the end Freud and others couldn't bear to believe that CSA was so widespread (wasn't exactly met with academic acclaim either) and renounced this theory shifting to pathologising the patients (mostly women) as having sexual fantasies - hence ideas like the Electra and Oedipus complexes. I can't help but see the estimated % of the population with MI and the estimated % who've suffered CSA/CA and wonder whether there is a very strong correlation here. I'd also be very interested in the article, is there any chance of posting a link please (or is it a hard copy)?

Peace I think the damage is huge with trauma, the younger you are then the more damage it can do. I believe from my reading that there's a theory that if you have not had secure enough attachment to your primary care-giver as a baby it makes you more vulnerable to trauma later (less resilient). Hence some of the stuff on BDP such as @shanc was talking about. Of course if you are unlucky enough to have a parent who is prepared to abuse you then it's unlikely you were ever able to form a secure attachment with them in the first place - as they are probably not capable of it. I know this to be the case in my situation, my paternal grandmother cared for me when I was little - which was a huge literally life-saving grace.

I guesss my perspective is increasingly questioning whether the medical & academic community have got this backwards - a bit like not knowing how to classify a platypus when the first saw one in England. So what if it is various traumas which are at the basic cause of MIs, and the way they are "classified" is to do with how they present rather than focussing on identifying cause? If it is because of trauma then depending on age/ who/ when/ what/ frequency/ duration/ individual characteristics/ heredity as to how the trauma presents? I suspect that Aspergers/autism spectrum fits in here too.

But clearly this is not the whole story, as so many of us have survived horrendous things, and although we've suffered and suffer still, we are very strong - often far more so than we realise. We've had to be just to survive into and through adulthood. So there is more to this journey than not having as much "care-given" resilience to begin with, because along the way we sure have grown some!

So hope endures...

Kind regards, Kristin

 

 

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

Hi
thanks for posting this.
I always thought that I am to strong to suffer any MI a fool was I really bad accident months of rehab and life as I knew it changed for ever. 3 years on body healed somewhat mind damaged in ways I thought I was strong enough to deal with how wrong I was.
Scorpion

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

Hey @Rick 

That's excellent. Thanks! Well done. I am wondering if you could post the links for the research you've quoted. I am interested to read more. I've been trying to find an open copy of the Teicher 2002 paper, maybe I haven't dug far enough through the Google search list yet. Found other interesting related stuff though.Woman Happy

Take care, it's good to see you back.

Kindest regards,

Kristin

Re: Relationship between trauma & other MI diagnoses

Hey @SCORPION 

You are most welcome. 

To be honest I don't think anyone is too strong to suffer from MI. I think it's not about strength, but about acceptance and working through pain IMHO. It can happen to anyone if you suffer enough trauma - whether that be a single inceident or multiple incidents.

I can't find the thread at the moment but soemwhere - I think in respinse to one of @Rick @Loopy or @kato 's posts (they might remember it - I am a bit brain dead ATM) I mentioned a book you may find helpful: Babette Rotshchild's The Body Remembers. It helped me to understand my own trauma memories (and lack of them too) much better. It also has some good info on working with trauma for therapists (when I told my psych about it she made a note of the titile so she could buy it).

Please be kind and compassionate to yourself, when it is hard to live with the after-effects of trauma and being "weak" remember how strong you have had to be just to survive. Things do get better - it's just not a straight or quick road. But hope for healing does endure...

Kind regards,

Kristin

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