This series has focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and how it affects those who live with its symptoms. PTSD is, as we have seen, a life-altering disorder that changes the direction of many people’s lives.

In this article, we shall focus on healing strategies and the hope that one can find life despite having post-traumatic stress disorder.

A Quick Recap of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Scary and dangerous events cause most humans to feel fear, and this fright sets off a cascade of chemical reactions in the body that readies it for the fight/flight/freeze response. …

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become well-known among the public today. However, many do not understand that anyone can form PTSD and ignore the symptoms putting themselves at risk for health and emotional problems.

June is post-traumatic stress disorder awareness month, so it seemed an excellent opportunity to write about this acquired disorder in depth. This article will cover a description of what PTSD is and its history as an accepted diagnosis.

What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?

During a scary and/or dangerous event, it is natural to feel fear. Our fright sets off a cascade of chemical reactions in the brain that readies our bodies…

We’ve all heard the words trauma and traumatized used in pop culture plus newspapers and journals, but what is it? What makes trauma the heart of so many mental health diagnoses, and how can we combat it?

Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is a trauma-related disorder, and to understand the condition, we must first comprehend trauma. This article will do just that, explore trauma and how it affects those with DID.

What is Trauma?

The word trauma is used in two different perspectives, physical meaning a physical injury and psychological meaning an emotional response to a profoundly distressing event. …

No series on how positive childhood experiences (PCEs) can mitigate the effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) would be complete without speaking about the future. Not only the futures of adults who are living with the scars left by ACEs but the future of children being born today.

This article will focus on how we can change our prospects by acknowledging and using the past as a jumping board into the future.

Learning to Live with ACEs from the Past

Adverse childhood experiences affect survivors from the moment the trauma occurs to throughout their lifetime. …

One might think of negative childhood experiences as intimately linked with complex trauma and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), and you would be correct. CPTSD is caused by a series of numerous traumas, usually in childhood, and can form in adulthood.

We have not considered that positive childhood experiences are deeply related to resiliency and can alleviate some of the terrible side effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that cause CPTSD.

Positive Childhood Experiences: A Recap

Often, we read about how adverse childhood experiences challenge kids as they grow into adults and the terrible consequences they have on people’s lives. …

Childhood should be a carefree time full of learning and joy. However, many children aren’t that lucky and grow up in homes that are dysfunctional and abusive. These encounters are known as adverse childhood experiences and change the future of the child forever.

One question that burns in the minds of many survivors and researchers alike is how do positive childhood experiences (PCEs) come into play? Can positive childhood experiences help an abused child cope in some way?

This article will reintroduce ACEs and introduce the concept of PCEs.

What are Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)?

Adverse childhood experiences are traumatic events that happen in childhood between…

This April we have been focused on childhood sexual abuse (CSA), a crime that can cause long-term harm even as the child grows into adulthood. 1in 4 women and 1 in 6 men alive in the United States today were molested sexually before the age of 18. This means there are more than 42 million adult survivors in the U.S.

Today we will explore together the long-term effects that childhood sexual abuse has on, not only children, but to the adults they become.

A Short Recap

It would be remiss of me if I did not first give everyone a brief recap of…

As my readers know by now, I am not afraid to tackle tough subjects that have for too long been considered taboo. Childhood sexual abuse is one of the most taboo subjects out there but it needs to be brought out into the open, examined, and methods found to prevent and treat it.

This article will concentrate on what childhood sexual abuse is and how it relates to complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD).

Childhood Sexual Abuse, the Hidden Epidemic

It is simply human nature that no one wants to admit that children can and are sexually abused. …