Trauma : Helping children: Harming Adults!

John Macdonald POSTED FROM FACEBOOK (& TWITTER)

• JustCoz

  JustCoz.org/operationSAFE

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  • Christopher Barnes, Richard  Jenkins and Padraig Seumas MacanBhaird
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      Hc DonnellySo what is the age limit for helping these “children” I mean if the community or society they live in missed the boat in the helping game – do they still qualify to have their fucked up lives made better.. by the caring society, now that it knows what they went through?!
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      Hc DonnellyOn behalf of children who have experienced trauma – can I say to  Operation Safe.. Too Little Too Late – ooh, and I really did mind my P’s & Q’s just in case that caring society thought they needed to fix any anti-social behaviour before they could risk helping!
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      John MacdonaldAgree with you HcD. We must talk more when its less late! ‘Go boldly into this good night!’
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      Hc DonnellyIt’s all very well putting distance between ourselves and the trauma caused to children at home, by projecting care and charitable giving to those abroad – who are conveniently targeted as more deserving and less able to help themselves or be helped by their own government. Some how I think there is a case for putting ones own house in order, before visiting those of neighbours to fix their problems.
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      Kali Mountford

      Trauma in childhood is extremely difficult and can cause ill health and continued trauma throughout life, yet very little is spent on it in the NHS either for adults who in their later years need help to cope with the lasting effects, or fo…r the children when the trauma occurs.  There is no social group this is confined too. It is yet another taboo. Operation Safe may be of some use I don’t know, but there are thousands needing help and not getting it right now. The cuts aren’t going to help are they?See more
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      John MacdonaldSince the eighties the ICD and DSM (Diagnostic syatems) have promoted a mythological and pernicious diagnosis called ‘Borderline Personality Disoder – which is slapped on people with complex traumatic backgrounds who don’t meet the stringent criteria for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. People are then treated as the bottom of the pile by the psychiatric professionals because they are viewed as being ‘Personality Disorder’ rather than people whose personalities that have BEEN damaged by trauma/abuse. I have known people with bi-polar who complained about a nurse or patient being rediagnosed ( in one case overnight) and then refused treatment. Ironically it is nevertheless called ‘a mental illness’ and has its own  Treatment Pathway  (in Scotland anyway)
    •  The diagnosis is based on an invalidated concept of a ‘borderline’ between psychosis and neurosis. There have been moves for a number of years to create a new diagnosis for those who have suffered multiple trauma . The most common is ‘Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’. This makes good sense and it appears that the pyschie manuals will change it soon. But the residual stigma will continue.
    • The best writing in my opinion in Judith Herman ( Harvard)  who runs a centre and has written a very well written book on Trauma. Another interesting source is Heller (also USA) who emphasises the physiological side (All trauma causes some brain damage) Karen Macdonald and I have written a piece which we plan to publish as an e-book in the near future on “Trauma and Diagnosistic labelling”.
    • Actually this stuff has been around for centuries and went under the similarly sterotyping diagnosis of ‘hysteria’ in the early to mid twentieth century, particularly applied to women ,hence the ‘hysterical’ epithet. More enlightened nineteenth century voices were subsequently ignored. We welcome this important discussion…
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