Blog #4 (chapters 7&8)

My aunt and uncle adopted my cousin when he was 2 years old. He came from a family of seven other siblings. The mother put him up for adoption simply because she didn't want him. Almost all of the frist two years of his lifew were spent alone in his bedroom. He sat in the crib by himself, played by himself, and only interacted with anyone whne food was brought to him. This chapter reminded me so much of my cousin and his story. My aunt and uncle adopted him, and instantly began showing him the attention and care that he needed. However, he still struggles with mental health disorders and behavior acting out. All because of how he wasn't appropriately cared for during the first two crucial years of his life. This neglect is still showing it's effects on his life and he is almost 16 years old. The line "we get our first lessons of self-care in how we are cared for" jumped out at me because it describes perfectly my cousin's situation. 

    I found the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) to be so interesting. It makes me so sad that kids who've experienced so much trauma really start viewing the world in such a negative way. Thier innocence has been robbed from them. What should just look like a happy man teaching his kids how to work on a car looks like an opportunity to crush and kill a man for a traumatized child. To a child who has been sexually molested an innocent image of a pregnant women brings up thoughts of sex and private areas. How incredibly sad, but telling of how great trauma affects the brain. 

    The last part of the chapter talked about Marilyn's trauma story. I found this to be incredibly helpful. This past week at my internship, I worked and shadowed at the women's shelter. Many of the women there have experienced some extreme trauma. The staff there were confused about one lady who kept making weird comments about being in the Bahamas or being at Disney World throughout the day. As this behavior continued, staff began seeing a pattern. This lady would say things like this when she didn't want to remember things that happened in her day. She had to get a skin spot looked at by the doctor, and when she got back,, she referred to her time at the doctor's as time in the Bahamas. She would say things like, "while I was in the Bahamas earlier..." Her brain chooses to simply just forget things. This was learned early in her life as a way for her to cope with the great trauma she experienced. Vand Der Kolk explains that this is an incredibly normal way to cope with trauma, avoidance. This happened with Marilyn as well. this idea will be helpful as I go into working with traumatized individuals. In working through intense memories in an appropriate way, we are working to take control of their emotional mind.