“Our real blessings often appear to us
in the shape of pain,
loss and
disappointment.”
Joseph Addison
In
the effort to survive generations of physical, emotional, cultural and
spiritual abuse resulting in historical trauma, many of us have established
maladaptive psychological problems, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
which in turn can lead to depression and substance abuse. Survival of mind and
body in the individual and social sense under conditions of extreme and abnormal
pressures and deprivations has required adaptive responses. Research has
demonstrated that prisoners of war who survived those terrible experiences have
a lowered resistance to new demands in the post-war environment. Their adaptive
capacity was diminished during years of confinement. The experience of being
sequestered on reservations and held prisoner at the boarding schools resemble
prisoner of war experiences which were complete with degradation and
deprivation.
As
a result of unresolved trauma, we may lack feelings of trust for ourselves, our
own feelings, other people, and our own decisions. Being depersonalized as
social and cultural beings, having lost a sense of social honor, and communal
sense of belonging, without any appearance of social control has created a
sense of unreality in reference to the self, loss of effective reactions to
varying circumstances and has essentially led to a loss of freedom. The
blocking of our choices is referred to as the “disabled will.” Toxic shame
constricts all our emotions and this phenomenon exists within chronically
dysfunctional families which seriously impair the families’ freedom (Schiraldi,
2000).
To
further aggravate the families’ functioning is the blocking of our free will
when our minds are impacted by emotion as a result of unresolved trauma. A part
of our brain, the amygdala, is associated with the older part of the brain and
the regulation of emotions. This part of the brain by-passes reason and is
motivated primarily by instincts. We are able to react without thinking for the
sole purpose of survival. Have you ever driven home from somewhere and you
don’t remember how you did so? Your mind
was somewhere else. Our amygdala took over and got us home safely.
Stress
is the result of when we react psychologically and physically to a potential
change in our environments. Our mind reacts with concern, worry, or fear. When
our brain tells us something is dangerous, we enter the fight or flight mode. Our
bodies react by secreting stress chemicals and hormones. This stress response
existed as far back as primitive times as a mechanism to ensure the survival of
our species and was developed for short-term stressors. A danger is perceived
and the limbic system, our older brain, responds. A hormone is released that
causes our adrenal glands to release three additional hormones: epinephrine
(adrenaline), norepinephrine (nonadrenaline); and cortisol. We are ready to
fight or flee.
Long-term
activation of these chemicals causes chronic harmful physical and psychological
problems such as heart disease, ulcers, obesity, substance abuse, depression,
immune system suppression, and a whole host of other medical and mental health issues.
The state of our physical well-being can definitely make a negative impact on
our emotional well-being. Stress reduction not only improves the quality of our
lives, it can actually save our lives.
Childhood
abuse can make a significant impression on our amygdala. Thus, when something
appears to resemble the original moment of trauma associated with childhood
abuse and other abuse, the amygdala recognizes the similarity and guides our
response in a split second. This occurs before our brains have time to think
about what is actually happening or what the outcomes of our reaction will be. A
result of a child who was subjected to abuse is the development of a sense of
abandonment because no one was there to take care of their needs while the
abuse was occurring (Pick, 2011).
Trauma
needs to be fully grieved by experiencing the emotions appropriate to
grief. When we suppress our emotions
they come out sideways or inappropriately. They can come out in hysterical
outbursts of anger, fear or sadness. Oftentimes, debilitating bouts of
depression can occur. Depression, usually the result of unaddressed anger, can make an impact on our ability to feel
pleasure, our ability to think, and our ability to have healthy relationships. We
may also make choices that are detrimental to ourselves such as choosing one abusive
partner after another. The repressed energy must be released before our minds
can function efficiently. Repressed emotion leads to blocked reasoning. In
turn, anyone can have an outbreak of uncontrolled anger or become depressed and
we are well aware of how these emotions can affect our thinking. A sullen mood
brought on by depression can dampen any activity that may have been enjoyable
in the past (Allen, 2005).
Research
has proven that depression is one of the most disabling diseases worldwide and
is associated with a wide range of medical and psychiatric illnesses.
Depression is one of the side effects of Historical Trauma and unresolved
trauma and has been anticipated to become the second most disabling disease
following heart disease by 2020. The rate of depression equated or exceeded broad-spectrum
medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis concerning
the number of days spent in bed, extent of physical pain, and impairment of
everyday functioning. The following are signs and symptoms that can help us
develop an understanding of depression:
·
Sad
or irritable mood most of the day and for most days.
·
Loss
of interest in activities that we once found enjoyable.
·
A
sudden change in weight and appetite.
·
Inability
to sleep or sleeping too much.
·
Agitation
or restlessness.
·
Constant
fatigue or loss of energy.
·
Persistent
feelings of worthlessness or guilt.
·
Difficulty
concentrating or making decisions.
·
Frequent
thoughts of death or suicide (Schiraldi, 2000).
If
we experienced trauma so terrible that it may seem impossible to overcome, we will
experience symptoms which persist and may overwhelm us or we may or may not
realize the extent of damage. We may suffer from a variety of symptoms soon
after the traumatic events occurred or much later. When we have suffered various
forms of trauma we may develop severe and persistent symptoms such as Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), deep feelings of shame, alcoholism,
depression, anxiety, rage, nightmares, flashbacks, and feeling out of touch
with reality and we may frequently turn to addictive behaviors to numb our pain
such as substance abuse, and promiscuous sex, all a result of unresolved trauma.
PTSD
may result from stress that has been piled onto us, especially powerful and
disruptive circumstances that seem to be increasingly common in our violent
world. So many of us have been exposed to overwhelming stressors that seem to
be out of our control such as what happened on September 11, 2001 referred to
as 911. Our country was knocked off its feet by that unnecessary tragedy. Overwhelming stressors may be caused by
people; accidents; or by nature. It is our reactions to these events that cause
us so much pain and suffering.
Shock, anxiety, guilt, chronic
irritability, depression and substance abuse are often the result of PTSD along
with insomnia, nightmares, an exaggerated startle response, and a whole host of
additional psychological issues as a result of unresolved trauma. Those
suffering from PTSD are also often plagued with an impairment of concentration,
flashbacks of traumatic experiences, feelings of confusion and despair, low
self-esteem, fear of losing control, and the chronic intrusive fear that the
traumatic event(s) will reoccur. Time is not always the perfect healer. When we
have been subjected to prolonged, repetitive trauma we take on a progressive
form of PTSD which may permeate and corrode our personality and may make a
negative impact on all aspects of our lives.
Chronic trauma can lead to Complex
PTSD which can lead to irreversible changes in our self-concept if not
addressed fully. Eventually we will feel as if we have no self at all. In a
multitude of circumstances the treatment of historical trauma is predominantly
nonexistent or not addressed adequately. The majority of service providers are
not getting to the root of the problems many Native Americans are facing.
A multitude of psychiatrists have
estimated that up to ten percent of the population in the United States can be
clinically diagnosed with PTSD which means one in ten people may be plagued
with PTSD. Also, more and more people may be exhibiting many of the symptoms of
the disorder. Not all people who
experience trauma require treatment. Some people recover with the help of
supportive individuals. However, many do need professional help to successfully
recover from the psychological injury resulting from exposure to traumatic
event(s). PTSD can occur in children as
well as adults when they experience domestic violence, child abuse, child
neglect, and loss of loved ones. To create an understanding of how historical
trauma is related to what is happening today, examine how many generations of
Native Americans attended boarding schools, resided on reservations and
suffered under the scrutiny of Euro-Americans who felt it was their right to
oppress the Native Americans through acts of discrimination and geno-cide. When
they were forced to attend the boarding schools, they did not learn how to
parent appropriately with love and nurturance. They were deprived of their
cultural practices and forced to move from their homelands. As a result of
hundreds of years of oppression, many Native Americans may be riddled with
PTSD.
PTSD involves the following symptoms:
·
Dysphoria,
which is a state of feeling unwell or unhappy and a feeling of emotional and
mental discomfort such as feelings of restlessness, depression, anxiety and/or
indifference.
·
Experience
alterations in consciousness:
o
Amnesia
concerning traumatic events
o
Dissociative
episodes consisting of a brief or a more severe detachment from reality. The
individual feels as if they are watching themselves from above their bodies.
o
Depersonalization
which involves a deeper detachment from reality than dissociative episodes. It
is an irregularity of self-aware-ness and a nonspecific feeling that indi-viduals
have lost their identity, their sense of self feels different and unreal.
o
Reliving
traumatic experiences in the form of intrusive ruminative preoccupation.
·
Persistent
thoughts of suicidal ideation.
·
Explosive
or extremely inhibited anger, individuals may alternate between these extreme
behaviors.
·
Promiscuous
or severely inhibited sexuality, indi-viduals may alternate between these
extreme behaviors.
·
Experience
variations in personal self-perceptions.
o
Sense
of helplessness
o
Experience
a lack of ambition.
o
Shame,
guilt and/or self-blame.
o
Sense
of defilement.
o
Experience
feelings of complete difference from others which may include feeling a sense
of specialness and extreme loneliness.
·
Experience
alterations in perception of the perpe-trator(s) including:
o
Preoccupation
with relationship with the perpetrator(s) which may include preoccu-pation with
revenge.
o
Unrealistic
attribution of total power to the perpetrator(s). Note: victim’s assessment of power realities
may be realistic.
o
Idealized
perception of relationship.
o
Sense
of special or paranormal circum-stances. May believe they are soul mates
destined to be together.
o
Acceptance
of belief system or rationali-zation of perpetrator(s).
·
Variations
in relations with others, including:
o
Isolation
and withdrawal.
o
Disturbance
concerning intimate relation-
ships.
o
Continuous
search for rescuer and indi-viduals may experience feelings of isolation and
withdrawal.
o
Unrelenting
distrust.
o
Repeated
failures of self-protection. Putting
self in harm’s way.
·
Alterations
in systems of significant meaning
o
Loss
of sustaining faith and spirituality.
o
Sense
of hopelessness and despair (Schi-raldi, 2000).
In
addition to the damaging effects of PTSD, Indian people are experiencing other
anxiety disorders and mental health issues such as boarding school syndrome,
malignant trauma, shame, and other psychological woes associated with chronic
intergenerational stress. Historic Traumatic Transmission or intergenerational
stress is related to the cumulative emotional and psychological damage which
has existed across generations. Psychological baggage has been passed from
Indian parents to their children, in addition to the trauma and grief they may
be currently experiencing. These after-effects play out in today’s Native
American households.
Studies
link the experiences of Holocaust survivors and men who have gone to war with
how these traumatic experiences have affected their offspring. Unresolved
historical trauma will continue to negatively impact the people of Native
American descent and will not go away until it has been addressed mentally, culturally,
spiritually, emotionally, physically, and economically.
Damage
to any aspect of our self-worth can lead to shame and similar feelings of
embarrassment and humili-ation. Shame, not a natural state, is a representation
of moral conflict strongly associated with fear. In relationship to shame,
feelings that we may experience are; but are not limited to: incompetence,
stupidity, damaged, defective, ex-posed, small, weak, out of control,
powerlessness, help-lessness, unloved and/or unlovable. Traumatic events may
render us helpless. Feelings of helplessness are at the core of shame. Trauma
wounds the self, our sense of competence, and the capacity to be in control of
our lives. Concerning emotional abuse, which can be humiliating, is the most
direct attack on the self and the most shaming (Schiraldi, 2000).
The telltale signs of having an
anxiety disorder include feeling anxious and tense even when there is no real
danger. The symptoms cause significant distress and interfere with our daily
activities. We may take extreme steps to avoid situations that make us feel
anxious. A common anxiety disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD),
involves constantly worrying about all kinds of things and expecting the worse.
We may suffer from distress concerning our jobs, performance, relationships,
and possible misfortune even if there may be no real threat of any one of them.
Specific and social phobias are part
of the anxiety disorder family and are represented by a persistent fear of
specific things, such as spiders and elevators.
Social phobias involve persistent anxiety about social or performance
situations, such as public speaking and taking a test, usually due to fear of
embarrassment. We may fear meeting new people, or being around too many people.
For centuries, many Native American people were subjected to cruel and
oppressive treatment which may have led many of us to develop social anxiety
due to a lack of trust of other people.
Another anxiety disorder, Panic
Disorder, is when we feel intense, sudden terror or impending doom. Panic
attacks can happen several times a week or even within the same day. The attacks reach their peak in about ten
minutes, but will result in making us feel emotionally drained or frightened.
These attacks often occur without warning and may consist of shortness of
breath or smothering sensations, heart palpitations, chest pain, choking
sensations, or fear of going crazy.
Since there is no way to predict when an attack will occur oftentimes we
may avoid the place in which an attack has occurred. Some of the abuse that occurred at the
boarding schools was often inflicted on the children without warning. These
unsuspected attacks may have caused some of the victims to experience panic
disorders (Meyers and Dewall, 2015).
Boarding School Syndrome is a term coined
to describe what happened when a governmental system separated children from
their families and communities to prevent them from speaking their language and
adhering to their cultural heritage. Children removed from their home and
subjected to abuse in these institutions often developed serious personal
distress. They experienced a disconnection physically, mentally, emotionally
and spiritually. The syn-drome has been linked to problems with self-concept,
lower-ed or diminished self-esteem, emotional numbing associated with an inability
to form lasting healthy bonds with others, somatic disorder, chronic depression,
anxiety, phobias, insomnia, nightmares, dissociation, paranoia, sexual dys-function,
heightened irritability, tendency to fly into rages, alcoholism, drug
addiction, and an increased chance of taking one’s life due to feelings of
desperation and hope-lessness (Churchhill, 2004).
During an interview Yulanda said,
“There was a girl who went to the school and knew not a word of English. They
beat her if she would talk in her language.” Jennifer relayed she was beaten
with a rubber hose for wetting the bed, she was six years old. The majority of
the staff at these institutions were proficient in the use of violence and
degradation to wield control over the children. These practices were introduced
during crucial develop-mental periods in the children’s lives.
Some
of the unsettling results of living in unsafe environments may have been the
onslaught of malignant trauma for children and this form of trauma may be
resonating with many adult Native American people today. Malignant trauma can
occur as the result of the non-responsive behaviors by those who were obligated
to care for the children’s needs. The children’s needs and their cries for help
were ignored or met with punishment. The victims experienced a sense of
helplessness and hope-lessness, which existed over long periods of time.
Children
are programmed to test the waters by crying out during the night as young
infants and children, and if their cries are responded to, they develop a sense
that they carry a certain level of importance. Having their needs met can lead
to the development of trust. However,
when their needs are not met for circumstances such as not being tended to when
they are fearful at night or have unmet needs, they may develop malignant
trauma.
Malignant
trauma may result in four losses: (a)
helplessness associated with the loss of the expectation of help; (b) loss in the belief that the other is
obligated to respond to a cry for help and reassurance; (c) the loss of the obligated other’s relatively continuous,
constant, and appropriate recognition and response to cries and needs, which is
tied to a loss of trust; and (d) the
loss of one’s commitment to recognize, respect, and respond to his or her
desires and needs (LaMothe, 1999).
The
chances of overcoming these losses are mini-mal to nonexistent. Consider the
children who were forced to stay at the boarding schools, lying in bed at
night, feeling lonely and fearful. They required reassurance that they were
going to be all right and needed nurturance from a caring adult caregiver. They
would lie on their beds crying, and nobody came to their aid. They realized at
a very young age the only people they could count on were themselves. Psychological
unavailability may be the most subtle yet most severe form of maltreatment. These
children became more and more silent as they lived their lives in quiet
stillness, swallowed up by darkness.
The mental health of children is
contingent on the child experiencing a feeling of security from nurturing
adults. Attachment provides them with physical protection. We need to feel
physically safe in order to feel emotionally secure. Trauma can undermine their feelings of safety
as well as feeling emotionally secure. Think about a time when we were injured,
distressed or in pain, we usually tried to seek a safe place in which our needs
could be met. Learning to do so was crucial to our survival. Without a secure
base, we would not feel comfortable to explore and learn about our world.
Having a safe place is a necessary component for establishing our
independence.
Trauma disrupts the secure base and
basic trust development and disrupts our physiological regulation which in turn
can throw us completely off balance because a traumatic experience can generate
hyper-arousal consisting of fear, panic and pain and then if we are abandoned
or neglected after being injured, we can develop attachment trauma. Attachment
trauma creates extreme distress. It also undermines the development of our
capacity to regulate that distress. Fortunately, if we are able to form a
secure attach-ment relationship later in life, we may be able to more readily
regulate our emotions and overcome the damage done by the disruption in forming
healthy attachments during our childhood (Allen, 2005).
Remaining in a constant state of
fear deters us from moving past the moral dilemmas we may be facing. Cir-cumstances
such as when we feel as if we have behaved immorally or are deficient as a
human being can lead to feelings of shame, which sets the stage for fear. Fear
is one of our true opponents. Because of
fear, doubt rears its ugly head which may lead to anxiety and dread. We may
make rash decisions and dismiss any signs of hope and trust. Facing fears can
be scary, to say the least, and most people would rather avoid those unpleasant
feelings.
During
an interview with Kent, he reported he was locked in the basement at the Holy
Childhood Boarding School in Harbor Springs, Michigan when he got into a
scuffle over a chair with another child. It was Saturday evening and the
children were about to watch a movie. A child, who was favored by one of the
nuns, wanted a specific chair, and Kent wanted to sit on the same chair.
Ultimately, the favored child got his wishes met, and Kent was sent to sit on
the basement stairs alone in the dark while the other children watched the
movie. This event had a twofold outcome, not only associated with his fears, but
also contributing to his sense of worth. Because he was not the favored one, he
may have considered himself worth less than the other child. Additionally, he
stated he has a fear of the dark and attributes this fear to the basement
incident and being forced to sit in the dark alone.
Intense
reactions, especially to any reminders of traumatic events have proven to be
one of the trademarks of the emotional legacy of trauma. Sometimes the opposite
is true for traumatized individuals. Traumatized people may refer to their
feelings of emotions as numb or dulled. They complain of not being able to feel
love or anger. There may be a struggle between too much emotion and not enough
emotion. They may feel intense emotions such as panic, terror and rage and then
vacillate to feelings of numbness, emptiness, and feeling emotionally dead.
We
can develop false personal identities when we change ourselves into what we
think others want or have forced us to be. We define ourselves by the roles and
positions in our lives. The children who were placed in these schools were
forced to live under the care of strangers, some very cold and cruel. The role
and purpose of many Indian people was determined by the Euro-Americans. How we have chosen to adjust to the losses
affects the personal re-definition of our
lives.
All
mood altering chemicals, such as alcohol, marijuana, heroin, and cocaine, have similar
effects: to change the mood and feelings of the person who uses the chemical.
Chemical dependence refers to the harmful de-pendence on any mood altering
drug. Using alcohol to alter their feelings and mood helped the Native American
people to escape the harsh reality of their situation. The use of alcohol was
introduced during the fur trading era and along with this usage came the
dysfunctional drinking patterns. Since the Indian people’s social immune system
at the individual and group level was already compromised, drinking became an
escape from the hardships instilled by the Europeans which led them directly to
addiction problems.
They
sought to hide from the oppression and from their own agonized selves. Indian
people began to drink excessively because they wanted to feel something other
than pain and despair. Their grandchildren and great grandchildren drink for
the same reasons. They are men-tally disassociating themselves from the
cumulative painful memories; to feel something else as a way of escaping mental
anguish; to belong to a group even if it is a group of alcoholics; and it is a
plea to live on one’s own terms. Ironically, excessive drinking has served as a
cover up of the erosion of social control and social power and the loss of an
individual’s place in society by regaining self-control by doing what they want
to do with their own bodies, minds, and memories, they are making a choice.
Every person responds to trauma in
his or her life in a different manner and there is no set time for recovery.
The factors that seem to determine how long it takes to get over the effects of
trauma are:
·
Personality
type.
·
The
environment in which we grew up in such as was it hectic and chaotic or was it
calm and peaceful.
·
Current
living situation.
·
General
overall health.
·
Substance
abuse and other addictions.
·
The
length of time concerning exposure to the trauma.
·
The
number of traumas we have experienced, even minor traumas.
·
The
severity of the trauma(s) (Allen, 2005).
Chronically
traumatized people become adept at existing in altered levels of consciousness.
Through the extended practice of disassociation, voluntary thought suppression,
minimization, and oftentimes acts of denial, our personal reality is altered to
avoid perceived and/or real harm. When Viktor Frankl was held captive in a con-centration
camp while facing what could have been considered unbearable circumstances, he
envisioned won-derful memories of his wife and pictured himself in her company.
He thus altered his reality. Frankl blocked as much as possible the harshness
of his situation and that is how he maintained his sanity.
Frankl
was a Holocaust survivor. He managed to turn his life around and became a well
known psychologist who wrote a best-selling book entitled “Man’s Search for
Meaning.” It’s understandable why practicing constriction and avoidance would
serve as useful tools for those suffering from chronic trauma. While this constriction
is adaptive in nature, it can also lead to a kind of atrophy concerning
psychological abilities that have been sup-pressed which may result in an
overdeveloped isolated inner self.
Voluntarily restricting and
suppressing our thoughts can apply to thoughts about our future also. Trauma
victims often look at the future with a sense of doom. A future filled with
despair, not hope. Thinking of the future may instill feelings of desperation
and confusion due to our often unpredictable current and past situations. These
feelings can seem unbearable and may cause us to feel vulnerable and we are
limited to the amount of disappointment we can endure. In turn, we limit our
attention to a minimal number of goals. Futures are not considered in years or
even months, our futures may be limited to days, possibly weeks.
When
we suffer from PTSD as a result of chronic and possibly acute episodes of
traumatic events we may have exaggerated features of avoidance and
constriction. If we were reduced to a goal of mere survival, psychological
constriction becomes an essential element of adjustment to an abusive situation
in which victims are held captive. Some
of the children in the boarding schools refused to cry when they were being
beaten. Many of the children became hardened to the harsh treatment they were
subjected to at these institutions. They refused to be broken down by their
abusers. The children who didn’t develop this toughened way of dealing with the
hardships of these schools often perished.
I
feel it’s imperative to mention again that con-striction or numbing may lead to
a kind of psychological atrophy which enhances the development of a solitary
inner life. Most of the people who were interviewed for this book and my first
book reported being extremely lonely at certain points in their lives. They
were either held captive at boarding schools or had a parent or grandparent who
attend-ed these institutions. When victims have been reduced to a goal of surviving,
constriction and avoidance becomes their main defenses. Holding back or
restricting feelings, sen-sations, thoughts and memories is a way of providing
protection against any perceived or real sources of harm. Constriction applies
to all aspects of our lives from relation-ships and employment to a whole host
of everyday situations (Schiraldi, 2000).
Alterations
concerning the elements of time can lead to annihilation of the future and
eventually will eradicate memories of the past. You can see what this can do to
a person’s understanding of who they are and why they suffer from a false sense
of identity. The children who were forced to attend the Indian boarding schools
were not permitted to speak their native language, engage in the spiritual practices
of their families of origin, wear traditional clothing and their hair was cut
short. Long hair often worn in braids
carried specific spiritual meaning for traditional Indian people. As a result,
these children predominantly lost their identity as an Indian person and feelings
of shame were instilled by the judgmental caretakers at the boarding schools
concerning the traditional practices of their families.
When
we cannot feel, want, perceive, think or imagine what we are actually feeling,
wanting, perceiving, and thinking, we are split. In dysfunctional families
plagued with historical trauma and trauma in their current lifetimes, these
individuals were often told they shouldn’t feel certain emotions such as anger.
If we are not permitted to acknowledge our anger and not permitted to
experience it, our anger is split off and numbed by ego defenses. With our
anger being completely denied, it is lost to conscious-ness. The same is true
about our other feelings, thoughts, and visions. Once we can’t feel, our ego
defenses take over and we become numb.
When
we are dealing with unresolved trauma, we are often afraid of our anger and
often repress our angry feelings. We may feel shame for feeling angry and feel
controlled by other people’s anger. We may feel if we express our anger people
may leave us. We may cry a lot, get depressed, overeat, get sick, do mean and
nasty things to get even, act hostile, or have violent temper outbursts. Anger
is a natural feeling that usually has a basis for existing. As a result of
dealing with our anger and the anger expressed by others in an unhealthy manner
we may become withdrawn and isolate ourselves.
To
some degree, isolation and avoidance has worked for many of us, especially if
we have been traumatized, chronically and/or acutely. When the level of stress
in our life rises or a crisis occurs, isolation is no longer an effective
strategy. While seeking isolation as a safety measure, we can also feel
vulnerable at the same time. When we have given up a secure attachment due to
isolation we can feel like we are battling life alone. Isolation can lead to
depression. Many children who attended the boarding schools suffered from
isolation when they withdrew from their peers after they were abused sexually,
psychologically and spiritually. When
they became adults, isolation may have served as a protective measure out of
fear they may be violated again.
People
held in captivity due to oppressive cir-cumstances become very skilled at
altering their con-sciousness. When altering perceptions of unbearable circum-stances,
they experience periods of dissociation, commit voluntary thought restraint,
minimize and/or execute absolute denial about their horrible living conditions.
The ability to alter our perceptions is a handy skill to possess when faced
with traumatic situations. Extremely
intense emotional arousal can interfere with the process of encoding traumatic
memories. Keeping a lid on emotional arousal by altering our perceptions helps
us to counteract the severity of the trauma (Allen, 2005).
A
wide variety of factors can impair our memory of traumatic events:
·
The
factor that makes the most impact is time.
·
There
are substantial individual personal differences in extent of early memory
retrieval.
·
Early
memories are influenced by our social context. We learn to talk about and make
sense of our experiences or fail to do so in our close relationships because of
restrictions placed on us.
·
Some
of us have coped with trauma by escaping into isolation and loneliness and
retreating into fantasy. Sometimes the fan-tasy world appears to be more real.
·
Dissociation
is another coping mechanism that can interfere with memory retrieval such as
feeling spacey, far away, or in a dreamlike state.
·
Neurobiological
processes associated with trauma may interfere with every stage of memory:
encoding, consolidation, storage, and retrieval. Extreme levels of arousal can
hinder all memory processes. Head trauma and substance abuse can contribute to
memory impairment and negatively impact our neurobiological functioning.
·
Repression
of traumatic memories can play a role in not remembering traumatic events. Repression is automatic and involves our
non-conscious state.
·
Many
of us have kept from remembering traumatic events by using distractions such as
being very busy.
·
Forcing
ourselves to recall traumatic memories can impede retrieval of such memories.
However, many traumatized people who remember traumatic events long afterwards
are able to corroborate their memories (Allen, 2005).
Unresolved
trauma can cause a host of other problems such as annihilating the ordinary
safe feeling of pursuing initiatives because of a low tolerance for trial and
error. To a chronically traumatized person, any action has the potential of
leading to serious consequences. There is no room for mistakes because of the
expectation of possible punishment. The continuity existing between the past
and present can persist after the person is released from captivity and is in a
safe place. The experience of the present is often hazy and dulled, while the
memories of the past are often intense and lucid. Along with the alteration in
a sense of time comes a constriction of ambition and planning for the future.
People plagued with PTSD face the future with fear and trepidation.
After
the perpetrator is removed from the victim’s life; however, the victim often
feels as if the abuser is still present and will become obsessed with the
perpetrator, monopolizing the victim’s life and continues to engross her or his
attention after being released from captivity.
In the book “Unbroken” the author depicted this phenomenon quite well
when describing the aftermath of a prisoner of war experience. The main
character in the story, after a few years of liberation focused a lot of his
attention on the most abusive guard at the concentration camp in which he was
held captive. He became obsessed concerning this abusive guard.
This phenomenon occurs because the
worse fear of people who have been chronically traumatized is the re-occurrence
of traumatic events. The reintroduction of traumatic events continues to
intensify the hyper-arousal symptoms of PTSD and other mental health issues
such as anxiety disorders. Chronically traumatized individuals continuously
experience feelings of anxiety and encounter persistent feelings of doom. Any
sign of potential danger results in increased agitation, pacing, possible
crying and screaming. Individuals often remain vigilant and cannot relax or
fall into a deep restful sleep. Chronically trauma-tized people have no
baseline feelings of comfort and safety to fall back on (Herman, 1992).
The intrusive symptoms of PTSD and
other mental health challenges often persist long after individuals are
liberated from their prolonged confinement. For example, soldiers still
encounter flashbacks, nightmares, and extreme reactions to reminders of their
war experiences long after they have been released from combat. I knew of a
person who would jump under a table when he heard a car backfire. He served in
the Vietnam War.
Problems associated with combat
experience have manifested in antisocial behaviors, Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, substance abuse, and an inability to sustain close personal
relationships with friends, spouses, or family. Divorce and suicide rates
associated with Vietnam veterans are above average in comparison to the same
age group of nonveterans. During the Vietnam War, two percent of the troops who
served in Vietnam were Native Americans.
At that time, Native Americans encompassed less than one percent of the
entire U.S. population. The number of Native American veterans in combat
doubled the number of the general population. Enlistment rates for tribal
members who have resided on the reservations have proven to be twice the
national average, and these recruits have often served on the front lines. Many of these men are still plagued with the
trauma of going to war along with historical trauma.
The children, who attended the Holy
Childhood boarding school, were either exposed to their peers being hauled away
during the night to satisfy the lustful whims of the caregivers and/or they
were sexually abused themselves. Sexually abused children rarely received healthy
nurturing support and without this reinforcement, they develop the mindset that
they cannot experience the full depth of their anger, rage, sadness, shame,
pain, and fear. They believe the anguish of these feelings would be unbearable.
These children believe they could not hold their heads up and participate with
their peers in school or on the playground if they fully acknowledged their
pain and grief. The outcome of “stuffing their feelings” is the inability to
trust their own feelings. The caregivers in the lives of these children were
often out of control and often violent.
A vast amount of survivors of sexual
abuse were too busy surviving to pay attention to the ways in which they were
harmed. The long-term effects of sexual abuse can be so elusive that it is hard
to identify how the abuse affected those who were harmed. Sexual abuse can
permeate all areas of our lives: sense of self; intimate relationships;
sexuality; parenting; employment; and our sanity. If a person is treated like
an inanimate object, one’s sense of self is seriously threatened. A lack of
trust can negatively affect any relationship and can certainly impede the
establishment of intimacy. The stuffing of feelings such as rage, anger,
sadness and a lack of trust of one’s own feelings can certainly obstruct the
development of proper parenting and employment skills and confidence is vital
for both roles (Sandford, 1988).
The
abuses inflicted on the Indian people for centuries have resulted in
long-lasting negative effects for many Native American people. A multitude of
Native American people have been sexually, emotionally and physically abused
during their childhoods and also during their adulthood years. As a result of
unresolved trauma, we may have developed maladaptive ways of handling stress.
We may also be plagued with varying degrees of PTSD, ingrained shame issues, anxiety
issues, Boarding School Syndrome, and Malignant Trauma. Our tribal history is
filled with acts of depersonalization as social and cultural beings and filled
with vast voids due to our loss of independence, loss of our sense of social
honor, and communal sense of belonging, without any appearance of social
control. Our problem with identity confusion has caused a barrier to obtaining
a sense of our true selves. For hundreds of years we were forced to endure
indisputable physical, sexual, emotional, cultural, and spiritual abuse and we
have not come out of this unscathed.
