Adoption Under One Roof - Comments for "Trauma Tuesday: Traumatized Adopted Child and Triggers"

Good question!!

Good question!! I write about this for next Trauma Tuesday.

- Faith

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We must BE the change we wish to see in the world. - Ghandi

buried alive

Like Lisa I am horrified you were buried alive! I don't think it was inappropriate for you to share, though. I appreciate your honesty and your willingness to be so open.

I totally get where you're coming from when it comes to being surprised by people's reactions. Although I didn't endure something like that, I have shared stories with people from my childhood and seen their jaws drop. To me it was just my life. It wasn't until I saw the reactions of others that I realized how dysfunctional things had been. Just because it was a "normal" part of life for me, though, doesn't mean it was any less traumatizing. I just thought something was wrong with me; seeing the reactions of others helped me realize that it was my parents who were wacko. ;)

So I have a question for you about triggers - is avoiding the triggers the only way to deal with those feelings? Or is there any way of desensitizing yourself to the triggers? Gardening is something you can just choose not to participate in, but some triggers may not be so easy avoid.

Your reaction

One of the bizarre things about trauma survivors is that we do not react to the horrific things we suffered like other people do. I saw a fabulous made-for-TV movie about the 1-800-FOR-A-CHILD organization, and they saved the "buried alive" story for the most horrific story to share in the movie. I was a little surprised because, to me, that was not one of my most traumatizing experiences. It was interesting watching the reactions of other people to something that I, myself, endured.

Don't get me wrong -- it was definitely traumatizing. It is just that I experienced other things that affected me much more deeply than that one. It is hard for me to gauge which stories are appropriate to share with which audiences because these are just things that I endured. I did not consider this story to be one that would freak people out.

I guess that, for me, I knew that they weren't going to kill me. I had to lie in the ground for a while and then dig my way out, but I never thought that I would die. I knew it was just another one of their sick "games" that I had no power to stop. The memories that haunt me the most are ones in which either my own life or the life of someone I loved was in jeopardy. That wasn't one of those times.

- Faith

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We must BE the change we wish to see in the world. - Ghandi

I am horrified that your

I am horrified that your were buried alive with a straw in your mouth. That was more than horrific child abuse, it iwas attempted murder. And these people are walking around free I assume?

Good G-D!

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." Ray Bradbury