YOUR BODY REMEMBERS

Did you know memories can be stored in your body as well as your brain? In cases of Development Trauma Disorder (DTD), traumatic memories are stored in the body during pregnancy when the brain is not yet fully developed.

In his 2014 book, The Body Keeps the Score, Dr Bessel van der Kolk says a person who is continually traumatised in the womb becomes a terrified person. He says: “Your immune system changes, your stress hormone system changes and your perception of your body changes.”

 

Before the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study in 1995-98, there was little recognition of any childhood trauma or sexual abuse. Shame, secrecy and fear kept information from being available or shared.

After interviewing over 17,000 middle class adults, the ACE study found:

• Two-thirds of middle class subjects had one or more types of childhood trauma

• 38-42% had two or more types

• One in six less privileged subjects had an ACE score of 4 or more

• One in nine had an ACE score of 5 or more.

 

Dr. van der Kolk was shocked. Nobody told him this in medical school. If only 1 out of 1.1 million women experienced incest, as he had been told, how was it that 47 were in his study?

Until DTD is in the DSM, most mental health professionals will not diagnose or treat it and, of course, insurance won’t cover it.  26/04/2016

Previous Blogs:

 

Are you a people pleaser?

04/11/2016  13.00

 

Time to act on child abuse

08/06/2016  16:25

 

Your body remembers

26/04/2016  12:14

 

Trauma, Brain & Relationship: Helping Children Heal

14/04/2016  16:24

 

Does Developmental Trauma Disorder (DTD) exist?

14/04/2016  16:22

 

Music & therapy

31/03/2016  16:31