When kids have trouble paying attention in school, when they’re too emotional, or reactionary, or downright
aggressive, what can we do to help them turn it around?
Perhaps too often, these behaviors are addressed with medication for ADHD or bipolar disorder.
But according to Bessel van der Kolk, MD, the problem (and the solution) may lie in knowing how to recognize the signs and symptoms of childhood trauma.
Bessel walks us through the major markers of this kind of trauma in this short video – check it out, it’s just 4 minutes.
Click here to learn about more methods for recognizing childhood trauma in patients as well as ways to approach the treatment of hyper-aroused children.
Have you ever recognized these symptoms as potential childhood trauma? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Some of my professors in the AWCCA (Assaulted Women’s & Children’s Counsellor/Advocate) program at George Brown College here in Toronto have been involved with researching the prevalence of VAW/DV survivors among adult Literacy training/LD students.
I understand that so many illiterate/low literacy adult students come in and have histories of growing up with violence/abuse/neglect, that people are beginning to study the ‘phenomenon’.
They started a website called learningandviolence.net
I hope you like it.
Emma Chase (Toronto)
therapists don’t search for the answer. they sit in the office
they listen. they are not creative or passionate. they just SIT
it is about the $125 visit. saying a few words. they don’t know what to do.
Not all counselors do that. I am constantly researching new data and presenting ideas and teaching the tools to heal. Maybe some just sit there, but this therapist is an interactive one who does a good deal of education. We can’t heal someone’s pain, but we can be present and help them calm inside so they can face their pain.
adult survivors have a LOST childhood. these survivors missed all the activities of being a child.
so ball therapy– music therapy — playing with the therapist working on a huge puzzle while talking and completing the puzzle while completing the story of trauma. great ways to develop trust and support that were missing. keeping to schedules is very important outside of the office. being in contact with nature with music is amazing.
water rivers walking barefoot and soaking feet in the river – feeling these things on the skin is soothing and feeling the sun on your face.
when you have only had physical and sexual abuse as touch – these things above feel much better
Anxiety also very common feeling is the chest burning which starts in the center of the chest and spread out to the left and right. also described as a bruised feeling right over the heart.
rapid beating and then panic. the focus on breathing in therapy is important. many therapists want to sit and just wait for the person to talk there is not touch there is no music there is no creative interaction. the retelling of the story needs to be woven into these therapeutic measures WOVEN in while playing the music while rolling the ball back and forth on the ground (with adults)
adults who are survivors want GROUNDING the ground and the wall feel good. there is support it is hard and not going to give way.
if someone is repeatedly traumatized – refuses to be touched, how do you help breakdown those walls? now an adult – adults with complex trauma want very much to be touched but cannot start and not ony start but continue on their own in this method.
So very true, how interesting to make this distinction. I am looking forward to the whole interview. Boston strong!
The issues that Dr van der Kolk addressed is of particular importance in the assessment and treatment of ‘disorders’ in Indigenous children in Australia.
45 yrs ago my brother had complex early childhood trauma but the psychiatrist put him on Ritalin. I can’t believe it is still going on today.
I could hardly wait for this video. I have lived with my very bright son who is still having difficulty completing anything he has started including enrolling three times in college in computer tech. program. He is fully aware of the material but cant stay in school long enough to become certified. Needless to say that he has fallen off the track and whatever comes with that. i am looking forward to gaining some insights. thank you
Janet
Thank you, a valuable reminder. I am dealing with this very issue in my current practice with children who exhibit attention and self-regulation problems at school and/or at home. In my experience the school systems (themselves stressed with expectations of achievement success) seem too ready to leap to a conclusion that this is ADHD and/or ODD, or both, and pressure parents into seeking medication to “correct” their children’s problems. Too often, I find in my practice that a child that has been thus labeled is still having trouble in school, is labeled as “oppositional” which results in a strained teacher-student relationship and a strained parent-child relationship which exacerbates the presenting problems exponentially. This becomes an unhappy process of lowered self-esteem for both child and parent(s), disrupted relationships, inadequate achievement. In my practice, I find that psychoeducation for parents, schools, and children can be a valuable and effective first intervention. I look forward to the distinguished Dr. van der Kolk’s presentation, and I am grateful to NICABM for making this available to us.
… and sometimes pervasive misunderstanding of ADHD by parents, teachers, etc., IS the trauma. Yes, I find both trauma and significant “neurodiversity” in my adult ADHD clients. Both respond to coaching toward Appreciative Narrative and self compassion.
the field begs for much more research on the efficacy of ADHD and coaching in these directions.
Virginia
I am not a professional or a scholar. I am a survivor of trauma. That trauma was and is caused by silver amalgam fillings. There called silver because of the color, the reality is they are nearly 50%. Once mercury is well situated in your brain, it becomes difficult to understand reality because your neurons are not making connections in the right way.
My first fillings were around 8-9 years old. It was drill and fill with the family dentist. Oh yes lest i forget, I played with the stuff, coating dimes and quarters to make the shiny again. I was always disappointed when the shine was replaced by a white powder. By mid teens, 15-17 fillings in my mouth. I was not happy, trouble learning(memory)and understanding everything from violin to mathematics and making friends. Thinking back, my happiest days were before being exposed to that dentist.
The fillings have been removed and I am going through self administered chelation. my thoughts today are clearer and more positive than they have been in a long time. I am optimistic and understand one!
Why did we end up with mercury fillings instead of other metals. I know the story from beginning to end now because I did all the research. Corruption of a profession because the suppliers took control for what? $ $ $.
I have definately seen young people that have a diagnoses of ADHD and even Aspergers that had clearly experienced trauma from a much younger age. I think Bessel is absolutely correct in his analogy and am so glad to see that this is being recognised. These young people are being medicated which seems to mostly just aggravate their behaviour. I have personally used mindfulness practice with some of these young people with excellent results.
Dr Van Der Kolk is quite correct when he notes that our emotions direct our attention and that trauma is important in dysregulated attention– however he is not correct in separating trauma from ADHD.
Under the DSM model ADHD is a syndrome of a cluster of symptoms. Strictly speaking that syndrome is completely disconnected from all hypotheses about its causation and from all hypotheses about it’s possible treatment. the syndrome has been defined as the basis for further research, but the nature of the research conducted has been heavily influenced by the funding sources for that research (big Pharma). That funding source has, in turn, skewed the idea of ADHD towards genetics and drug treatment.
So the idea of “ADHD” has become conflated with the idea of a “genetically based neurobiological disorder” and this conflation has occurred principally because the leading theoreticians in biological psychiatry are rather weak at understanding the basic principals behind DSM.
Some of the more observant psychiatrists in this area are noticing the high rate of PTSD in the adult ADHD population. However it is also clear that the biggest risk for PTSD is a pre-existing history of trauma.
Is this a co-incidence? I do not think so. I do think it regrettable that training in sciences and medicine has got so single pointed that it has neglected training in basic logic and English expression.