novel Childhood Trauma

[Siegfried von Walheim]

NOTE: I am not a father, nor am I a father to be. I am far from becoming a father let along a husband or boyfriend, I'm too busy building he nest to seek life for the nest. This question is both for me in advance as well as for me as a novelist trying to impart the principles of peaceful parenting and self-knowledge onto the general reader.

Childhood trauma, as is known, is the root cause of most dysfunction and generally results in a very repetitive cycle across generations. What I am interested in is how someone in these scenarios is likely to turn out (both in terms of character traits as well as life choices after childhood) and what is most likely to be the time when they (because I am crafting characters who revolt against the cycle and endeavor to make their children into something opposed to their own history) pursue self-knowledge, and what they ought to do at that point.

Below is a list of various traumatizing circumstances, some more common than others, and what I am looking for is not how someone with all these problems but rather any one of these problems individually (any exception to this request I'll point out explicitly).

 

1: Malnurishment/Food deprived childhood: I am also curious as to how much this would affect a boy and girl's body given how dieting as a child correlates with height and body mass.

2: Regular beatings by authority: Including both parents, caretakers of orphanages, civil authority, etc.

3: Regular fights with peers: From a child's point of view especially.

4:Molestation: For both boys and girls.

5: Viewing someone else be molested by an elder.

6: Gang violence in both neighborhood and among young children. Think '20-'30s Italian mobster kind of gangs, not modern gangs, although the distinction may or may not be significant.

7: Verbal abuse by hypocritical authority.

7.5: EXTREME physical abuse from authority: think chains and restraints, as well as medieval punishments such as hanging from within a gibbet (a metal cage that restricts all bodily movement).

8: Physical abuse by hypocritical authority. This is somewhat distinct from arbitrary beatings, but I don't know by how much.

9: Negligence from/by elders and authorities.

10: Childhood in isolation from any kind of caretaker or guardian.

11: A rather specific childhood in which a princess grows up without family, for they committed suicide/were killed in fighting during a very big WWII-style monumental war. This may be distinct from number 10 because the character is wealthy enough to not be deprived of basic resources, but deprived of human contact let alone affection, up until the age of 12, where positive human contact (through a friend) is only for half a year until the age of 18, when total isolation resumes. What kind of person would she be? What would it take for her to pursue self-knowledge and what would likely happen if she doesn't?

12: A childhood which combines numbers 1,2,3,5,6,7,7.5, and 8. This character was raised in an orphanage and abused very severely growing up, while surrounded by hundreds of other abused orphans in an environment best described as Jew in a Concentration Camp during the Holocaust, with emaciated bodies and abusive elder orphans aplenty. What kind of life would someone growing in this hell likely have, what kind of traits would they exhibit, and what is the most likely time for this character to pursue self-knowledge and reformation? 

 

I understand these questions are mostly hypothetical and therefore unimportant compared to real issues faced by real people, however, I want to be able help those who have suffered some of these abuses by demonstrating important characters with these scars overcoming them and reforming, as well as those not doing so as a counter-example.

I would appreciate any advice I can get, both as a novelist, and a future father and husband.

 

 

 

[Dylan Lawrence Moore]

Check out Trauma Release Exercises (TRE)

https://traumaprevention.com/what-is-tre/

 

It's a cheap and super effective method that does not involve talk therapy to allow the body to deal with trauma. There is a list of certified providers on the site all over the world: https://traumaprevention.com/tre-provider-list/

I've been doing it for about a year now and it is amazing. Specifically, it goes to the root of the issue: as humans, we have a "trauma mode" and a "normal mode". These modes are biochemically different--there is literally a different chemistry in the body. The therapy allows the body to switch from trauma to normal mode by affecting the biochemistry. This is SUPER important because it can address things which cannot be talked about, particularly when it comes to abuse received as infants, as someone has no memory to be able to talk about it. For example, I spoke with my TRE provider about being circumcised--there isn't really a way talk therapy can address it.

[Siegfried von Walheim]

On 7/1/2017 at 11:10 AM, Dylan Lawrence Moore said:

Check out Trauma Release Exercises (TRE)

https://traumaprevention.com/what-is-tre/

 

It's a cheap and super effective method that does not involve talk therapy to allow the body to deal with trauma. There is a list of certified providers on the site all over the world: https://traumaprevention.com/tre-provider-list/

I've been doing it for about a year now and it is amazing. Specifically, it goes to the root of the issue: as humans, we have a "trauma mode" and a "normal mode". These modes are biochemically different--there is literally a different chemistry in the body. The therapy allows the body to switch from trauma to normal mode by affecting the biochemistry. This is SUPER important because it can address things which cannot be talked about, particularly when it comes to abuse received as infants, as someone has no memory to be able to talk about it. For example, I spoke with my TRE provider about being circumcised--there isn't really a way talk therapy can address it.

I have to say, you answered the wrong question. I didn't ask about myself and self-knowledge, but how someone under given scenarios before the era of therapists and wide-spread psychological study could get help, what kind of people they'd be before they seek help, and possibly after. 

Though a tangent, I actually did speak with my therapist about such personal and painful issues, I have to say mine seems better than most given he actually is helpful and is a lot like Stef with combativeness and forthrightness. 

[SnapSlav]

I am sad that this topic has received so little attention. It's both a good question, as well as one I would love to have answers for my own use, like yourself. Planning for the future, and not being "in the position" to need it right now.

I suppose the latest video from Stef kinda addresses your questions of "what happens when someone suffers all of this" and "an example of someone who does not overcome it as an example". The answer is "Charles Manson". The man had almost every kind of childhood trauma piled on top of him, and he turned into a psychopathic cult-leader implicated in a mass-murder conspiracy, and he clearly did not "overcome" his traumas. In essence, #12 is Charles Manson.

I know that really just answers 1/24 of your question, but... hey, more progress than has been seen previously? =/

[Siegfried von Walheim]

On 11/24/2017 at 4:57 PM, SnapSlav said:

I am sad that this topic has received so little attention. It's both a good question, as well as one I would love to have answers for my own use, like yourself. Planning for the future, and not being "in the position" to need it right now.

I suppose the latest video from Stef kinda addresses your questions of "what happens when someone suffers all of this" and "an example of someone who does not overcome it as an example". The answer is "Charles Manson". The man had almost every kind of childhood trauma piled on top of him, and he turned into a psychopathic cult-leader implicated in a mass-murder conspiracy, and he clearly did not "overcome" his traumas. In essence, #12 is Charles Manson.

I know that really just answers 1/24 of your question, but... hey, more progress than has been seen previously? =/

I assume the board just isn't interested in hypotheticals when either there are posts dedicated to lived experiences and abuse or the results can presumably be figured out by the OP.

Thanks though, however I can't say there's much that could have been added since I pretty much figured out for myself what A + B + C equals.