What No One Told You About Raising a Child Who Lived Through Trauma
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Raising a child is a hard task. But, it is even harder to raise a child that has a history of extreme trauma. In this article, we will talk about what you can expect and how to understand the child better. We’ll give you some tips that may help you when you find yourself in very difficult situations.
How does such child behave? Doctors talk about how parents aren’t prepared for such journey. They didn’t know what are the symptoms of PTSD, social anxiety, general anxiety, panic attacks, or even depressions.
What have they missed? A child that has gone through extreme trauma may feel scared all the time. How do you know? Your child would literally jump to every sound that is a little bit louder than usual. Also, you may find your child shaking without any reason. He or she may also feel cold more usual than the other children.
If your child wants to be alone all the time, feels sad, or doesn’t want to go out with some friends, you need to understand how your child may be depressed. Not being interested in any activity may set an alarm how something is very wrong.
What about the eating habits of these children? Most of the times they don’t eat much. Sometimes, they may even get some eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia. There are also some opposite cases where children become obese because they binge with sugar too much. Why do they binge with sugar? Sugar is known to raise the serotonin levels up. Besides that, they eat because they want to fulfill some ”hole” they feel inside themselves.
Don’t be scared if you realize that your child has increased heart race. It happens mostly when your child remembers some of those horrible memories. Such memories may make your child experience sleepless nights or even insomnia all the time.
How to save yourself? You need to be patient. Never criticize your child because it behaves in some way. Always remember that your child doesn’t want to behave in that way, it is their brain that functions like that after a huge trauma.
Encourage your child. Be there when he or she wants to talk. Never be the one who asks too many questions about your child’s condition.
Find a great therapist you both can trust. This is not your child’s problem. This is a family’s problem. And we are sure that you will succeed and win this battle! Good luck!
I want to adopt and I want to be ready for any kind of child. This can help for if this is the kind of child I decide to take.
In my counseling sessions I have this poor child who was sexually abused and indeed it is difficult to deal, but I continue to do what I can for him. Hopefully a brighter future will come to him.
This makes raising a child much harder, but you do what you can to ensure them true happiness for the rest of their lives.
Be helpful and there for your child, but don’t become too demanding, it might cause more harm to your child than you know. Let them open how they can with only the occasional nudge.