Developmental Trauma Case Study

Trauma is an overused and misunderstood word. Trauma as a definition can be easily described as emotions of indescribable fear, horror, and hopelessness (Resick 4). However, it is hard to define trauma from individual events. For example, if three people experience the same event not all three will be develop PTSD. Two may be traumatized but recover quickly, while the other could be struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for years after the traumatic event. The DSM is the manual published by the American Psychiatric Association which lists all classifications of mental disorders. It carefully explains that traumatic events can be actual or threatened. Trauma is experienced first-handedly, witnessing, or through vicarious trauma.

Victoria, a 26 year old female heroin addict, was interviewed about her developmental traumas that affected her emotional stability through childhood development. One that affected her most was sexual molestation she experienced from her mother. Once she reached late childhood she was no longer being abused, but she experienced intense temper tantrums. She would bite, scream, and hit in these fits of rage. This was about the age of four and due to these temper-tantrums Victoria was locked in her own room for days at a time. This cycle of events repeated consistently enough for Victoria to develop severe PTSD at an early age. Trauma at early age can effect emotions that hinder healthy development such as developing poor coping skills that hinders coping later in life and can develop personality disorders (Resick 95). Victoria’s safety and trust was broken at such a young age. She learned from the time she was four that the sexual abuse was not normal, although she did not know what was happening to her. Trauma like this is called developmental trauma which starts from a young age and is reinforced and repeated (Resick 25). Victoria dissociated from reality and proceeded to have extreme violent outbursts. Disassociation differs from fight or flight by decreasing blood pressure and heart rate.