Monday, March 8, 2010 at 5:49 am

Kids Burning Out, Dropping Out in The Race to Nowhere

Parents and educators everywhere, please visit the website www.racetonowhere.com, find the film, see it, sign the petition, and join the movement. You will save your own children and children everywhere from a nationwide educational system that isn’t working for anyone. Teachers no longer love their jobs, children no longer love to learn, and the price we are paying as a culture and a society is higher than we can imagine. We haven’t seen the worst of the fallout from “No Child Left Behind,” but it is coming, and it will astound us. Read more…

Saturday, February 20, 2010 at 9:49 am

Third-Grade Burnout: What’s That?

Parents beware. Our children look like they’re holding it together in Kindergarten through 2nd grade, but there’s a growing phenomenon occurring now called third-grade burnout. By the beginning of third grade, many of our children, exposed too soon to too much academic material grow weary of the system. They become run down, stressed out, and actually experience a burnout that many of us adults know too well in our own lives. Though they want to be “big boys” and “big girls” that can do homework like their older siblings and friends, they soon tire of the demands and expectations that their brain isn’t ready for yet. The neuroscience points to plenty of play as essential to brain growth and development, yet there is very little time for play in a system that promotes “teaching to the test” – statewide testing that insists on “leaving no child behind” – whatever that means. Read more…

Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 8:08 am

9-year-old Suicide

My heart is aching a little more than usual this week. Another reminder of the fatal effects of stress and trauma in children leaves me feeling more committed than ever to delivering the message I do. As parents and teachers, we can prevent such a loss. Young children need nothing less than we do to experience well-being – a sense of belonging, that we matter to someone, that we have value, a meaningful role to play, a contribution to make. We all need experiences of success and mastery to feel capable, competent, and good enough just the way we are. We also need to feel connected in a positive way to other people, nature, animals, and a community that cares. Read more…

Thursday, January 7, 2010 at 10:00 am

Thank You Teachers!

I recently finished my fall seminar series speaking to K-12 teachers across the United States, and I was so impressed by their dedication and commitment to understanding their students. They expressed that up to 50 per cent of their classrooms are filled by students who are disengaged, shut down, and checked out of the learning process. Their receptivity to my message of understanding these students within the context of neural development was more than exciting, it was inspiring. I am motivated, more like super-charged, to keep informing educators at every level about the effects of stress and trauma on the children who are placed in our care. Only when we understand how the brain is changed by the very real experiences of children’s lives can we intervene with them in ways that work in the long term. Read more…

Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 2:13 am

Conscious Psychiatry

I am finally writing about an experience I had recently with a psychiatrist. It was a good experience, so I want to share. Most of us (I hope!) loathe the idea of putting our child on any kind of medication, no matter what an educator or other professional may tell us is “wrong” with him or her (i.e. ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, PTSD). We are especially concerned because psychiatrists often spend very little time with our child before assigning such a pathological label and prescribing potent drugs, too often as a cocktail in combination with other drugs. If we are not collectively disturbed about this, we need to be! However, today, and since having a long lunch with this particular psychiatrist, I feel hopeful that there are psychiatrists who spend a good deal of time with the child who will receive a prescription, as well as his or her family. This particular psychiatrist spent two hours with each of the clients I felt would benefit from such a consultation. He wanted to know their whole story so he would not be prescribing anything “in a vacumn,” as he said. He prescribed exactly what I felt would be of benefit to each child in very small doses, NOT in combination with any other drug, and further instructed the child NOT to take it if after he or she did, it didn’t feel right. He told me that he doesn’t want any of his patients taking anything that doesn’t feel good. And that is the whole idea. We need to want relief for our children, however that is possible. In rare cases, specific kinds of medicine tailored to very particular needs can be just the thing that provides the relief they need. I had a wake up call about this recently with two wonderful teenage girls I have worked with for over a year. The life circumstances related to their suffering were not only beyond their control, but also not going to change. They asked me for relief! They had the courage, knowing how I feel about medicating children – or anyone for that matter! – to ask me if I thought there was a pill that could help them cope with their feelings better. This question, after a year of hard work in therapy that brought some gains but not the relief they needed on a daily basis living in the situation they were in. It is at times like that I feel so grateful for conscious psychiatry. Each of the girls is on something now they feel good about, that is helping, and that  is enhancing therapeutic outcome as we continue our work together. Thank you, my psychiatrist friend, for the work you do, and let us hope there are many more out there like you.

Monday, August 31, 2009 at 3:37 am

Resources for Parents and Educators

Continuing my formal education until I was 30 years of age definitely hard-wired my brain to take summers off. But alas, it is time to get back to work. Although I’ve been seeing my clients in private practice – and enjoying that part of my work immensely – I must admit, I have been taking a break from everything else other than parenting my beautiful dream of a son. He is starting school shortly and reminding me that parents and educators need plenty of resources as we face another school year that will be filled with both the joys and sorrows of being alive. My newest book, You Can Heal Your Child: A Guide for Parents of Misdiagnosed, Stressed, Traumatized, and Otherwise Misunderstood Children never got a proper launching so that will happen shortly. Stay tuned…but please know that it is currently available at amazon.com as are my first book, Why Students Underachieve, and my activities book for adults working with children, Hope and Healing. Additionally, I have submitted more articles to ezinearticles.com so check those out for a free resource. I hope you will all join me in learning more about how we can stop the misdiagnoses and overmedication of our children, and in the process realize how we can all live a less stressful, more joyful life.

Sunday, June 14, 2009 at 9:49 am

Update: You Can Heal Your Child

Hi everyone. I didn’t know how best to do this so I am trying with my blog. Many of you have attempted to purchase my new book, You Can Heal Your Child: A Guide for Parents of Misdiagnosed, Stressed, Traumatized, and Otherwise Misunderstood Children, but amazon says it is “out of stock.” Here’s the deal: Unless you order it, amazon will not ask me to send them more books in order to re-stock. So please, I know it requires patience and can be frustrating…but order the book and I promise, you will get it. I know you will find the information worth waiting for. Take good care, and thank you for your support. Reggie (www.DrMelrose.com)

Saturday, May 30, 2009 at 12:45 am

Healthy vs. Unhealthy Stress

Brief periods of predictable, moderate stress are not problematic to us or our children. In fact, stressful experiences – when brief, predictable or moderate – prepare us all to cope with the world. Neuroscientific studies – those that look at the effects of stress on the brain – reveal that our survival depends upon the ability to mount a response to stress (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). When stress is unpredictable, severe, or prolonged, however, that is when problems arise for us as adults, as well as children. A child’s brain can literally be altered by stress in demonstrative ways that negatively impact physical, cognitive, emotional, and social growth. Please…parents, educators, and others who care for our children, notice, recognize, and acknowledge the kind of stress they are experiencing today. Connect the dots between that often overwhelming pressure they feel and the learning, behavioral, or emotional problems they may be displaying. Take action. Respond accordingly. We can make the difference. We can facilitate changes that reduce unpredictable, severe, or prolonged stress. Doing so can create the kind of relief, balance, and healing that radically decreases problems, whether learning, behavioral, or emotional. Learn more about what can be stressful for a child and what kinds of positive changes we can make in You Can Heal Your Child available at amazon.com. Visit www.DrMelrose.com for more information and resources.

Friday, May 22, 2009 at 9:07 am

Intervene Early

Too many of us are guilty of intervening with our children too late. Whether they are struggling socially, emotionally, or with their academics, we want to believe our children’s behaviors are part of a normal transition from one stage of development to the next. As educators, we don’t want to overidentify problems. We want to believe, as parents do, that children catch up, they’re resilient, and they don’t need us making a bigger deal out of something than it has to be. Unfortunately, not wanting to overreact has meant we “under-respond.” Our children need us to be paying close attention, recognizing a genuine struggle when we see it, and doing something about it as early as possible. With reading, for example, statistics from the Canadian National Institute of Child Health and Human Development tell the tale: 95% of poor readers can be brought up to grade level if they receive effective help within the first couple of years of school; 75% of children whose help is delayed to age 9 or later continue to struggle throughout their school years; if help is given in 4th grade, rather than in late kindergarten, it takes 4 times as long to improve the same skills by the same amount; and, 44% of parents who noticed their child was struggling waited a year or more before acknowledging their child may have a problem. The truth is it is never too late to help a child, whether the challenge is academic, social, or emotional, but early intervention is what makes the biggest, quickest difference. Let none of us, parents or educators, delay in recognizing and responding to the needs of our children. To learn more about early intervention with the effects of stress and trauma in children, please visit www.DrMelrose.com and read You Can Heal Your Child available at amazon.com.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 11:50 am

The Stress Factor

I often hear parents, educators, and many concerned others ask the important question (in so many words): “Why has there been an increase in the incidence of various kinds of childhood problems?” We all want to understand why bullying is so rampant in schools today; why 1 in 150 births results in a child with Autism when just two decades ago it was closer to 1 in 10,000; why so many more children today appear to have ADHD, Bipolar, or depression. When I listen to panels of professionals answering these questions, I do not hear a discussion about the very real and profound impact of stress on the brain and nervous system, and ultimately on the conditions of our children’s lives. The sources of stress and daily pressure are innumerable, as are their consequences on babies developing in the womb, infants trying to bond, toddlers forming attachments, as well as children’s physiological states. It is long known that most of us are born with one genetic propensity or another that may or may not become realized depending upon a single critical factor – the presence or absence of stress. As I listen to the accounts of hundreds of troubled children describing their experiences it is clear to me that they are overwhelmed by ever increasing demands and expectations from teachers, coaches, parents, siblings, and peers. They experience peer pressure, sexual, cyber and other forms of bullying, as well as family reconfiguration that can often be confusing and painful. These have all become such “normal” parts of our children’s lives we fail to recognize their imprint. As we continue to study the effects of stress, crises, and other real events in our children’s lives, particularly on the brain, I believe we will have a clear understanding of why childhood problems have increased, and a clear direction on what to do about it. Less stress is best.

Please read You Can Heal Your Child to learn more.

Friday, May 8, 2009 at 12:07 pm

Healing Trauma Reduces Violence

In his “vision of a compassionate future,” the Dalai Lama stated that “many people today agree that we need to reduce violence in our society. If we are truly serious about this, we must deal with the roots of violence, particularly those that exist within each of us. We need to embrace ‘inner disarmament,’ reducing our own emotions of suspicion, hatred, and hostility toward our brothers and sisters.”  But how do we do that? The most powerful way I have seen this happen over and over again has been through the healing of trauma. The effects of trauma are now well-known. While it is true that for some traumatized people a pattern of underaroused behaviors can surface, such as depression or apathy, for many others, even if they are in an underaroused state some or most of the time, uncontrollable anger, even violent rages can occur. Violence begets violence. Seventy-five per cent of all school shooters were the victims of bullying, for example. Had we noticed that bullying was taking place, had we not minimized it but taken it seriously, had we intervened early and healed its effects, lives could have been saved. Each of us can begin to reduce violence in the world by starting with the healing of our own trauma, thereby reducing our own tendencies to act with suspicion, hatred, or hostility with strangers or the people we love the most.

Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 4:04 am

Parents & Teachers: Compassion is the Cure

I am getting frustrated with parents who I know love their children dearly, and teachers who I know want to see their students succeed, who operate as though the ideal is real. They have a dream for their children, a wish for how they had turned out or would turn out. So much so that they cannot see who is standing right in front of them. A child who tragically lost his mother to heart failure. A child who is in the middle of an acrimonious divorce between the two people he or she loves the most. A child being viciously bullied at school. A child who has experienced medical trauma or who lives in a dangerous neighborhood. The less than ideal events and circumstances of our children’s lives are numerous and diverse. Yet we continue to expect that they are going to be a number one student, a star athlete, and perfectly behaved. I tried to explain to a father the other day that he expects his 11-year-old son to win the marathon when after suddenly and tragically losing his mother at the age of 7 he is now running the race with a broken leg. Parents and teachers, please try to see the child standing before you. Not the child before the event occurred, but the child that is before you now, who needs help to learn to manage life in a new way, a life that is no longer so innocent, sheltered, or childlike. Traumatized children now know that life is difficult and bad things can happen at any turn. They need our understanding, compassion, and our acceptance of them exactly how they are.

Saturday, April 25, 2009 at 1:15 am

First Do No Harm – A Proposal For Crisis Intervention in Schools

The last two decades of neuroscientific research have led to new understandings of how the brain and body are affected by crises. In response to this new research, I propose an alternative approach to crisis intervention in schools. The approach engages the oldest, wisest part of our brain, the brain stem, through the language of sensations for two reasons: first, because the core of the crisis experience is processed by the brain stem, and second, because the language of this more primitive brain is sensations.
continue reading First Do No Harm – A Proposal For Crisis Intervention in Schools

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 3:22 am

Remembering Columbine

Today is the 10th anniversary of Columbine: April 20, 2009. I hope we will remember Littleton, Colorado and that tragic day in 1999, the 15 lives taken so violently, and the dozens of others who survived but were changed forever by the experience. Since then we have learned a great deal more about what can lead to such disturbing acts of terror. We have learned, for example, that 75% of all school shooters had been the victims of bullying. We were finally forced to take the traumatic effects of bullying and other peer abuse seriously. What I fear hasn’t been taken seriously enough, however, is the critical nature of intervening as EARLY as possible with all forms of violence that undermine our children’s safety. There are very specific ways to intervene effectively with our children at home, as parents, and with students in schools, as educators, to promote the peace and well-being needed for ultimate achievement and success. Please read You Can Heal Your Child and Why Students Underachieve (available at amazon.com) to learn more.

Friday, April 10, 2009 at 10:13 pm

Interview on ResponsibleTeachers.com

The co-founders of ResponsibleTeachers.com interviewed me last month for a podcast and here is what they had to say: “Dr. Melrose is an amazing resource for anyone who works with children. Her knowledge on stress and trauma and how it affects the brain in children is limitless. She takes very complex issues that are valuable in everyday experiences for parents, educators and children and she boils them down to very understandable terms. We highly recommend her books and her lectures for parents and teachers.” (Britt Michaelian, M.A. and Cheryl Daniels). Please listen to our conversation by clicking on my “Media” page at www.DrMelrose.com.

Friday, April 3, 2009 at 10:42 am

New Book: You Can Heal Your Child

Stay tuned for the launching of my new book, You Can Heal Your Child: A Guide for Parents of Misdiagnosed, Stressed, Traumatized, and Otherwise Misunderstood Children. View the cover and pre-order at amazon.com.

Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 3:21 am

Listen to Dr. Reggie on Amazing Women…

I had a great time last month being interviewed by Dr. Marlene on her radio show called Amazing Women…Brains, Beauty, and Style. Listen to our discussion on the effects of chronic stress and trauma in children today by clicking on my media page at www.DrMelrose.com.

Friday, March 6, 2009 at 6:32 am

Remembering the Children of Katrina

I received a notice today of a book written about the “children left behind by Hurricane Katrina.” I was thrilled to see such a book written, especially because of its emphasis on the need for schools to be prepared to respond effectively to these students’ unique needs. Like other children who have experienced natural disasters and other terrifying events, many now have an elevated baseline level of anxiety that interferes with learning and adaptive behavior. They no longer operate within what some call “the optimum zone of arousal” so necessary for healthy self-regulation of learning, affect, and behavior. There are many things we can do, however, as educators – and as parents – to help soothe the overly active nervous system of children who have been through stressful or traumatic events. Please read “Why Students Underachieve: What Educators and Parents Can Do about It” or the many articles I have written on the web to find out more.

Thursday, February 26, 2009 at 2:10 pm

Pink Shirt Day

It felt good to wear my pink shirt today and ask my college students – future teachers – to remember this day when their students are looking up to them, to be sure not only to commemorate the day each year, but also to live its meaning all days of the year in their classroom and beyond. One client I worked with today is the parent of a victim of bullying. His 9-year-old son now lives with the pain and shame of having been abused by his peers since his first day of Kindergarten, whose nightmare hasn’t ended yet. Any one of us, whether or not we are in a leadership position, can encourage others to join in on taking a stand against bullying, racism, and any other form of peer abuse. To those of you who understand its far-reaching consequences for all of us in this interconnected society we live in, and who took that stand today, thank you for doing your part. We will eradicate the effects of abuse and every other form of trauma, and we will do it one enlightened act at a time.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 7:51 am

Wear Pink Wednesday to Take a Stand

This coming Wednesday, February 25th, wear pink and take a stand against bullying, racism and any other form of peer abuse. I, for one, am thrilled, that we are finally taking something seriously that has been minimized for decades, something that we now know can have long-lasting traumatic effects on our children. With the overwhelming amount of evidence we have that reveals the specific kinds of changes trauma can make to the brain, changes that compromise learning and adaptive behavior, let us boldly show that we are paying attention and that we care. Visit http://www.pinkshirtday.ca to learn more.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 6:25 am

5 Things You Can Do to Help

Whether you are a parent or a teacher, there are 5 things you could be doing right now to help a child who has been shaken by a crisis, too much stress, or trauma. The goal is always to restore a greater sense of balance and ease in the child’s nervous system so he or she can be fully present to learn and behave adaptively. 1) Foster a compassionate RELATIONSHIP that communicates, “We will get through this together.” 2) Create relative SAFETY with consistent rules and regulations that are posted and/or reviewed with clear rewards and consequences that the child can come to predict. Safety comes from predictability. 3) Involve the child in COMMUNITY, a place where they feel they belong, where they matter and have chances to start over anew no matter what. 4) Provide the child with multiple opportunities to experience their own COMPETENCE. What they feel good at doesn’t matter, just that they feel good doing something, i.e. playing a game, making someone laugh, helping someone, making something from scratch, learning something new, teaching something to a younger child, getting a chance to show off a talent, skill, ability, athletic, artistic, or intellectual accomplishment. 5) Support SENSORY AWARENESS by talking to and engaging the child in noticing the sensations that are happening in his or her body, where they are tight, tense, relaxed, calm, shaky, or warm. The body is speaking to us to let us know when we need to take care of ourselves. If you learn to do this for yourself first, you will be able to pass on to your child one of the most important resources of all (please read “Why Students Underachieve: What Educators and Parents Can Do about It” to learn why all of this is so important.)

Monday, February 16, 2009 at 7:51 am

Trauma or Just Tough Times?

Someone explained to me recently that the word “trauma” is used so much today that it has become a cliche; it has lost its meaning. Perhaps we call what isn’t neccesarily traumatic “trauma,” and thereby render the word meaningless even when used appropriately. So what do I mean as a trauma healing specialist, when I use the word? I mean an encounter with the possibility of death, an experience of terror that leaves us with the sense, the knowing, that we could die at any moment. This is what traumatized people, including our children, thereafter believe, not only that death is possible but also likely, and whether we live or die is beyond our control. A traumatized child in school trying to concentrate on reading, writing, and arithmetic is at a disadvantage we are only beginning to understand. The number of children coming to school traumatized is a number growing so vast we are tempted to deny it, minimize it, or ignore it altogether. We don’t have to. As parents and educators alike, we have all we need to help these children, we just have to want to know what’s really going on. And I have to tell you, it’s not just tough times.

Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 10:01 am

What to Call Trauma…

I have a bee in my bonnet about the problem we all seem to have about using the word “trauma.” A person said to me recently that she wanted me to impart my knowledge to teachers without talking about trauma because it isn’t something teachers need to be concerned about. With everything going on in the world today, and in our own country here at home, it is just shocking to me that teachers don’t know that if they are in front of a classroom of children everyday they are dealing with the effects of trauma – divorce, reconstituted families, death, illness, medical procedures, car accidents, bullying, racism, childhood obesity (an indicator of trauma in many cases), poverty, homelessness, hunger, lack of health insurance, substance abuse, community violence, every kind of abuse, not to mention that children are in front of television and video games instead of outside in nature where natural healing is more likely to take place. Teachers should not be required to take on the role of therapist, and it is not necessary. They can and should operate within the parameters of their own role and know that there are simple yet powerful things they can do – or not do – to be the difference in a child’s life. Let’s at least start with recognizing what we are dealing with…the effects of, uh-oh, here’s that word again, trauma.

Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 7:19 am

Q & A: Supporting Children Through This Economic Crisis

1. Knowing that parents are stressed in these tough economic times, is it safe to say that our children are experiencing that stress as well? How? What might they be experiencing as children?

The best way I have come to help others understand how children experience the stress around them is this: Imagine you are walking through the woods. It’s a beautiful day. It’s quiet. You’re all alone, and you feel at peace. Suddenly, you hear a branch break. The silence is broken and you wonder what could have caused it. You orient to the area where the sound came from. You become solely focused, scanning the environment, sensing that something is wrong and you could be in danger. The key word here is sense. You feel a tightness in your throat perhaps, quivering knees, butterflies in the stomach. When your brain and body feel that they may be in danger, it is a sensory experience. The oldest part of our brain – the reptilian or animal brain – is communicating to us through its language – sensations – in order to warn us that we may be under threat and may have to fight for our survival. For children, this economic crisis and the stress it invokes within their home is that branch breaking in the woods.

Continue reading article here … Supporting Children Through This Economic Crisis – Q & A

Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 7:00 am

Article: Group Counseling – Group Therapy – The Process and the Promise

“There is a healing power in community and a great need for our children and their leaders to come together as a community. When children and adults work together in a counseling or psycho-educational style, they share their lives with one another. As a result, they learn to interact with honor and respect for each other’s experiences.”

Continue reading article here … Group Counseling – Group Therapy – The Process and the Promise

Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 6:58 am

Article: Not ADHD, Not Bipolar, Not Learning Disabilities – Trauma

“There are numerous signs and symptoms that let us know when our child has been traumatized. As we review them, it will become apparent that many are also part of other more commonly diagnosed problems, such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, and depression. This has become a serious problem in the fields of medicine, mental health, and education. Children are being misdiagnosed and prescribed ineffective medications that often do not work because the original diagnosis was wrong. It is my hope that with more parents learning about trauma and its impact on children’s functioning at home and at school, we will stop the misdiagnoses and use of medications that have harmed many of our children.”

Continue reading article here … Not ADHD, Not Bipolar, Not Learning Disabilities – Trauma

Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 6:53 am

Article: Trauma 101 – What Parents Need to Know

“Parents of children with so-called ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, learning disabilities anxiety disorders, even Pervasive Developmental Disorder need to know what trauma is for children and that the effects of trauma can be healed. Most times I interview parents they tell me their child has never experienced a trauma. Yet when I ask more specific questions about accidents, injuries, falls, surgeries, hospitalizations, medical or dental procedures, as well as in utero and delivery experiences, their face turns white.”

Continue reading article here … Trauma 101 – What Parents Need to Know

Monday, February 2, 2009 at 6:45 am

Alternative Treatment for Trauma

Medical and mental health communities largely believe that the effects of trauma, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), can only be managed throughout the lifespan with medication and traditional forms of therapy. But they would be wrong. In fact, the effects of trauma, inluding PTSD, are natural responses to unnatural events and they can be healed.

The latest neuroscience points to the need for more body- or brain-based therapies that engage the part of the brain that was most involved and ultimately traumatized by the event (or series of events). The reptilian brain, and its more primitive responses of fight/flight/freeze, is what mediates our response to threat. It is left highly activated or “stuck on high” when the completion of these survival energies is not possible at the time of the event(s). New therapies are able to communicate with and soothe this part of the brain in order to bring the nervous system back into balance so it can regulate itself again in a healthy way.

Outcome research is at the infancy stage for these new approaches, but their development was conscientiously based on the most recent neuroscientific findings. Thousands of anecdotal cases as well as preliminary evidence strongly suggest the efficacy of Somatic Experiencing (SE), Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Self-Regulation Therapy (SRT), all body-based interventions that do not involve the medication and/or traditional talk therapy that can be particularly disruptive to the healing of trauma.

Monday, January 26, 2009 at 7:43 am

PTSD: Unnatural Disorder or Natural Defense?

Post-traumatic stress responses are too often not treated as such, especially in children, for a variety of different reasons. Sometimes the signs or so-called symptoms too closely resemble the challenges of other disoders, such as ADHD or Bipolar Disorder. Hypervigilence and anxiety, for example, are too often mistaken for hyperactivity. Sometimes the number of difficulties observed in the aftermath of trauma do not meet the specific criteria set forth in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual used to diagnose Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Whatever the reason, as medical and mental health practitioners, we must recognize the difference between similar-looking symptoms and be certain we are treating post-traumatic stress responses as such and not as some other disorder. We must also be much less concerned with whether or not EVERY criteria for PTSD is met before appropriately aiding those suffering from any degree of a post-traumatic stress response. Read more…

Friday, January 16, 2009 at 10:12 am

Childhood Trauma and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

I was happy to see several articles on the web last week about the link between childhood trauma and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). When research catches up with our clinical hunches it can be very rewarding indeed.

     According to the studies cited up to “60% of people with CFS were badly abused as children” and had neuroendocrine dysfunction. Specifically, they had a “diminished salivary cortisol response to stress,” and thus were less likely to handle stress well. The conclusion of the studies was that while childhood abuse does not cause CFS, it seems to alter brain chemistry in such a way that people become more vulnerable to developing the condition. Read more…