Posted by Racer on September 14, 2004, at 15:51:15
In reply to Re: Do these events qualify as traumatic?, posted by alexis6 on September 14, 2004, at 2:56:00
This is something I've mused about, and here's the answer I've come up with that *feels* most right to me: I don't think we're always aware of the traumatic events in our own lives.
While I've never made it to 20 weeks, I've had a number of miscarriages, and I know that they're traumatic -- no matter how early in pregnancy. All have been in the first eight weeks or so, but you know what? I was aware of the presence every time, so losing that hurt every time. (Except for a miscarriage after a rape which had led to an infection as well as the pregnancy -- that time, it was like there was something there, but not the same sense of another in that space.)
The event that led me to my conclusion, though, was being hit by a car when I was four. I've never thought of it as traumatic, because it didn't seem traumatic at the time. It's only now that I realize it was a trauma, in a physical sense certainly, and probably a psychological trauma as well.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that all of your experiences are probably traumas, they do build on one another -- my guess is that the events in your teen years probably combined with the miscarriage to make the birth of your SN son much more traumatic than it might otherwise have been -- and that you may not ever really recognize all the events that led to your current dx.
What to do now is another question -- trying to identify all the traumas? Or trying to accept that a trauma has occurred, that it was real, and then processing it? That's a question I haven't answered entirely for myself yet, but I think it's also one that everyone has to answer for herself.
Best luck.
poster:Racer
thread:390327
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040911/msgs/390733.html