Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Thread

by Skogrand; Linda

• ISBN13: 9780789032645
• ISBN10: 0789032643
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-05-14
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

A powerful guide to transcending childhood trauma-from the people who've done it It's like a dark thread woven through a piece of cloth: You can't pull it out without unraveling the whole thing. And it shows up here and there among all the other threads. Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Threadweaves together 90 stories of survival to create a silver lining of hope for those struggling to heal from childhood trauma. This unique book documents the endless challenges facing children and adults who have been subjected to physical, emotional, and psychological abuse, and examines the proactive coping strategies that have made their recoveries a success. Each poignant story reveals an amazing capacity for growth and an ability to adapt emotionally that offers a positive spirit to others suffering abuse. Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Threadexamines how 90 people who have experienced childhood trauma and abuse have been able to rise above the suffering to not only endure, but prevail. In their own words, trauma survivors discuss what happened to them as children and the process they went through to become healthy, happy adults. Their stories are heartfelt, heartbreaking, and sometimes surprising in the variety of traumatic experiences, the intensity of the stress, and the number of people who were forced to deal with multiple issues in childhood, including sexual and physical abuse, alcoholism, neglect, and violence. The stories told in Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Threadexplore: when the trauma began common feelings associated with trauma therapy and support groups getting married escaping abuse the role of religion and spirituality significant people who provided help types of homes where abuse occurred the positive effects of surviving trauma school life patterns of survival and much more Surviving and Transcending a Traumatic Childhood: The Dark Threadalso includes a list of resources that might be helpful to those in the process of transcending trauma and a self-study guide for developing a deeper understanding of the healing process.

Author Biography

Jean E. Jones is Marketing Director for Concordia University and serves on the faculty as an adjunct professor in the areas of research design and psychology.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Importance of the Topic	p. 2
About the Study	p. 3
About the Participants	p. 8
Intended Audience	p. 11
Organization of the Book	p. 12
Surviving As Children	p. 15
Beginning of the Trauma	p. 16
Common Feelings Associated with Trauma	p. 18
People Who Helped	p. 23
Factors That Helped	p. 25
Conclusion	p. 31
Transcending As Adults	p. 33
Spirituality	p. 37
Therapy and/or Support Groups	p. 41
Getting Married	p. 45
Escaping from the Abuse	p. 52
Looking Forward, Not Back	p. 57
Conclusion	p. 59
School	p. 61
It Was a Sin to Overeat	p. 62
My Nickname Was "The Retard"	p. 65
Once There Was a Seedling in the Forest	p. 69
Life Is What You Make It	p. 74
Religion and Spirituality	p. 79
I Was Sexually Abused by My Father and My Mother Tried to Kill Me!	p. 80
Inside I Was Dying	p. 83
Evil and Sin Are Ignorance Acted Upon	p. 91
Pariah or Paragon	p. 97
Nothing Is As Important As Loving Somebody and Having Somebody Love You	p. 97
The School Kids Called Us "The Crazy Gene Sorenson Kids"	p. 103
You Can Be the Sum of Your Own Choices and Not the Product of Your Past	p. 106
People Who Helped	p. 115
I Blame My Parents, My Brothers, and God	p. 116
I Almost Died Before I Realized That the Only Person Abusing Me Now Was Me	p. 119
It Made Me a Better Person	p. 129
What Was, Was, It Cannot Be Changed What Is, Is, But Can Be Changed What Comes, Comes, Be on the Offensive	p. 130
From Angel Child to the Devil's Child by the Age of Six	p. 136
I Have Seen the Dark Side of People; I Am Even More Determined to Seek the Light	p. 143
I Am a Walking Miracle; It Helps Me Believe in Other Miracles	p. 156
What We Have Learned	p. 163
What Happened	p. 163
When It Happened and When It Ended	p. 164
Common Feelings Associated with Trauma	p. 164
People Who Helped	p. 165
Factors That Helped During Childhood	p. 165
Who They Are Today	p. 166
Factors That Helped During Adulthood	p. 166
Helping Children Survive and Adults Transcend	p. 169
Selected Readings	p. 175
A Self-Study Guide	p. 183
References	p. 187
Index	p. 189
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