What My Bones Know
Stephanie Foo writes beautifully about her experience with childhood trauma resulting in complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD). Confusingly C-PTSD is not in the DSM-V-TR, but it is in the International Disease Classification. Its criteria are:
Re-experiencing the traumatic event in the present
Avoidance of traumatic reminders
A sense of current threat
Emotional regulation difficulties
Negative self-concept
Relationship difficulites
The first three are the general criteria for PTSD while the last three are specific to C-PTSD. C-PTSD is usually the result of “small-t trauma.” We differentiate between big-T and small-t not to indicate the severity but to indicate the time-specific nature. Examples of big-T trauma are a car accident, a school shooting or experiencing a natural disaster, while small-t traumas are racism, ongoing child abuse, or homelessness.
In Foo’s case, she experienced ongoing child abuse and neglect. She is the only child of two immigrants. She investigates their histories and demonstrates that they also experienced traumas which does not excuse their behavior. She writes beautifully about how her childhood impacts her adulthood in friendships, at work, in romantic relationships and with herself. She also challenges the idea of resilience and recovery from C-PTSD:
“When scientists and psychologists provide case studies of resilient individuals, they do not showcase a housekeeper who has overcome personal tragedy and now has impressive talents at self-regulation. They write about individuals who survived and became doctors, teachers, therapists, motivational speakers—sparkly members of society. Resilience, according to the establishment, is not a degree of some indeterminable measure of inner peace. Resilience is instead synonymous with success.”
It’s easy and very American of us to honor those who pay their taxes, go to work and make money. We don’t know (or care necessarily) what our relationships look like, how restful our sleep is and how we talk to ourselves. That is the nature of therapy and it is not easy to measure.
I would recommend this book for anyone struggling to understand C-PTSD. The first part of the book details some of the abuses she suffered, so take care of yourself and determine the right time to read. She gives away the ending and says that it is a happy one—it was.
