Preexisting Conditions and Psychological Damage: Walking on Egg Shells

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=160 BGCOLOR="#333333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="03cdedc2ddualp.png"> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D"><U><B>Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id8.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B>Contact Us</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id147.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="FAQs"><U><B>FAQs</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Dr. Silverman"><U><B>About Dr. Silverman</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id146.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Great links"><U><B>Great links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="The Mind Reader© archive"><U><B>The Mind Reader© archive</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="03d64643.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#666633" FACE="Times New Roman" ><B>Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D</B></FONT>    |     <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000BF" FACE="Times New Roman" ><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Dr. Wade Silverman, Ph.D"><U>home</U></A></FONT></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> Preexisting Conditions and Psychological Damage: Walking on Egg Shells</div> <bR> <div> When you ask the question is my client more vulnerable than others to a given trauma, you are asking a complicated question. Other things being equal, individuals with severe mental disorders are at the top of the list of those most vulnerable. This would include schizophrenics, major depressive disorders, and borderline personality disorders. However, vulnerability must be determined on a case-by-case basis by obtaining a case history of the individual and assessing the type and degree of stress he/she has encountered. As an example, most of us would be symptomatic if we encountered a major stressor such as a natural disaster or a death of a loved one. On the other hand, we would tend to have a variety of individually determined reactions to such events as robberies, assaults, or product failure. Consider the example of two women, each of whom has been the victim of assault. One has been raised by harsh, moralistic, and rejecting parents and has a history of child abuse. The other is from an affectionate, warm, and accepting family with no history of child abuse. Who is most likely to suffer severe psychological trauma? Once again this is a complicated question. </div> <div> We would not know which woman was more vulnerable until we did a thorough psychological evaluation. We would be especially interested to find out how each woman incorporated the negative event into their world view. Individuals who suffer from severe posttraumatic stress cannot come to terms with the the experience of trauma in their personal view of the world. Rather than accept the fact that "bad things can happen to good people", they lose their hold on the meaning of life. This causes them to experience alienation, isolation, and dissociation. These experiences then cluster into the post-traumatic stress syndrome.    </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>