What is trauma? How does it affect us? Can you recover?
It is fair to assume that most looked after children suffer from trauma. Just the removal from our birth families home is traumatic then if you have to unfortunately move from placement to placement this adds to the trauma and that is on top of what we have already experienced.
The experts say that from about the age of 3 years old children can give accounts from their past experiences and retain the memories over a lengthy period of time.
I can remember being removed from where I was living when I was 6 years old, looking back I now realise the conditions I was living under was not right, but it was was what I was used to, it was all I knew. I went to live with some foster carers who I have to say did not understand me, had no empathy on how I felt, the rules in the house were very strict, the house was very overcrowded, I felt detached from everything. Then in November 2014 I met my looked after family, my 7th birthday was coming up and they bought me a present, I was ready to move in with them that day so I collected some of my belongings and put them in a bin liner which was given to me by my foster carers, my looked after family took them to their house. Then three days after my birthday I moved, I was scared and unsure of what was happening, this and my past experiences showed in my behaviour and emotions. I did receive some therapy from Journeys which I now believe is called care council, did this help? Yes, I believe it did, along with the nurturing, understanding and therapeutic care I was receiving at home with my looked after family. It has taken 10 years for me to get to where I am now. Am I fully over my past trauma? I believe I almost am, there is one thing that still needs to be addressed, which I am not ready to do yet, but now I can look back and not have the feelings of fear and dread from my past, I am incredibly happy, I recently passed all my GCSE’s, I’m now studying for my A levels and life is so good.
I now understand the journey to heal from my childhood trauma was a long road for both myself and my looked after family, but, and I cannot express this enough, with the right care, understanding and therapy, it is a road of opportunity, self discovery and eventually recovery.
The nameless onion.
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