Blog

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the opioid epidemic claimed the lives of more than 64,000 people in 2016, nearly double the number of people who died in deadly automobile accidents. These numbers are shocking, and yet they don’t begin to communicate the full impact of this deadly epidemic. In fact, there is a growing consensus among brain science experts that addiction may actually be a symptom of an even larger problem — one that can have its roots in childhood trauma.

It’s 6 p.m. at Central City’s A.L. Davis Park, and coaches Edgarson Shawn Scott and Claude Dixon have managed to corral the 9- and 10-year-old boys into something resembling a straight line. With a piercing blow of his whistle, head coach Scott starts the Panthers football practice. The players run a lap from light post to light post. Their cleats kick up the dirt patches some say are a leftover from the days following Katrina, when the field was blanketed by limestone and 69 FEMA trailers.

When the survival responses take hold, you still think you’re in control. In fact, for a trauma survivor it is imperative to delude ourselves into thinking we are in control because lack of it is how we got hurt in the first place. We need the illusion that we have choice, and that choice just happens to be… fight, flight, freeze or befriend.

Father Father

Have you ever had the experience of becoming the living embodiment of an illustrated children’s book character? Yeah, that’s happened to me. I am Froggy. The Froggy that goes to school Froggy. In the children’s story, Froggy feels anxious about his first day of school. His healthy and natural nervousness (the body’s stress response system is activated by novelty) manifests in his dream. In his dream, he misses the bus and shows up to class in his underwear. I am feeling “Froggy.” Two...

I wanted to share a few ideas I've used in the classroom that have really helped my ACEs students (mostly middle school, but could be tweaked to use for younger kids): 1. Write the event/name of person upsetting them on an index card. Have them slowly tear the paper and put the pieces in a trash can while calmly repeating, "you are not worth my anger." Write the event/name again on another index card. Tear up the card and throw away the pieces while calmly repeating, "I control myself."...

The New Orleans Times Picayune is doing a series on trauma and kids. Well worth reading at nola.com!

Self-acceptance is a process. Do you find yourself in the category of almost healed, but not quite? Let me start by telling you, you are not alone. So many survivors of child abuse or trauma find themselves stuck in this very frustrating place and they don't understand why. Most of the people that I work with and the survivors that I know were abused for a long time. The longer we suffer in silence, without telling our stories, the harder it becomes to start. The hardest part will always be...

Therapy can treat symptoms of mental conditions from anxiety to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—but how does it work? According to a study in mice, it may tap into a part of the brain that stores trauma and uses it to heal. Researchers in Switzerland investigated how therapy tackles even long-term memories of trauma, including those that lead to PTSD. They found fear attenuation may occur in the same group of neurons in the brain that create and store the memories.

I live with someone who is 24 times more likely than the average person to attempt suicide. My husband is the survivor of extreme childhood trauma — and has lived through years of harrowing neglect and abuse, even bearing witness to his own mother’s multiple attempts to end her life. His heartbreaking upbringing makes him far more susceptible to repeating her patterns. Millions of children and adults suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder will follow suit. He survived ten of eleven...

Candida Rodriguez is my mentor, while she may disagree with that statement and say it is the opposite, it is the absolute truth. My respect, admiration, and amazement at the depth of her knowledge, talent, and compassion astound me every time we work together. Candida serves her complex and ever-changing community with dedication, skill and a relentless pursuit of coordinating care for her students and families. We are partners in the Community Cafe Initiative that began in 2015 after I...

Over the past year, current events have magnified the role of trauma in the lives of children and families in this country. From school shootings to immigrant families seeking refuge at our borders, children have been placed in frightening and life-threatening situations. In an effort to outline the role advocates can play in addressing trauma, Community Catalyst created a brief paper outlining what trauma is, how we measure it, and how we can mitigate harm and build resilience.