Thank you very much. I was lucky enough to find a very good therapist early into my adult life, and I was able to fully reconcile with my mother a few years before she died. She had me read a number of books which helped to explain things. By far the very best help I found was in my 40’s in having a therapist who had me use DBT, dialectical behavioral therapy. Close akin to CBT. That was a life saver. I suggest it to anyone going through hard times.
I hadn’t made the connection between my adverse childhood experiences and obesity. Now I see how those events affected me. I turned my pain and shame inward and hurt myself by overeating. I’m now losing weight, but it really helps to understand the root cause. Thank you for your postings.
Thanks. It is great to hear from you. I grew up with a father who had PTSD and alcoholism. When I was a very young child I would lay in bed terrified about what would happen when he came home after a night of drinking. I had very little self esteem. These things are real and they matter. Understanding the impact can make a big difference.
Thanks for sharing this. My mother had severe depression and was hospitalized for months at a time while I was very young. She was volatile and scary. During her good days, she was loving and fun, but we all always were afraid of the bad days which were terrible.
Thanks for helping us understand how hard it was for you. The television shows of the day were Leave It to Beaver, Dennis the Menace and others like that with perfect parents. I really thought my family was the only one like it. In my medical practice I learned that perfect parents are uncommon and many kids face these things. I am convinced that disadvantaged and poor families have a lot more trouble and efforts to help these children would lower crime, medical costs, and help produce citizens who can contribute more to society. I was on my own.
I felt the same way, that I was on my own and that everybody else had perfect parents and normal homes. We instinctively kept our family’s secret. I turned that shame and fear inward.
There is an entire book on the secrets of families who struggle with substance abuse and mental illness. Alanon and organizations like that can help kids understand they are not alone and offer some insight into what is going on.
Bill: I had severe depressions as a teenager and into my college years. After college, like so many in our generation, I experienced a few quite amazing “trips” on LSD, perhaps three all together. They changed my life in a number of ways, one of which is that I never again had a severe depressive episode. Not one. For over 50 years. Have I had very painful and traumatic life experiences in that time? Yes. Have I felt intense sadness and loss of hope? Yes. But never any clinical depression, no falling into the abyss as I did as a teenager and young adult. Of course, this is just one anecdote, a very personal one. But I find it interesting in the extreme that we are now considering mind altering plant and synthetic substances as treatments for depression. Best wishes, David
That is a very interesting experience and it makes sense. LSD impacts serotonin receptors which is part of the benefit of other commonly used antidepressant meds. Here is a link to an article that reviews the topic.
Thank you very much. I was lucky enough to find a very good therapist early into my adult life, and I was able to fully reconcile with my mother a few years before she died. She had me read a number of books which helped to explain things. By far the very best help I found was in my 40’s in having a therapist who had me use DBT, dialectical behavioral therapy. Close akin to CBT. That was a life saver. I suggest it to anyone going through hard times.
I hadn’t made the connection between my adverse childhood experiences and obesity. Now I see how those events affected me. I turned my pain and shame inward and hurt myself by overeating. I’m now losing weight, but it really helps to understand the root cause. Thank you for your postings.
Thanks. It is great to hear from you. I grew up with a father who had PTSD and alcoholism. When I was a very young child I would lay in bed terrified about what would happen when he came home after a night of drinking. I had very little self esteem. These things are real and they matter. Understanding the impact can make a big difference.
Thanks for sharing this. My mother had severe depression and was hospitalized for months at a time while I was very young. She was volatile and scary. During her good days, she was loving and fun, but we all always were afraid of the bad days which were terrible.
Thanks for helping us understand how hard it was for you. The television shows of the day were Leave It to Beaver, Dennis the Menace and others like that with perfect parents. I really thought my family was the only one like it. In my medical practice I learned that perfect parents are uncommon and many kids face these things. I am convinced that disadvantaged and poor families have a lot more trouble and efforts to help these children would lower crime, medical costs, and help produce citizens who can contribute more to society. I was on my own.
I felt the same way, that I was on my own and that everybody else had perfect parents and normal homes. We instinctively kept our family’s secret. I turned that shame and fear inward.
There is an entire book on the secrets of families who struggle with substance abuse and mental illness. Alanon and organizations like that can help kids understand they are not alone and offer some insight into what is going on.
Bill: I had severe depressions as a teenager and into my college years. After college, like so many in our generation, I experienced a few quite amazing “trips” on LSD, perhaps three all together. They changed my life in a number of ways, one of which is that I never again had a severe depressive episode. Not one. For over 50 years. Have I had very painful and traumatic life experiences in that time? Yes. Have I felt intense sadness and loss of hope? Yes. But never any clinical depression, no falling into the abyss as I did as a teenager and young adult. Of course, this is just one anecdote, a very personal one. But I find it interesting in the extreme that we are now considering mind altering plant and synthetic substances as treatments for depression. Best wishes, David
That is a very interesting experience and it makes sense. LSD impacts serotonin receptors which is part of the benefit of other commonly used antidepressant meds. Here is a link to an article that reviews the topic.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6814527/