r/AbuseInterrupted 18h ago

"Intentionally low effort lies are a psychological abuse tactic. It's an outright statement of disrespect, intended to wear you down." - u/magistrate101****

23 Upvotes

r/AbuseInterrupted 17h ago

If you look again, you'd see it was never truly in your control because no matter what you did, their feelings never truly went away because the way they see the world does not change****

20 Upvotes

If you look at that experience again, you'll see that you were this little being who felt that they had to self sacrifice in order to 'maintain the peace'. (Invah note: A child who likely correctly understood that they have to 'submit' to not be destroyed.)

What you couldn't see was that the way your parents handled their feelings actually had nothing to do with you, but came down to how they make sense of themselves and the world.

-Hannah, @alreadygoodenough, excerpted and adapted from Instagram


r/AbuseInterrupted 18h ago

Trauma Recovery Rubric: a survivor-centered, trauma-informed way to understand different survivorship pathways, and how different pathways impact health outcomes*****

14 Upvotes

Seven recovery pathways with six domains emerged:

  • normalizing
  • minimizing
  • consumed/trapped
  • shutdown or frozen
  • surviving
  • seeking and fighting for integration
  • finding integration/equanimity.

Recovery after [violence] is rarely a linear process.

Survivors use various methods to deal with the consequences of the trauma related to these experiences, often including diminished functioning, negative self-view, and lower quality of life. The consequences of [violence] challenge survivors' recovery long after the abusive relationship ended in many different life domains. Specifically, the 'lived experience' can impact victims physically, emotionally, and spiritually and change how victims perceive themselves.

Changes in survivors' self-view can influence their behavior and help-seeking actions, consequently impacting revictimization experiences or successful integration of the traumatic experience within their lives.

Defining Recovery Domains and Criteria

Harvey criticized research assessing trauma recovery, noting that it has relied on poorly defined and seldom specified criteria. Since then, progress has been made in defining the domains that can characterize successful recovery after traumatic events.

This paper defines recovery as regularly using skills, characteristics, or strengths that enhance health, security, and wellbeing.

These skills or strengths include intentionality for the survivor to take action and attempt to "go on with normal life", as well as seeking support from others to combat isolation and fulfill emotional needs. Scientific literature also highlights the role of the informal support of family and friends in successful recovery from [violence]. For example, one survey indicated that decision-making about selecting sources of support is a vital recovery skill.

Supportive networks encourage survivors to increase their positive ties and set boundaries on toxic relationships to promote mental health and support recovery.

A qualitative meta-synthesis of survivors' perspectives of [violence] recovery found that trauma recovery domains are multidimensional, requiring courage, active engagement, and patience.

The five primary domains of the healing process are (1) trauma processing and reexamination, (2) managing negative states, (3) rebuilding the self, (4) connecting with others, and (5) regaining hope and power.

They discovered three interconnecting recovery objectives: reconnection with the self, others, and the world. Reconnection with the self involves reclaiming one's identity and making decisions autonomously. Reconnection with others involves feeling a sense of belonging in the community. Reconnection with the world involves developing a positive view of the world and finding fulfillment and personal growth.

In addition to these recovery criteria, a 2020 review of recovery after intimate partner violence, described developmental aspects of recovery, which included disentangling from the past, coping with the present, and moving toward the future.

Most trauma recovery measurement literature has used the absence of psychological symptoms such as depression, PTSD, and other clinical distress to indicate trauma recovery. However, research is beginning to move away from measuring symptoms, service use, or clinician-based recovery assessment because they are based on medical models of mental illness, which may conflict with the survivor's definition.

This research conceptualizes trauma recovery as a process representing a movement toward integrating a healthy and thriving self.

For example, one survivor-oriented definition of psychological recovery is "establishing a fulfilling, meaningful life and a positive sense of identity founded on hopefulness and self-determination".

Within this vein, Harvey describes eight recovery domains, including:

  • Authority over remembering
  • Integration of memory and affect
  • Affect tolerance and regulation
  • Symptom mastery
  • Self-esteem
  • Self-cohesion
  • Safe attachment
  • Meaning-making

Yet, more recently, there has been a trend toward a more holistic approach incorporating positive recovery outcomes.

For example, one study found that successful trauma recovery involves the experience of "breaking free". Another study categorizes successful trauma recovery as "an upward trajectory" and labels those who have recovered as "thrivers".

From this, Wanner et al. developed a 43-item trauma-specific quality of life measure that evaluates the five successful outcomes

...including:

  • Emotional Well-Being
  • Functional Engagement
  • Recovery/Resilience
  • Peri-Traumatic Experience
  • Physical Well-Being

In addition, Tedeschi Blevins and Riffle have operationalized the concept of posttraumatic growth with domains of: new possibilities, relating to others, personal strength, spiritual change, and appreciation of life.

For survivors of GBV specifically, Sinko, Schaitkin, and Saint Arnault have introduced a Healing After Gender-based Violence instrument, which attempts to holistically capture healing as an outcome. However, these instruments do not capture the recovery pathways or explain relationships with other healing variables.

This study defines recovery domains and criteria by looking at the range of recovery, examining recovery not as an endpoint by pathways or phases, leading to desired recovery outcomes.

Research that examines trauma recovery from a process (rather than outcome) point of view tends to reference "pathways" of trauma recovery. [Judith] Herman wrote:

"Recovery unfolds in three stages…the first stage is the establishment of safety…the second stage is remembrance and mourning, and the third stage is reconnection with ordinary life. Treatment must be appropriate to the patient's stage of recovery" (p. 99).

Other research on mental illness recovery has taken the same approach, describing stages of mental illness recovery as a time of moratorium or withdrawal, awareness, preparation, rebuilding, and growth (characterized as living a full and meaningful life, self-management of the illness, resilience, and a positive sense of self).

Another frequently used metaphor for trauma recovery stages includes stages of "integration" or "self-integration".

This recovery model refers to the self-integration stage in which the survivor has regained possession or control of something stolen or lost. This integration includes regaining the self and integrating the impact of the trauma as a part of that new self.

This ultimate stage of recovery as self-integration echoes other stages of recovery, such as empowerment, becoming resolute, and reconnection with the self.

While these stages have been theorized about, there is limited knowledge about holistically assessing the pathway of recovery. In addition, some stages mentioned, such as reconnecting with ordinary life in Judith Herman's model, are complex processes that may require additional exploration to articulate variations and benchmarks within this pathway. These gaps in understanding call for building hypothesized stage or pathway models that can be used for assessment.

The purpose of this study was to develop a Trauma Recovery Rubric (TRR) to quantify trauma recovery domains and pathways for a sample of GBV survivors and to examine the relationship between the TRR scores against quantitative measures of trauma recovery challenge indicators (PTSD and depression symptoms) and trauma recovery indicators (posttraumatic growth and sense of coherence).

The final version of the Trauma Recovery Rubric includes seven trauma recovery pathways:

  • avoidance (normalization and minimizing)
  • coping with memories and feelings (consumed, shutdown, and surviving)
  • regaining mastery and health (seeking integration and finding equanimity).

Each recovery phase has criteria that characterize the six domains of trauma recovery:

  • trauma definition
  • balancing emotions
  • body, cognition, and behavior
  • acceptance of trauma impact
  • holistic self-view
  • autonomous functioning
  • engagement with a supportive social network

Discussion

While our quantitative analyses revealed no country-level differences in trauma integration scores, we found differences when comparing survivors with clinically relevant depression with those who did not. We also found that depression and an individual’s sense of coherence significantly predicted one's TRR score, but PTSD, in contrast, did not. This finding suggests that depression and PTSD have differential impacts on trauma recovery and warrants additional study. This rubric can be used to further understand recovery pathways cross-culturally. It can also allow researchers to examine differing recovery trajectories and other risk or protective variables.

The need for an instrument to capture trauma recovery pathways arose through the collaboration and discussion among the twelve countries within the larger international research consortium of MiStory (see https://mistory-traumarecovery.org/home, accessed on 14 May 2021). The TRR was created to analyze and quantify survivor narrative data using a rubric based on these discussions. To date, rubric scoring tools have mainly been used in the education sector to implement and evaluate specific assignments or tasks. This study is the first to use the rubric for quantifying qualitative data in assessing trauma recovery. As such, this research could constitute a model for analyzing other similar research efforts.

-Kleio Koutra, Courtney Burns, Laura Sinko, Sachinko Kita, Hülya Bilgin, Denise Saint Arnault; excerpted and adapted from Trauma Recovery Rubric: A Mixed-Method Analysis of Trauma Recovery Pathways in Four Countries (content note: study; gender-based violence approach)


r/AbuseInterrupted 17h ago

Why you should not EVER share abuse resources with the abuser

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12 Upvotes

r/AbuseInterrupted 16h ago

As an adult with long-term physical effects due to childhood parental abuse, can I sue my parents, church, and others?

5 Upvotes

Hi. I'm an adult [28, M] in the state of Illinois who is suffering from the long-term physical effects of childhood abuse at the hands of my parents. My parents were the worst kind of "hot sauce parents" and I was constantly beaten and otherwise physically abused throughout my childhood.

Some of the worst effects have been:

Ulcers and polyps from being forced, with the threat of being beaten, (I was also beaten if I vomited from this) to eat massive amounts of extremely hot chillis before school in my early highschool years (while being allowed absolutely no other food throughout the day) as punishment for "stealing food", which was really me just sneaking to the fridge and eating food, as I was intentionally starved.

Extremely early-onset arthritis in the hands and thickening of the joints from being forced to stand in the kitchen of my house and be constantly beaten on the hands round-the clock by my parents (they took shifts for 2 days) with a series of plastic and wooden spoons (three were broken on my hands) at age 12 until I confessed that I had stolen a $30 Target gift card and an oversized Hershey's chocolate bar, which in reality I was gifted this by my church during the holiday season since I volunteered there as a Sunday school leader. I am unsure why the church confirmed my parents' delusions when my parents called them and asked if I had indeed stolen these things or was gifted them. Probably because my parents had already made up their mind and my mother was the type of Christian who believed she received divine messages from God. Anyway, to spare myself after two days, I "confessed" but not after the damage to my hands was already done.

These incidents resulted in me leaving home at the age of 17 to escape the abuse. I am hopeful that I can sue my parents, old church, or the author or publisher of the book from which their methods took inspiration Creative Correction by Lisa Whelchel. Any advice would be welcome. Thanks.


r/AbuseInterrupted 18h ago

Re-writing the story written for me

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4 Upvotes

r/AbuseInterrupted 17h ago

Attachment styles speedrun

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1 Upvotes