Childhood Abuse, Mood Swings, Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar and Trauma

I see so many clients who have been traumatized by childhood abuse who seek help for their wildly vacillating emotional states.  They go to a doctor or psychiatrist, have their emotional instability classified as "mood swings", are diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and are tranquilized into oblivion on "mood stabilizers".  This is very disturbing to me and reminds me of the denial Freud engaged in when he realized just how many of his patients had been sexually abused.  

Freud first described trauma using his term, "hysteria".  He quickly realized that his female patients suffering from "hysteria" were actually having a reaction to childhood sexual abue.  Freud announced these findings initially, but he experienced an enormous amount of pressure to deny that women were being sexually abused in their homes, by their families.  He then recanted, stating that the women only "imagined" the sexual abuse.  And there the issued stayed buried until we observed "shell shock" in World War I veterans and "battle fatigue" in World War II veterans.  It was not until the war in Vietnam that "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)" was officially recognized and diagnosed.  The feminist movement during the same time period finally resurrected what Freud had recanted, that women were being raped and molested and this too caused trauma.   

40 years later victims of trauma are fstill facing obstacles in having their struggles recognized and treated.  Victims of childhood abuse who go to their psychiatrist or medical doctor for treatment often have their complaints reduced to a single symptom; panic or anxiety, depression or mood swings.  That one symptom is then reduced to a diagnosis; Panic Disorder, Anxiety, Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder or Bipolar Disorder, respectively.  Treatment then consists of medicating that one symptom.  Patients who refuse to be reduced to a single category and complain of other symptoms are then given a diagnosis for each additional symptom.  So a patient’s diagnoses may consist of; Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Bipolar Disorder.  But no information is given about trauma.  Screening for trauma is rarely done and addressing all the symptoms the patient is experiencing is often too time consuming (for the clinician).  So the trauma that encompasses all these symptoms is never addressed.  The patient is then medicated for each identified symptom, then medicated for the side effects of the medications.  Treatment for trauma is rarely, if ever, discussed.  The patient now has a permanent label, (i.e. "Bipolar Disorder") for something that is transient (the traumatic event).  They are labeled as being abnormal, ("chemically imbalanced"), instead of being seen as having a normal response (PTSD) to an abnormal event (the traumatic event).  The emotions they need to be having and processing are now blunted by heavy duty tranquilizers and they are stigmatized as being "mentally ill". 

Veterans of Iraq are fairly no better.  I recently read an article stating that clinicians in the Veteran’s Administration are being pressured to diagnosis soldiers returning from Iraq as having "Adjustment Disorder" or various "personality disorders" rather than PTSD in order to avoid paying compensation or providing treatment. 

If you are a survivor of trauma, educate yourself about the symptoms of trauma.  You have to accurately identify the problem to be able to successfully treat it. 

I have posted the official DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria for PTSD.  You can also read other articles I have written about trauma and PTSD. 

Other resources for PTSD information are:
NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health 
The Mayo Clinic
PTSDSupport.net
The Wounded Healer Support Community

See also, "Veterans Attest to PTSD Neglect by VA" at the truthout.org site and
"Why the VA Doesn’t Want to Diagnose Iraq War Veterans’ PTSD at the mentalhealth.net site.

For more articles on mental health, please visit my website at:  www.kellevision.com.