Understanding the Problem
Living with the Problem
Questions to Ask about Trauma and Abuse
Questions for Parents and Families When Facing Trauma and Abuse
More Questions about Trauma and Abuse
Case Study: A 16 Year Old Girl and Trauma
Teenagers and Self Harm: Some Questions to Ask Adults
Possibilities for Change
Helpful Therapeutic Approaches
Single Adults and Self Harm
When a Partner is Harming Herself
Questions About Trauma and Abuse for Single Women
Fresh Perspectives on Trauma and Abuse
Trauma Do's and Dont's
Audio Workshops

Trauma and Abuse

Fresh Perspectives on Trauma and Abuse

In the battle against trauma, people, the community and societies institutions, are either trauma supporting or fighting against trauma - there is no middle ground.

To treat trauma as a problem merely about food, to believe in a genetic basis of behavior, to simply locate the problem as a pathology of the individual, or to treat the problem only through pharmaceuticals is extremely pro-anorexic. These treatment strategies help to maintain the problem by denying the scope of the problem.

Pro-Anorexic ideas would have us believe that trauma exists in a vacuum - that it just is, that it is a freak of nature, that it is merely a case of bad genes or being a spoiled little rich girl.

To take up a stance against the problem - to be anti-anorexic - is to realize that there is a definite and necessary place for medicine in the treatment of trauma. It is also important to realize that there are a multitude of social factors living at the very heart of the problem.

  • What if we began to imagine the problem of trauma as a cultural by-product, a dysfunctional western theme, a living reproduction of the social order?

  • What if we were to begin to realize that each of us, in our own way, support and maintain the ideas of trauma.

  • What if we began to locate this problem within a persuasive set of rules for living as dictated by a very persuasive society of rules for living?