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PSYCHOLOGIAL AND PHYSICAL ASSAULTS ON THE BRAIN
Feeling unsafe and alien in your world

Traumatized children, combat veterans and those who have experienced mild traumatic brain injury often present with similar difficulties. Traumatic events can and do profoundly affect the course of brain development and brain functioning and this can occur until the day we die. If trauma can dramatically alter brain form and function, then the upside of the problem is that brain form and function is alterable until the day we die.

Trauma can come from non-physical life events, from physical assault, intracranial brain events, from living in and/or developing in psychologically toxic environments.

The physically assaulted brain can:

                                            a. manifest specific deficits or diffuse deficits,
                                                           b. devolve to lower stages of development
                                                           c. resemble the brain of a "shaken baby."

Psychologically toxic environments stunt, retard , delay and/or dramatically alter the physical growth of the brain. A traumatized child's brain does not experience an enriched environment, and does not optimally evolve to higher cortical development e.g. children who live in psychologically toxic environments are in persistent states of arousal, their midbrain and brain stems become more robust, they secrete excessive amounts of cortisol that proves to be neurotoxic to the hippocampus (essential for emotional processing, emotional regulation and memory formation).

Toxic environments consist of:

                                     A lack of nurturing
                                                  A lack of stimulation that causes optimal cortical development
                                                  Living in a persistent state of fear
                                                  Lving with the real threat of physical violence
                                                  Modeling of violence by authority figures
                                                  A lack of stabilizing life figures
                                                  A desire for making violence rather than taking violence
                                                  Access to a means for perpetrating violence
                                                  A failure of the neighborhood and community to offer safety
                                                  A failure of the school system to offer stability and structure

In discussing brain trauma, it is helpful to understand that we humans have the ability to "observe" ourselves and exert control over many desires or behaviors. This "observer/controller" part can be considered the mind and is mostly in the high part of the brain and toward the front. The brain is that fleshy part that we see when a skull is opened.

Traumatic life events often disrupt the mind/brain balance; with the emotionally overactive lower brain activities overwhelming higher cortical controls. This overriding can occur as a result of experiencing or witnessing life threatening events to self, family, friends or others or through physical injury.

Both physical and non-physical traumatic life events can cause the brain to react in many ways, but for our purposes we will consider the modes of fight/flight/freeze; with the latter being the basis of many problems. We freeze, because at multiple levels of mental functioning, both at levels of awareness and those at a non-conscious level, we view the actions of fight/flight as futile. In so doing accept the consequences; this sets the stage for "zoning out" (dissociation) that is both protective and potentially destructive.

Physical Assaults on the brain through car accidents, injury, war, terrorism, etc. can lead to Mild, Moderate (mTBI) or Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF mTBI

PHYSICAL COGNITIVE/EMOTIONAL BEHAVIORAL Balance Memory Deficits Disinhibition Motor Coordination Problem Solving Deficits Aggression Persistent Headaches Sequencing Problems Inability to find words Fatigue or weakness Depression Low or no ambition Hearing problems Planning/Organization Sexual Problems

Vision Impairment Lack of Emotional Control Poor Social Cueing Attention/Concentration Reduced Self-Esteem Irritable Nausea Anxiety/Anxious Heightened Startle Sensory Loss Personality Changes Nightmares Seizures Frustration Distractible Poor sleep Loss of Self Forgetting ADLs Motor restlessness Unrealistic Expectations Problems initiating Tasks Exhaustion Mood Swings Alcohol Use Speech Expression Sense of Shame Social Relating Speech Recognition Attention Neglect of Appearance Mobility Reasoning Disheveled Stimuli Sensitivity Planning Half dressed Cloudy Judgement Social Self monitoring .Lowered Self-Esteem Personal Responsibility

Increased Processing Time Inability to switch tasks

Lack of Foresight/insight Inability to Multi-task

Lack of a Sense of Purpose Not knowing the function of things

Describing the function of things

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS OF TRAUMATIC AND CHILD’S BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

PHYSICAL COGNITIVE/EMOTIONAL BEHAVIORAL

Persistent Arousal Understanding Information Focusing

Loss of Small Motor Functions: Recall of Verbal Information Attending

cannot unlock door or Following Directions Aggression

cannot talk (stuttering) Poor Problem Solving Agitation

cannot make phone calls Inability to think things out Withdrawal Persistently Elevated Heart Rate Inability to Make Sense of Events Sleep Difficulties Persistently Elevated Body Temp. Hopeless (Loss of future Orientation) Resistant Decreased Hippocampal Volume Low Self-Esteem Stubborn

Fewer synaptic connections and Feelings of Constant Threat Overly reactive

less dense cortices Short-Term Memory Deficits Impulsive

Verbal Memory Deficits Confrontative

Learning Difficulty