As Independence Day approaches here in the United States, I can’t help but think of the freedoms we are blessed to experience in this country. While there seems to be a lot of questions on what those freedoms are, we are still blessed with far more than many other countries have. There are many working and fighting here and overseas to ensure those freedoms are kept and no group or entity take those freedoms away. What happens, though, when a person cannot experience those freedoms because of a block within themselves? A person is trapped inside memories that have challenged and degraded those freedoms.
This is what occurs in many children who have found themselves in foster care. Experiences have caused the development of trauma that affect many areas of a child’s life. Not only can the child have flashbacks of these events, but actual changes occur in the areas of the child’s brain that deal with development and learning. Years later the effects of this trauma can be seen because of the far reaching impact mentally, emotionally and physically.
Unfortunately, many of the manifestations of this type of trauma are diagnosed as other things like depression, hyperactivity, inattention, etc. Many factors contribute to this ranging from an incomplete understanding of a child’s background to wanting to cover the symptoms rather than get to the heart of the matter. Because of this, many children never begin the process of true healing. They stay within the confines of trauma.
Do not miss the possibility of trauma in your children. While it is hard to think of such diagnosis for your child, the resources that can come thereafter have the possibility to open your child to truly experience freedom in all new ways, That, my friends, is an independence day worth celebrating every day.
