Note: I have edited this page since publishing to include a video by psychotherapist Rebecca Mandeville to include a particular kind of abuse ("Family Scapegoating Abuse") and what it does to a child's health early and later in life.
This page is going to be a catch-all page discussing how abuse effects us physically. Subjects I will be covering, with research, include the most well known and researched ones (links will be added as posts are added):
* headaches
* stomach aches, nausea, and general gastro-intestinal issues like Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, Gastroenteritis, Chronic Constipation, Chronic Diarrhea, allergies, Hiatal Hernia and Irritable Bowel Syndrome)
* body aches and muscle aches (sometimes through your entire muscular system)
* heart disease and general heart issues including pain in your heart (the "fight or flight" response effects the muscles, and the heart is a muscle, so abuse will cause pain in that part of your body too)
* profound lack of sleep (and on-going feelings of fatigue, which can also include "brain fog").
These are the major ones. But it can go further:
* weight loss and weight gain
* compromised immune responses, making you vulnerable to disease
* autoimmune disorders (studies are starting to emerge that autoimmune disorders are much, much more prevalent in adult survivors of child abuse than in other people, especially in children who are diagnosed or tested in school in terms of being a Highly Sensitive Child, which most scapegoats of abusive families tend to be)
* more rapid aging (studies have shown that many child abuse survivors, and survivors of domestic violence live shorter lives than they otherwise might have ... this is especially true for survivors who tend to self-medicate).
* cortisol issues from the stress of abuse
Mental health issues can also effect people who have been abused, but that is for another post. I will cover substance use disorder in that post, but it is just as much of a medical issue as a psychological one, but I had to choose one or the other, so I chose that one. I look forward to presenting those articles as this blog will be getting more and more into those issues, especially as I try to wrap up the big discussions and traits of narcissistic abusers.
I thought the medical issue was important enough to publish this preliminary page, and I found something on You Tube (link below) that addresses some of it. If you are having these symptoms, trauma therapy can help, especially if you greatly minimize or end contact/exposure to abusive, un-empathetic, power hungry people (i.e. people who display all of the narcissistic traits - found in the right column in this blog). In a lot of instances, it can help to ease some of the symptoms, and create a more stable health, as well as more peace of mind.
In the meantime, there is a video that addresses some of the research that has been done. And yes, I have read a lot of the same research articles that he cites in this video ... Dr. Ramani Durvasula also addresses some of these same issues, but hers tend to be for more specific health issues, and not a general overall view of all of the issues. Her main expertise and focus is on the Cluster B personality disorders, particularly Narcissistic Personality Disorder research at the University of Southern California, and how people who have this personality disorder effect the people around them. I feature her in a lot of articles already.
But for a generalized view, hopefully this video can serve as a good introduction to the subject (note: I write an edit and explanation at the end of the video):
Narcissistic Abuse Is A Leading Cause Of Illness And Disease.
from The Royal We Channel:
That's what I hear and what I have experienced when it comes to medical doctors.
The mind and body are not separate, and most doctors are amply aware of that.
by Rebecca Mandeville
Note: you cannot watch it here; you have to watch on You Tube: so watch it on You Tube
or copy and paste this into your browser:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytSdn8nQCBg
