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The Problem Of Abandonment Trauma

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Try imagining you are a young child, who has dreams of their father running away. You have this dream every night, or it feels like every night. You are not sure why he left, you just know he hasn’t come back and maybe never will. That child was me at only four, although I did not dream every night that same dream, that image ran through my mind all too often. It was not until my mid-teens that I learned of why he left, and even after I heard part of why he left, I still lived on with the fear of abandonment due to trauma. Why? Because I had no idea that it had mentally affected me on more than just a paternal/parental level. If I had the known that being abandoned would give me ptsd and affect my whole life…I would have taken care of it as soon as possible. Despite the fact that many are unaware of it, many teens are suffering from abandonment trauma. Abandonment trauma occurs in people all across the world, yet it is going unnoticed by so many. The trauma results from someone losing a loved one to death, a break up, a divorce or perhaps a parent leaving the family. Childhood abandonment is a good start to focus because it is often where the root of the grief and issues come from. When those who suffer- notably the teens and children- from abandonment go unaware for so long, their grief process is more difficult and coping or moving on is as well. There are too many ways that abandonment trauma affects a teens life for it to go unnoticed. It is the teen abandonees

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