Abandonment trauma can severely impact your relationships and your overall happiness, potentially leading you to experience conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If you’re living with trauma, a PTSD treatment program can help you understand your situation and show you how to help yourself.
At Promises, our effective treatment programs can assist you in getting to the root cause of abandonment trauma. By engaging in individual and group therapy sessions, you can find the stability that you may have had trouble achieving throughout your life. Contact our team by calling 888.483.7451 to get started today.
What Is Abandonment Trauma?
Abandonment trauma is an emotional response to an instance of physical or emotional abandonment that deeply hurts your psyche. Even if it was just perceived abandonment, the impact on your psychological health could have been enormous.
Traumatic events mean different things to different people, but the event itself isn’t the important part; instead, how you react to it is key. Because you experienced high levels of fear at that moment, your brain labeled the experience as traumatic.
Someone who has a fear of abandonment as a result of feeling neglected or mistreated in the past can experience trouble maintaining long-term relationships and extreme panic related to losing loved ones. They may be more likely to develop codependency issues, too, which can prevent them from having healthy relationships.
Abandonment trauma often begins during childhood. Having a parent who is emotionally unavailable or who makes you feel unsafe can lead to this condition, as can general family instability.
Similarly, if your parents went through a difficult divorce, you had food or housing insecurity, or you lost a sibling or parent early in life, any of these scenarios can also cause abandonment trauma.
Signs of Childhood Trauma
A child who experiences trauma can encounter obstacles with brain development. This can put them at risk of having mental health concerns later in life. Some of the most common signs of childhood trauma include:
- Being afraid to be left alone
- Having difficulty forming lasting relationships
- Not being able to regulate emotions
- Experiencing anxiety
- Dealing with depression
- Experiencing bouts of insomnia or nightmares
Children and teenagers who experience even a single instance of abandonment can face problems with executive functioning, making impulse control more difficult. That can quickly spiral into substance use disorders and other maladaptive behaviors.
Healing From Abandonment Trauma
As with any type of trauma, it’s possible to heal the psychological damage you’ve experienced. Therapy, especially options geared toward PTSD treatment, is the best option and there are several resources, including:
Cognitive-behavioral Therapy
For example, cognitive-behavioral therapy can help you understand what’s causing the negative moods and behaviors that are so damaging to your mental health. During therapy sessions, you learn how to recognize unhealthy thought patterns so that you can make changes to the way you see the world around you.
EMDR
Another important therapeutic option for the treatment of abandonment trauma is eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). You can learn to process the traumatic memories in a healthier way to reduce the harm they cause you.
Group and Family Therapy
Along with individual therapy sessions, you can also benefit from group and family therapy. People who have abandonment trauma tend to find relationships challenging, so learning how to communicate with others and how to set boundaries is vital.
Schedule an Appointment at Promises to Begin PTSD Treatment Today
If you’ve been battling abandonment trauma and want to stabilize your moods, build better relationships, and live an overall happier life, the compassionate team at Promises can help. We are dedicated to providing personalized care to each client, and we take pride in offering a welcoming and safe atmosphere conducive to healing.
From residential to outpatient treatment programs, our services cater to anyone who’s searching for guidance. You don’t have to live the rest of your life under the weight of trauma. Speak with one of our experts today by calling 888.483.7451 or schedule an appointment using our online contact form.