Children of Addiction as Complex Trauma. Chris Wagner, MSW, RSW Fort St. John, BC

Transcription

1 Children of Addiction as Complex Trauma Chris Wagner, MSW, RSW Fort St. John, BC

2 Introduction General outline: Presenter introduction The origin of this exploration Introduction to Children of Addiction Introduction to Complex Trauma Children of Addiction as Complex Trauma The Wiki Discussion

3 Introduction - Presenter Setting the context where I came from and my own experience of a functionally dysfunctional family Sharpening the focus My work within addiction services

4 Inspiration for this exploration A client recently asked me What if we're alcoholics? Does that mean that our children are Children of Alcoholics? From this, we began to unpack this label. In 2011, the Justice Institute of BC offered the first run of its new Graduate Certificate in Complex Trauma and Childhood Sexual Abuse Intervention and I enrolled.

5 Introduction to Children of Addiction Over the last 40 years there has been a lot of research about young people who've grown up in homes where their parents were addicted. The research has generally focused on the behavioural and coping adaptations, grouping these into either Survival Roles, or Characteristics, which provided a framework for understanding the phenomenon and promoting healing

6 COA Roles Approach Family Hero - Based around perfection Chief Enabler - Covers up for the parent who is addicted, protecting them from the consequences of addiction. Scapegoat/Rebel - Is generally blamed for what's going on in the family, and is often the target of anger within the family. Lost Child/Wallflower/Invisible Child - A protective role of not being noticed, and not being a burden. Mascot/Class Clown - Keeps attention off the issue of addiction in the family by distracting with humour. Glover, J. (1991). Helping Teens from Alcoholic Families. Minneapolis, MN: Johnson Institute - QVS, Inc.

7 COA Behavioural Adaptations Tending to respond either passively or aggressively Having difficulty expressing feelings Having difficulty in relaxing Being loyal beyond reason Being overly responsible Fear of losing control Having difficulty with relationships Fearing conflict Overly self critical Addicted to excitement, addicts, those who will be abusive, or those who follow compulsions Ruben, D. (2001). Treating Adult Children of Alcoholics: A behavioral approach. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

8 Children of Addiction Research in the past several years points towards these adaptations being the result of the impact that addiction has on the parents of these children, and their ability to parent effectively e.g., Cattapan, O., & Grimwade, J. (2008). Parental illicit drug use and family life: Reports from those who sought help. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 29(2), Conners, N. A., Bradley, R. H., Mansell, L. W., Liu, J. Y., Roberts, T. J., Burgdorf, K., & Herrell, J. M. (2004). Children of mothers with serious substance abuse problems: An accumulation of risks. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 30(1),

9 Introduction to Complex Trauma The term complex trauma describes the dual problem of children s exposure to multiple traumatic events and the impact of this exposure on immediate and long-term outcomes. Cook, A., Spinazzola, J., Ford, J., Lanktree, C., Blaustein, M., Sprague, C., Cloitre, M., DeRosa, R., Hubbard, R., Liautaud, J., Mallah, K., Olafson, E., & van der Kolk, B. (2007). Complex Trauma in Children and Adolescents. FOCAL PoiNT, 21(1),

10 Complex Trauma Often involves attachment disruption, a fundamental betrayal of trust in a primary relationship, along with skills deficits in self regulation, and a hypervigilance to threats, both internal and external Ford, J. D., & Courtois, C. A. (2009). Defining and understanding complex trauma and complex traumatic stress disorders. In Courtois, C. A., & Ford, J. D. (Eds.), Treating complex traumatic stress disorders: An evidence-based guide (pp.13-30). New York: The Guildford Press.

11 Complex Trauma The impact of this trauma can lead a child to a preference for harm avoidance and profoundly effect neural development, including an under-utilization of the prefrontal cortex (location of many executive functions) due to overdevelopment of stress and survival parts of the brain, such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex. Ford, J. D. (2009). Neurobiological and developmental research. In Courtois, C. A., & Ford, J. D. (Eds.), Treating complex traumatic stress disorders: An evidence-based guide (pp.31-58). New York: The Guildford Press.

12 Making the Connections At first, I began to make the connections with a single phrase one of the complex trauma articles I had read noted the Hero and Caretaker roles, and I began to wonder. The more I looked into it, the more connections I began to see, until I came to a place where I believe that Children of Addiction is really a specific subset of the Complex Trauma phenomenon.

13 Making sense Recall the behavioural approach to COA? This approach, though criticized for being "Barnum" statements especially for their double-headed nature*, when viewed through the framework of complex traumatic stress disorders, these extremes of behaviour make greater sense. * - Sher, K. (1997) Psychological characteristics of children of alcoholics. Alcohol Health & Research World, 21 (3).

14 The Wiki As a comprehensive project, I decided to come up with the start of a framework that could be used in counselling with children affected by parental addiction. I thought about it through an ethical and dissemination perspective, and found myself uncomfortable with traditional methods. When I settled on the idea of a wiki, this discomfort disappeared.

15 What is a Wiki? A wiki enables communities to write documents collaboratively, using a simple markup language and a web browser. A single page in a wiki website is referred to as a "wiki page", while the entire collection of pages, which are usually well interconnected by hyperlinks, is "the wiki". A wiki is essentially a database for creating, browsing, and searching through information. A wiki allows for non-linear, evolving, complex and networked text, argument and interaction. Wikipedia (no date). Wiki. Retrieved from October 31, 2012

16 What is a Wiki? A collaborative knowledge project online, where information is contributed by multiple collaborators who draw from their knowledge bases. It is a way to generate shared understandings in an ego-free zone. It is a new model of knowledge development, apart from profit-based models.

17 What is a Wiki? Each collaborator creates their account, and then is able to edit, add information, etc. as per the permissions level set by the administrator of the wiki. Most wikis are governed by a Creative Commons License, which gives varying degrees of copyright control. Accountability is promoted by use of referencing of information, much as with peer reviewed articles, but is not considered to be to the same level as with these publications.

18 The COA As Trauma Wiki Please take a moment to load this website into your browser, and we'll walk through the elements, and discuss how you can engage with it as a collaborator.

19 The COA As Trauma Wiki To enter the collaboration: Create a Wikispaces account by clicking Join Return to the COATrauma Wiki Click the option at the top to request membership Edit and add pages, start and participate in discussions Try out the resources, see how they work for you, share things that you've learned in the process.