The baby experiences the original trauma as a life-threatening event because, in fact, for all mammalian species, separation from the mother of the baby means death. In all respects, this is the same PTSD disorder. The only apparent difference is that the change to the previous trauma involves a change to the mind/brain/reality/feelings/behavior/chemistry/physiology/body movements/affective expression level and anatomical sites in the brain that were active and developing. at the precise moment of the original trauma during childhood. The switch to an earlier mind/brain/reality gives the appearance of a totally different disorder, but is actually exactly the same and meets all of the DSM criteria for late-onset PTSD.
Similarities between adulthood PTSD and late childhood PTSD include:
1. The original trauma that defines the symptom for both is an overwhelming event. For the adult combat veteran, they can be terrifying experiences of carnage and death, often associated with sudden, high-pitched, loud noises. For the infant it is anything the infant may experience as a threat of separation from the mother. These sometimes subtle traumas are not recognized as upsetting to a baby and can include taking a short vacation and leaving the baby for a few days with someone who is totally trustworthy, caring, and trustworthy. The problem is that the baby doesn’t know that, and the baby could be terrified of abandonment and death, a fear that goes back thousands of years with all mammalian species. Other childhood separation traumas include moving into a new house and the mother taking care to make the new place feel like home, or a tragedy befalling an older child, taking the attention away from the mother, or the father does something silly that upsets mother and affects her emotionally. produces separation trauma to the baby.
2. The initial trauma that precipitated the symptoms, years or decades later, matches or resembles in some way the original trauma that defined the symptoms. Most of the time it is a loud noise that precipitates the initial flashback in the veteran, or it could be some other element of the war. In the infant it is a separation from some other “more important person” years or decades later that precipitates the initial step backward in time.
3. The trauma that precipitates the symptoms triggers a survival mechanism for both, which applies to all species, at all ages, and generally improves survival most of the time. Otherwise, it would not be incorporated as an adaptation measure for survival.
4. The coping mechanism can be maladaptive, both in war trauma and in schizophrenia.
5. In both, the person partially returns to all of the previous gestalt, that is, the mind/brain/reality/feelings/behavior/chemistry/physiology/body movements and previous anatomical sites in the brain that were active and developing in the precise moment. of the original trauma.
6. The negative symptoms are the same for both (they result from the enormous process of repression, which begins at the moment of the original trauma, forcing unpleasant thoughts, events and feelings out of the conscious mind.
7. The positive symptoms are the same. These are represented by wild chaotic behaviors associated with thoughts, feelings, memories, and actions connected to the original traumas, whether these overwhelming thoughts and feelings occurred during childhood or terror associated with adult life trauma.
8. The precursors of late PTSD are the same, whether caused by frightening experiences in childhood or in adult life.
9. The defensive wall is the same (a massive shield of repression stemming from the original traumatic event).
10. The precursors and the negative symptoms in both are attempts to suppress or repress the painful experience of the original trauma.
11. The one-way correlation is the same. The war did not start because twenty years later someone had a flashback, and childhood trauma did not occur because years or decades later someone developed schizophrenia, or because someone developed a neurobiological change.
12. The age of origin of schizophrenia can be determined clinically because the patient’s symptoms match the infant’s feelings/behavior/reality when the original trauma occurred, and the age at which the war trauma occurred can also be determined clinically, because the the symptoms are consistent with the trauma of war, and we know how old the veteran was when they experienced the trauma of war.
Thus we have twelve precise parallels between the delayed PTSD of childhood and the delayed PTSD of adult life. These are so precise that schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, and the other psychotic and nonpsychotic depressions actually meet all of the DSM criteria for delayed PTSD.
In addition to contributing to the understanding of the disorder, this removes the stigma of being labeled as schizophrenic, bipolar, etc.