Posted by calamityjane on June 6, 2008, at 12:10:53
In reply to Adolescent Loss of Parent: Effects in Adulthood?, posted by nomadjones on May 5, 2008, at 20:09:19
Yes, I have read the same thing. The traumatic loss of a parent during a person's childhood has devastating effects on the child's adult life. I have a text book that does indeed compare the loss to being the same amount of emotional damage that would be brought on by an intense stay in a concentration camp. There is a chart in a book I have that does comparisons, to give the caretaker a sense of what the person is going through.
The book listed suicide of a spouse as being the same thing as being sexually molested every day of a person's childhood. Food for thought....
> Hi: Does anybody have any reading materials (articles, books, weblinks) one could point me to on a child's/adolescent's loss of a parent and the effects into adulthood? I lost my father traumatically at 15 and it seems to have caused a lot of damage to me over the years (I'm a male in my early forties now). I don't really have flashbacks ala the far end of the PTSD spectrum, but think I internalized the idea that doom is always waiting around the corner. Some other traumatic stuff just intensified this way of understanding the world. I catastrophize quite a bit and I'm trying to pull it apart now and could use some guidance. I read something about children in the Holocaust (obviously a much worse situation than mine), but it resonated. Thanks, Nomad
poster:calamityjane
thread:827414
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/grief/20070414/msgs/833300.html