ABSTRACT
Many chronically traumatized children do not receive adequate treatment. It is advised to let sleeping dogs lie and not to address the trauma. The child’s ‘sleeping dogs’ (traumatic memories) do damage and clinicians need to ‘wake those sleeping dogs’. Chronic traumatization can impact the child’s body and brain development leading to symptoms in all developmental areas. The child’s stress system can become dysregulated, leading to a constant state of hyperarousal or hypo-arousal. The child is easily triggered and has a small window of tolerance. The brain and body adapt in order to survive. Currently there are no suitable diagnoses for these children. Chronically traumatized children have more general and fewer posttraumatic stress symptoms, and they need trauma-focused treatment, even when they do not meet the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder. The constructs developmental trauma disorder and complex PTSD describe the broader impact of chronic traumatization in children.
