Psychological Responses to Trauma

Interpersonal Difficulties

Despite individual differences, difficulties in social functioning are common psychosocial repercussions of traumatic experiences. They range from social isolation, difficulty trusting, and detachment from others to highly anxious attachment, concerns over burdening others with problems, sensitivity to [Page 486]signs of abandonment or betrayal, and interpersonal conflicts and arguments. Interpersonal trauma, especially, is associated with problems in forming or maintaining satisfactory intimate connections in adults, including long-term, stable, sexual-romantic relationships. This may occur for several reasons. Trauma survivors who develop posttraumatic numbing may have difficulty experiencing positive attachment affects, leading to decreased experiences of love in interpersonal relationships. In some cases, survivors of early trauma in their family of origin may not have had the opportunity to develop the relational skills they need to establish and maintain satisfactory intimate relationships. Early experiences of abuse or neglect can additionally produce fears of intimacy or vulnerability that, in the face of coexisting hunger for connectedness, may lead to ambivalent, chaotic, and sometimes short-lived relationships. As first proposed by psychologist John Bowlby, such maltreatment can affect caretaker-child attachment systems, resulting in chronic, negative expectations and perceptions of other people (negative relational schema), leading to safety, trust, esteem, intimacy, and control issues. Survivors of early relational trauma may see themselves as unlovable, stigmatized, different from others, and marked or contaminated by their trauma and may view others as unavailable, not trustable, or unavailable in time of needs. These negative models of self and others, often thought to reflect the effects of insecure attachment, often persist into the long term, producing lasting relational problems.

...