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One of the most important areas, which will need to be looked at in terms of cognitive restructuring, will be self-esteem. Self-esteem is, quite simply put, how you think and feel about yourself and your place in the world about you. You develop self-esteem from birth on, from the messages received from people of importance in your life. Psychologist Erik Erickson identified 8 stages to healthy self-esteem, starting from birth right through to maturity in adulthood. Each stage had to be completed, in order to move on to the next one. Each one had a different psychological task involved, and a different addition to our self-esteem as well. It was his feeling that as we successfully completed each stage, we became stronger psychologically, and our self-esteem grew healthier. If for some reason we were unable to complete a stage , we may grow older but are sort of stuck at the psychological age of the task we are still trying to complete.
So let’s look at two scenarios. Scenario one (Jane) starts with a woman who has healthy self-esteem, she was raised by loving, caring parents who were there for her. She received positive messages while growing up from them, and they allowed her to take chances to learn about herself and the world around her, while all the while knowing they were there to go to if she needed them. She traveled her life and handled it well. The other scenario is number two (Lisa), this woman has received poor messages while growing up from her parents and the world around her, she started out her life with poor self-esteem. She may have been severely traumatized as a child to begin with. She did not see the world around her as a fair or safe place to be because of the messages she received and/or the trauma she survived. Lisa was unable to pass through the stages of maturity as outlined by Erickson, and as she moved into adulthood has remained as a child as far as her self-esteem goes. Let's start off with the Jane who has had a healthy self-esteem during her life. She suffers a trauma; for example, rape. First and foremost, because she has had a healthy self-esteem (self image) until now, and because of the way she was raised, she has a lesser chance of being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, than does Lisa. She will most likely have healthier problem-solving and thought-processing skills to work through the situation, and get through it, and move past it in time. If she is diagnosed with post Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Coping Skills - Self-Esteem in Post-Traumatic Stress is owned by Cheryl Foote. Permission to republish Coping Skills - Self-Esteem in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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