ABSTRACT
Many survivors of ongoing childhood trauma often have difficulty managing daily life as adults. They are usually out of touch with their bodies, and so they do not know when they need food, or rest, or exercise. They are out of touch with their emotions, and so they do not know what they like or dislike. And their emotions are not accurate gauges of what is going on in their lives in the present, because they are so often a response to post-traumatic triggers. Survivors often do not have personal boundaries, as theirs were perpetually violated in childhood. They lacked an intimate, nurturing connection with their parents, and so they do not know how to build one with their friends, spouses, and children. Their sleep is disturbed, because it was disturbed by abusers in childhood. They have difficulty with many areas of everyday life, often because of post-traumatic reactions in which they react to something in the present as though it were the past when the abuse was still happening.
