Powerful, honest and important. I first learned about boundaries from the life changing book "Healing Developmental Trauma", here are some notes I made in case useful:
In the book “Healing Developmental Trauma” by Dr Laurence Heller and Aline LaPierre, from which the following list is adapted, the authors provides a clear explanation of this in terms of what they refer to as “damaged energetic boundaries”.
“Our boundaries (personal, physical and energetic spaces) buffer us from outside world and regulate our interface with other people.
An everyday example of "boundary impingement" is someone standing too close, and wanting distance from that person.
Just like skin marks the boundary between the body's inside and outside, our energetic boundaries defines our wider personal space.
Intact and healthy energetic boundaries help us feel safe and set appropriate limits on interactions.
Analogous to a cut in the skin being painful, energetic boundary impingement, penetration or rupture may feel threatening, physically uncomfortable or create mental anguish.
Traumatic events that occur before we can orient to the danger can leave us with internal sense that danger can from anywhere, anytime, making us hypervigilant.
With early development trauma, boundaries never form adequately in the first place or are severely compromised.
With compromised boundaries, we may feel easily overwhelmed, such as feeling flooded by environmental stimuli and human contact, or not knowing the difference between self and other people, or between internal and external experiences.
Individuals with breached boundaries due to trauma distance and isolate themselves from other people, as a protective mechanism.
There is a strong correlation between environmental sensitivities, e.g. to light, sound, electric fields, smells, touch, and ruptured boundaries.
People with compromised energetic boundaries tend to have compromised physical and internal boundaries too, such as leaky gut, food and chemical insensitivity and allergy.
As people heal from trauma and restore healthy boundaries, they report decreases in level of sensitivities, intolerances and allergies too“
I'm gonna pick up this book. I was un-convinced that my physical and some of my mental anguish were psychosomatic, but it's true - the more depressed, angry, shameful (or other negative affect emotive state) I feel, the more my body feels it, too.
My anxiety comes with stomach aches (which, I'm sure you know, is very common of anxiety disorders) and my depression comes with an intense desire to self-soothe, though with maladaptive strategies that I've had to (and am still) unlearning.
Thank you for sharing this - you're a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate your engagement and comments!
Glad it helps. This book a was life changing for me - suddenly everything fell in to place, and I could understand not just what was wrong with me, but what happened to me. I had a very open frank conversation with my mother about my birth and infancy afterwards and there was a lot of stuff I never would have known about. ps I am writing about the Survival Styles that the book details currently... post should be out tomorrow or day after...
Powerful, honest and important. I first learned about boundaries from the life changing book "Healing Developmental Trauma", here are some notes I made in case useful:
In the book “Healing Developmental Trauma” by Dr Laurence Heller and Aline LaPierre, from which the following list is adapted, the authors provides a clear explanation of this in terms of what they refer to as “damaged energetic boundaries”.
“Our boundaries (personal, physical and energetic spaces) buffer us from outside world and regulate our interface with other people.
An everyday example of "boundary impingement" is someone standing too close, and wanting distance from that person.
Just like skin marks the boundary between the body's inside and outside, our energetic boundaries defines our wider personal space.
Intact and healthy energetic boundaries help us feel safe and set appropriate limits on interactions.
Analogous to a cut in the skin being painful, energetic boundary impingement, penetration or rupture may feel threatening, physically uncomfortable or create mental anguish.
Traumatic events that occur before we can orient to the danger can leave us with internal sense that danger can from anywhere, anytime, making us hypervigilant.
With early development trauma, boundaries never form adequately in the first place or are severely compromised.
With compromised boundaries, we may feel easily overwhelmed, such as feeling flooded by environmental stimuli and human contact, or not knowing the difference between self and other people, or between internal and external experiences.
Individuals with breached boundaries due to trauma distance and isolate themselves from other people, as a protective mechanism.
There is a strong correlation between environmental sensitivities, e.g. to light, sound, electric fields, smells, touch, and ruptured boundaries.
People with compromised energetic boundaries tend to have compromised physical and internal boundaries too, such as leaky gut, food and chemical insensitivity and allergy.
As people heal from trauma and restore healthy boundaries, they report decreases in level of sensitivities, intolerances and allergies too“
Gary, this is incredible!
I'm gonna pick up this book. I was un-convinced that my physical and some of my mental anguish were psychosomatic, but it's true - the more depressed, angry, shameful (or other negative affect emotive state) I feel, the more my body feels it, too.
My anxiety comes with stomach aches (which, I'm sure you know, is very common of anxiety disorders) and my depression comes with an intense desire to self-soothe, though with maladaptive strategies that I've had to (and am still) unlearning.
Thank you for sharing this - you're a wealth of knowledge and I appreciate your engagement and comments!
Glad it helps. This book a was life changing for me - suddenly everything fell in to place, and I could understand not just what was wrong with me, but what happened to me. I had a very open frank conversation with my mother about my birth and infancy afterwards and there was a lot of stuff I never would have known about. ps I am writing about the Survival Styles that the book details currently... post should be out tomorrow or day after...
I needed this today because I am having a problem getting a boundary understood. Thanks for the encouragement
You’re so welcome, Laura! Thanks for reading!