It guides the client to meet abandonment feelings equanimously by staying somatically present to the physical sensations of depression and fear. This article describes a treatment approach that decreases retraumatizing reactivity to the internal affects of the abandonment depression. Especially noteworthy here is how the inner critic can interact with fear and shame in a particular vicious and escalating cycle. Here is a diagram of these dynamics: Triggered ABANDONMENT DEPRESSION - FEAR&SHAME -INNER CRITIC Activation: (Perfectionism & Endangerment) - 4F's: (Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fawn Response).

Unfortunately this dynamic also commonly operates in reverse, creating perpetual motion cycles of internal trauma as 4F acting out also gives the critic endless material for self-hating criticism, which in turn amps up fear and shame and finally compounds the abandonment depression with a non-stop experience of self-abandonment. She lashes out at the nearest person as she becomes irritable, controlling and pushy (Fight/ Narcissistic) - or she launches into busy productivity driven by negative, perfectionistic and catastrophic thinking (Flight/Obsessive-Compulsive)- or she flips on the TV and becomes dissociated, spaced out and sleepy (Freeze/ Dissociative)- or she focuses immediately on solving someone's else's problem and becomes servile, self-abnegating and ingratiating (Fawn/Codependent). Get your lazy, worthless ass going or you'll end up as a wretched bag lady on the street'! Retraumatized by her own inner voice, she then launches into her most habitual 4F behavior. The critic clamors: 'No wonder no one likes you. This in turn activates her Inner Critic to goad her with perfectionistic and endangering messages. Because childhood experience has conditioned her to believe that she is unworthy and unacceptable in this state, she quickly becomes anxious and ashamed. A complex PTSD sufferer wakes up feeling depressed. Here is an example of the layered processes of an emotional flashback. The 4F's correlate respectively with narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive, dissociative or codependent defensive reactions. One very common flashback-scenario occurs as follows: Internal or external perceptions of possible abandonment trigger fear and shame, which then activates panicky Inner Critic cognitions, which in turn launches an adrenalized fight, flight, freeze or fawn trauma response (subsequently referred to as the 4F's). Flashbacks are at the deepest level painful layers of reactions - physiological, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral - to the reemerging despair of the childhood abandonment depression. This territory is best viewed through unwinding the dynamics of emotional flashbacks. Here is a map of the layering of defensive reactions to the underlying feelings of abandonment typically found in Complex PTSD. Managing Abandonment Depression in Complex PTSD

Complex trauma pete walker