Whenever anyone, adult or child, suffers a trauma, anything that reminds him of the trauma will serve as a trigger that causes the person to re-experience the same fear, helplessness, and anxiety he felt at the time of the original trauma
Baruch, a mesivta menahel, and Pessy, a social worker, were both sophisticated parents who anticipated my questions and answered them without my even having to ask.
“He never had strep,” Pessy volunteered. “So we know it can’t be PANDAS [pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders, associated with streptococcal infections]. And even our pediatrician is at a loss to explain why Yanky is acting this way.”
“He also has not been bullied at school or victimized in any way,” Baruch added. “But just to be sure, we have asked him directly, more than once. And each time he assures us that he has not been mistreated by anyone. We have discussed these things openly with all of our children. So we are pretty sure that if someone had started up with him, he would have told us about it.”
I took a standard developmental history of Yanky, asked about all of his four older siblings, and explored some of the family dynamics looking for clues. After coming up empty-handed, I shook my head and validated their confusion. Then I explained that the next step would be for me to meet with Yanky for a couple of individual sessions.
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