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When You Disappear for Three Months and Your Toddler Can’t Ask, “Where’s Mommy?”
Not Being Able to Talk About a Trauma
If the basis of talk therapy is having the simple ability to talk, what happens when there is significant trauma before we have learned to speak? This happened to my son. It’s hard to know the exact impact, but I see an attunement to others in him I believe may be rare.
I was a dedicated full time, stay at home mother to Travis from the day he was born. I was taken away in an ambulance one morning when he was 22 months old. He was just learning how to talk by saying things like “Mama” and “Dada”.
My husband called the neighbors to come get Travis after he called 911 early that freezing morning in February, 1999. They took him home with them only knowing I was 6 months pregnant and was being rushed to the hospital because I woke up unable to move.
It was late that night when they learned I had a stroke. Brain surgery saved our lives. I was put in the neuro intensive care unit where we were put in a coma to help keep me still after the surgery.
Now my husband would be Travis’ primary care giver in addition to running his machining business. He was the stable, steady force in his life as their world fell apart.
