Toxic shame is chronic in nature. It resides in our unconscious, meaning, we are not consciously aware that we have, or are experiencing, shame. It exists ‘on the back burner’ of our psyche, causing havoc, and yet we do not even know it is there!
[Note: This article originally written for The C-PTSD Foundation in November 2020] Complex PTSD ( which is sometimes interchanged with terms such as complex relational trauma, developmental trauma, and interpersonal… Read more »
Because family scapegoating processes can be insidious and subtle, many adult survivors do not realize that they are suffering from a most egregious (and often chronic) form of systemically-driven psycho-emotional bullying and abuse, with all of the painful consequences to body, mind, and spirit…