Personality Connect

To the read the original post with Vicky’s quick bio, click here: The Effects of Childhood Trauma on Personality

Vicky lost her ability to focus in school. It was hard enough when they were moving from place to place before she moved in with her mother’s brother. Food was sporadic when she wasn’t eating at school. After they moved in with her uncle she was being fed more but in return the abuse was replacing the hunger. Vicky did not understand why she was the one her uncle preferred. She didn’t know if any of her other siblings were “chosen” and she definitely kept silent for fear of her uncle throwing them out.

When Vicky’s mother abruptly abandoned them at her uncle’s house, she took the youngest child who was only two years old. Vicky’s oldest brother who was 16 years old left to stay with a friend and the three middle children stayed with her uncle. By then Vicky was seven and in second grade. The school did not suspect anything was wrong because after all they had hundreds of other students with trouble focusing and paying attention in class.

By the time Vicky went to middle school someone finally realized something was terribly wrong at her house and CPS came and took away the rest of the three children. She found out that her other sister had been abused by her uncle as well but never said anything either. Vicky was in and out of foster homes until she aged out. By the time Vicky was 19 she had two abortions and had dropped out of high school. Vicky was still quiet and sensitive; she was searching for meaning and stability but never seemed to find it in her relationships.

Vicky grew to be a very unhealthy ISFJ because of the neglect and abuse she suffered her whole childhood. The pain and suffering she went through damaged her ability to do well in school, stripped her of self-worth, and destroyed her faith in people. It is because of the lack of positive role models and demonstration of healthy relationships she had problems with abandonment, emotional instability, self-harming tendencies, insomnia, and posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Through therapy Vicky could improve her moods, lower depression and anxiety, and work towards being an emotionally stable adult. It will be very challenging because of the amount of abuse and negative pathways that have been created in her mind but it is not impossible. It will take years of therapy and a lot of hard work but Vicky can work her way to a healthy ISFJ.