Conquering Emotional Turmoil

In this article Dr. Natalia Voinov will address how we deal with abuse, and the related issues.

• Abuse
• Aggression
• Emotional, physical, verbal abuse
• Array of symptoms
• Guilt
• Depression
• Hoarding
• Self destructive
• Chronic pain

Abuse can be described as any act-or repeated acts-of aggression inflicted by an individual on to another without the other individual’s consent and/or desire.  The abuse can take verbal, emotional or physical shape or can encompass all of those.  Generally, although not exclusively, there is a power, role, hierarchy or age difference between the abuser and the abused, with the balance leaning toward the abuser.

Once unleashed, abuse has the power of a speeding train with no functional brakes on.  It can travel from station to station destroying everything in its path.  If left uncontrolled, people in its vicinity are likely to forever be transformed and to become life long pain sufferers.

Regardless of its frequency, abuse is by its nature, likely to create initial shock followed by prolonged trauma in the abused.  Gone unrecognized, misidentified, denied, hidden and untreated properly, the effects of the abuse can linger indefinitely and most importantly lead to an array of emotional, behavioral and/or physical symptoms such as:

• Guilt (it’s my fault; I’m bad; my less than desirable behavior provoked the abuser’s anger)

• Depression (feeling down and different from most people)

• Low self-worth (I’ll fail at anything because I’m not just good enough to succeed)

• Low motivation (leads to few achievements or to few complete activities)

• Self destructive behavior (drug and/or alcohol abuse, cutting, poor nutrition, overeating)

• Hoarding (compulsive accumulation of objects, leads to being literally “buried” in material possessions)

• Chronic pain (headaches, back pain, fatigue)

While readily accepted by society as “normal” reactions to abuse/trauma, the above listed physical symptoms serve as protective layers against possible future abuse.  Emotional/psychological symptoms, however, have been historically harder to identify, track, accept and heal.  That is where a competent and skilled psychologist such as Dr. Natalia Voinov can make a difference.  At her offices located in West Los Angeles and Sherman Oaks, California she is seeing and treating survivors of abuse, focusing on roots and effects of such abuse on victims.  Her approach is compassionate but systematic, at times employing a multicultural perspective, and is ultimately based on the person’s personality characteristics.

An illustrative example is Tali whose hoarding began in her adolescence following what was to become a pattern of physical assaults by one of her older siblings.  Incapable of defending herself, with little or no support from family and friends, she started her journey marred by-among other maladaptive behaviors-overeating and hoarding.  When she got to the point of self –burial in objects and had also gained a significant amount of weight, she felt compelled to see Dr. Natalia Voinov at her West Los Angeles office.

As the therapeutic work advanced and initial progress was just beginning to surface, Tali-at Dr. Natalia V’s suggestion- decided to increase the frequency of visits; so she began to come in to the Sherman Oaks office as well for additional psychotherapy sessions.  At that stage, following a brief and unsuccessful trial on medication prescribed by her psychiatrist, Tali participated in a highly structured and systematic program of gradually throwing away mostly unnecessary objects, giving some away to charity, hiring a cleaning person, reorganizing drawers, slowly making room for plants she has always liked and wanted.  She began cleaning up her diet and reconsidering her food intake and its nutritional value.  

Through all the setbacks and the successes, through all the disappointments and the pride, Dr. Natalia Voinov helped Tali identify the roots of her fears, and understand the reasons why she had built layers of protective “tissue” around her and her immediate surroundings.  In other words, Dr. Natalia Voinov gave Tali the hope and the courage to look ahead into the future.