Kids who are adopted from previously neglectful or abusive backgrounds often have deep seated fears--fear that can't really be expressed. These fears can manifest themselves in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms much in the way combat soldiers are affected. These "memories" are burned into the person under unrelated circumstances and can cause physical reactions in a person when elements of the original circumstances are present.

When these circumstances present themselves and the person reacts, they are experiencing trigger events. Triggers can come in all kinds of shapes and varieties.

• smells
• places
• sounds
• certain foods
• anniversary events
• animals
• people
• voice tone
• almost anything

Treating trauma requires that the child, first of all, feels safe. When a child is removed from a home for reasons of abuse or neglect he/she ends up in the foster system. A feeling of safety can't come until the constant change--shifting from place to place and family to family--comes to an end.

A typical kid who ends up in the foster system will:

• Enter a receiving home for several weeks
• Be moved to a foster home--hopefully for less than a year
• Be, either placed back with the biological family IF they have fulfilled mandated treatment/safety updates/etc or be placed in a potential adoptive family's home
• If placed in a an adoptive family, then hopefully the child is finalized and the cycle of change ends.

Any part of this cycle can repeat. Some children end up moving from foster home to foster home and never are placed permanently.

Trauma triggers from the original abuse or neglect can be followed by all kinds of behaviors including, but not limited to:

• Furious outbursts
• Self abuse
• Defiance
• Soiling onself

Triggers themselves are a manifestation of the trauma. The trauma can only be treated when the child is in an environment that is safe and secure.