by E. Sue Blume, C.S.W., 1990, courtesy of WINGS Foundation

• Fear of being alone in the dark, of sleeping alone, nightmares, night terrors (especially of pursuit, threat, entrapment).
• Swallowing and gagging sensitivity; repugnance to water on face when bathing or swimming (suffocation feelings).
• Alienation from body--not at home in own body; failure to heed signals of body or take care of it; poor body image; avoiding physical attention.
• Gastrointestinal problems; GYN disorders; headaches; arthritis.
• Wearing a lot of clothing, even in summer; baggy clothes; failure to remove clothing even when appropriate to do so; extreme privacy.
• Eating disorders, drug/alcohol abuse (or total abstinence); other addictions; compulsive behaviors
• Skin carving, self-abuse (physical pain is manageable); self-destruction.
• Phobias.
• Need to be invisible, perfect or perfectly bad.
• Suicidal thoughts, attempts, obsession, including "passive suicide".
• Depression (sometimes paralyzing); seemingly baseless crying.
• Anger issues: inability to recognize, own or expresss anger; fear of actual or imagined rage; constant anger; intense hostility toward entire gender or ethnic group of the perpetrator.
• Splitting (depersonalization); going into shock, shutdown in crisis; stressful situation is always a crisis; psychic numbing.
• Rigid control of thought process; humorless or extreme solemnity.
• Childhood hiding, hanging on, cowering in corners (security seeking behaviors); adult nervousness over being watched or surprised.
• Trust issues: inability to trust; too total trust; trusting indiscriminately.
• High risk taking ("daring the fates"); inability to take risks.
• Boundary issues; control, power, territorial issues; fear of losing control; obsessive/compulsive behaviors (attempt to control).
• Guilt/shame/low self-esteem/feeling worthless.
• Pattern of being a victim, especially sexually; no sense of own power or right to set limits or say "no"; pattern of relatinships with much older persons.
• Feeling demand to "produce and be loved"; instinctively anticipating others' wants.
• Abandonment issues.
• Blocking out some period of early years (especially 1-12) or a specific person or place.
• Limited tolerance for happiness; active withdrawal from or reluctance to trust happiness.