Understanding the Important Role of Anger In Complex Trauma Recovery

Why anger is a necessary part of healing from childhood trauma

photo: author

Trigger Warning: The following content includes personal experiences and discussions around difficult topics such as trauma, emotional challenges, childhood maltreatment, or abusive relationships. While my intent is to educate and share personal insights, some readers may find certain content emotionally distressing. This article is for informational purposes only.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was a psychiatrist who extensively studied death and dying (grief). She discovered that each of these people went through the same stages of grieving, even if they experienced them differently. This began her career researching grief, in which she eventually coined 5 stages: denial, depression, anger, bargaining, and finally, acceptance. While her studies surrounded death, her stages of grief have generalized to victims of isolated trauma (PTSD), childhood trauma (cPTSD), and narcissistic abuse.

Anger is a necessary part of grieving. When a person has experienced complex trauma from chronic childhood neglect, abuse, or abandonment, or has experienced other forms of repeated abuse (captivity, war, human trafficking, narcissistic abuse in intimate relationships, especially covert narcissistic…