One phrase that isn’t new to the cosmos of mental health but still pulls numbers…..Childhood trauma!
It’s a staggering reality that half of all American children have experienced at least one childhood trauma, and nearly 30% of mental disorder cases can be traced back to these early adversities. This prevalence underscores the urgent need to understand and address the long-term effects of childhood trauma.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at childhood trauma, its effect on behaviour and personality, and how to overcome it with a clearer lens.
Developmental implications of trauma during formative years
Childhood trauma is regarded as distressing events that occur during the early stages of a person’s life, which in turn hampers the emotional and psychological growth of such individuals.
However, the prevalence and impact on a person is dependent on the type of trauma, the duration, and how the individual copes. In the long run, these childhood traumas bring on consequences that spiral into adulthood, showing up as PTSD, unhealthy relationships, anxiety, difficulty expressing emotions, etc.
When trauma happens, it is experienced as stress. Trauma implications set in when a child’s trauma response is continually stimulated. However, when a child’s stress response is little compared to the weight of the trauma exposure, automatically, the child is unable to cope because there is no capacity to handle such a level of stress.
Continual subjection to traumatic events and conditions without proper and immediate support from adults, secure relationships, and the community to navigate a difficult phase shuts off the normal process of growth, causing impairment of social, psychological, and emotional development.
Tons of research around this subject matter have proven that trauma disrupts brain development.
Brain function is an integral part of growth, and it happens through neurons as building blocks from the simple to the complex form. Neural pathways are formed as growth advances. However, there are crucial periods when neural pathway formation peaks for significant development.
At the onset of trauma, there is an alteration and redirection. The neural pathways that function more are those that respond to trauma, which in turn causes delay and altercation of other pathways needed for adaptive behaviours.
Nonetheless, no two people react to trauma the same way. There are levels of disparities that follow exposure to similar conditions. This depends on the level of exposure and how an individual copes.
Effects of childhood trauma on personality and behaviour
Trauma shapes behaviour.
Kate was a soft-hearted 6-year-old who found socializing easy. She liked to express herself, speak courteously to older adults, and have fun with her parents. Gradually, she witnessed her parents yell at each other and have several heated moments, and her dad always came home late and angry. Kate’s tender but fierce courage began to wear out. She missed play dates with her dad, and she got anxious when she got to social settings.
Traumatic occurrences lead to a rebirth characterized by character remodelling, perpetuating thoughts, and influencing our perception of ourselves and the world around us. Trauma does not only affect emotions; it has a significant impact on identity.
It’s important to note that the effects of trauma are not always negative. While it can lead to hypervigilance, loneliness, and anxiety, it can also foster resilience and deep empathy and prepare us for future challenges. This duality of trauma underscores the human capacity for strength and adaptation in the face of adversity.
The adverse effects that come as by-products of trauma are coping mechanisms that we develop to protect ourselves from being re-traumatized. Most people end up being secluded to themselves after they’ve been emotionally wounded.
Trauma could lead to an undertone lack of passion for work, reduced productivity, lack of boundaries, constant burnout, friendships loss, and dysfunctional families. Unaddressed trauma is the backbone of most mental health challenges. Statistics show that of the 70% of people in the US who experience trauma, 20% go on to develop PTSD.
To better understand how trauma can shape behaviour, we’ll delve into the four primary trauma responses: Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn. By recognizing these responses, we can gain insight into our reactions or those of others, fostering empathy and understanding.
Fundamentally, there are four kinds of trauma responses, which are Fight, Flight, Freeze, and Fawn.
1. The Fight Trauma Response
For this trauma response, the major coping mechanism is aggressiveness. If you fall under this category, then you have a thought pattern that spurs to exert a compelling force over any threat that stares at you.
Trauma stimulates a response interpreted as fighting back and attacking to survive.
The fight trauma response informs people always to control and manipulate people or situations they find themselves in. They are prone to being perfectionists. Emotional responses from the fight trauma response are:
- Constant outbursts of anger/ Over aggressiveness
- Perfectionism
- Narcissism
- Workaholism
- Excessive display of defensiveness
- Bullying
2. Flight Trauma Response
People here protect themselves from trauma by getting away! Unlike the fight response, they don’t run towards threats; they run back from danger. So, their natural reaction and default behavior is to avoid.
These people can learn to cope better by avoiding toxic relationships, burdening conversations, and stressful situations. However, these behaviors are usually sponsored by underlying and pulsating anxiety that causes them to be avoidant and reclusive.
Picture a boy who keeps getting verbally and physically abused by his aggressive father. After every outburst of anger on him, he enters his room, refuses to eat or associate with his siblings, constantly feels threatened, and can’t keep eye contact with his father. When he eventually becomes an adult, he critically avoids and flees from every sight of conflict.
That’s a perfect example of someone who exhibits the flight trauma response.
When triggered, they are restless, find it difficult to calm their mind, still their thoughts, and silence anxiety. The following are emotional responses that accompany the flight trauma response:
- Hypervigilance
- Restlessness
- Difficulty concentrating or focusing
- The constant struggle with racing, uncontrollable thoughts.
3. Freeze Trauma Response
To freeze is to dissociate. It is described as an intense state of immobility where the body and mind shut down, i.e., you stop feeling.
Unlike the flight response, when a threat is perceived, the natural response detaches from the situation and blocks every passageway for danger to get to you by numbing your emotions. The freeze trauma response makes it difficult for people to feel their feelings.
According to research, this trauma response is elicited by a rush of panic and anxiety that gets trapped in the body and is unable to be expressed as either ‘fight’ or ‘flight.’ Individuals who have responded to trauma by freezing experience high levels of dissociation, disconnection with themselves, or zoning out.
Freeze trauma response response could be expressed in the following ways:
- Constant depressive moods
- Struggles with decision-making
- Resorting to drug and substance abuse
- Confusion and emotional numbness
- Dissociation
- Having unhealthy relationships
- Communication issues/ difficulty expressing emotions
4. Fawn Trauma Response
Placation takes the lead here! Individuals in this category approach a threat by appeasing it to avoid conflict. Fawn response comes in the form of people-pleasing, putting oneself on the line to make others happy, or seeking validation.
People-pleasers have issues setting boundaries, prioritizing self-care, and meeting personal needs. They feel guilty for putting themselves first and don’t know how to limit the time they spend on people.
They always say YES to several family, friends, or acquaintance’s requests. However, what’s not seen on the outside is that a broken child is scared of losing anyone beneath the person going all the way.
Often, people with the fawn response have difficulty identifying their feelings, having a strong sense of identity, or avoiding being controversial. Their identity, mood, and emotions are muddled with another person’s. Because of this, their mood or countenance takes the shape of their immediate atmosphere. They have not learned how to rise above it.
People-pleasing is a subconscious act of seeking safety, love, and affection. Victims of abuse often exhibit a fawn response by dancing to the tune of their abuser because they have the fear of neglect and dread of being rejected.
They don’t always want to say things that will make others angry, so they choose to keep shut.
The following are key indicators of the fawn trauma response:
- Difficulty saying “NO”
- Oversharing & overextending
- Hypervigilance and walking on eggshells around people.
- Having a hard time vocalizing personal opinions and ideas
- Avoiding being genuine and authentic in relationships
- Struggles with setting proper boundaries across all aspects
- Excessive self-blame
- Overly concerned and conscious of people’s thoughts about them
Challenges in interpersonal relationships and emotional regulation
Trauma reduces the full potential of relationships to bloom and thrive.
According to Huh et al., 2014, a few recent studies have raised the possibility that those who have survived childhood trauma may struggle with social adjustment, intimate dysfunction, and poorer relationship quality.
The effect of trauma on interpersonal relationships is manifested in attachment styles. Interpersonal relationships cut across family ties, friendships, and romantic relationships in which we form bonds of love, joy, peace, vulnerability, support, and trust. However, what trauma does is to cripple the normal order of a healthy relationship.
Individuals whose caregivers did not assist in developing a secure attachment find it difficult to navigate relationships without any hiccups. Some people end up being anxious, avoidant, or dismissive.
The anxious attachment style plays out via trust issues and fear of abandonment. In contrast, the avoidant and dismissive attachment styles are quite similar and are exhibited through a lack of emotional dependence, avoiding intimacy, and deep connections with people.
For people with unresolved trauma, emotional regulation is often a hassle. Most people don’t understand how to handle intense emotions by identifying them and managing them so they don’t smear others. Emotional dysregulation comes in the form of:
- Mood swings
- Anger Outbursts
- Recurrent Depressive moods
- Impulsive behaviors
- Struggling to cope with stress
- Overwhelming feelings of shame
- Getting upset and triggered for no reason.
Most of these forms of emotional dysregulation cause long-term effects such as:
- Concurrent conflicts in relationships,
- Emotional reactivity
- Lack of communication
- Difficulty holding an intimate connection
- Emotionally unavailable
Overcoming the Long-Term Effects of Trauma
If you struggle with any of these effects of trauma, the first thing you must know is that overcoming and healing from the wounds of the past is incredibly possible. However, the path to healing is in no way linear.
Get professional care
One of the most important ways to get rid of trauma’s effects is to get help where you’ll find it. Seek the assistance of a certified trauma specialist therapist. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), trauma-focused therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can all be quite successful.
The landscape of mental health care has greatly expanded. You can get therapy via whatever mode you desire. There are diverse mental platforms, e.g., Octave, Alma, Lyra Health, Foresight Mental Health, etc., that give you access to a therapist who gets you. Together, you’ll be able to do great work. You don’t have to worry about racial or gender differences. Likewise, the area of specialty that matches your journey into healing!
Be open to support systems.
Trauma survivors sometimes don’t like to feel like a burden to other people, so they bottle it all up and keep their struggles to themselves.
If you struggle with openness and vulnerability, start learning to express your emotions by talking to someone you trust. You could start by relating how you felt all through your day. From there, you gradually take the big steps of releasing your emotions.
Also, the community plays a significant role in healing.
Support systems or groups make you feel seen, heard, and accepted. When there is no fear of judgment or neglect, people can express themselves, talk about their struggles, and be genuine.
Community gives people a sense of belonging. Knowing that you are not alone relieves you of carrying your weight alone. You have other people who share the same struggles, and you can find closure in your support group.
Practice self-compassion
The journey to healing takes resilience. A day isn’t enough to unpack all of trauma’s effects on you. You’ll have to take baby steps each day as you become a better version of yourself. You’ll need to lavish so much love on yourself.
Don’t doubt yourself; you are progressing, and that’s all that matters. Amidst every challenge you encounter on this journey, reach out for help and talk to your therapist.
