During this period of innocence, however, researchers have discovered that traumatic experiences such as abuse and neglect are quite common. Kids who experience childhood trauma may not remember such negative experiences from a young age, but a new documentary called Resilience reveals that their bodies do.
Studies show that babies can recall traumatic events, particularly those that occur during the first year of life. While they may not remember the exact details of what happened, they can retain a feeling of the experience, shaping their behavior and responses later.
When confronted with trauma, a child may not have the ability to cope with the experience. While very young children may not remember specific events they do remember emotions, images and can be reminded of situations that cause them to be upset.
Trauma therapists assert that abuse experienced early in life can overwhelm the central nervous system, causing children to split off a painful memory from conscious awareness.
Children can experience trauma as early as infancy. In fact, young children between the ages of 0 and 5 are the most vulnerable to the effects of trauma since their brains are still in the early formative years.
Trauma-induced changes to the brain can result in varying degrees of cognitive impairment and emotional dysregulation that can lead to a host of problems, including difficulty with attention and focus, learning disabilities, low self-esteem, impaired social skills, and sleep disturbances (Nemeroff, 2016).
How does your brain cope with trauma? According to McLaughlin, if the brain registers an overwhelming trauma, then it can essentially block that memory in a process called dissociation -- or detachment from reality.
For some children, the cumulative effect of growing up in a family with frequent harsh verbal discipline can basically rewire the brain and lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. P.T.S.D.
Young children may show a fear of strangers or be scared to leave their parent. They might also have sleep problems or nightmares. They might think a lot about certain words or symbols that may or may not be related to the trauma. Young children may also show posttraumatic play.
“Child trauma” refers to a scary, dangerous, violent, or life threatening event that happens to a child (0-18 years of age). This type of event may also happen to someone your child knows and your child is impacted as a result of seeing or hearing about the other person being hurt or injured.
In univariate analyses, all 5 forms of childhood trauma in this study (ie, witnessing violence, physical neglect, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse) demonstrated statistically significant relationships with the number of different aggressive behaviors reported in adulthood.
Slower and Damaged Cognitive Development
Children experiencing PTSD will have stunted brain development when compared to a normal child. This causes them to have slower capability to learn, lower general IQ, memory problems, damaged social and emotional responses, and a defensive personality.
The symptoms of unresolved trauma may include, among many others, addictive behaviors, an inability to deal with conflict, anxiety, confusion, depression or an innate belief that we have no value.
But is it possible to forget terrible experiences such as being raped? Or beaten? The answer is yes—under certain circumstances. For more than a hundred years, doctors, scientists and other observers have reported the connection between trauma and forgetting.
Many people think that ADHD is a result of trauma, but is it true? The answer is yes, but more for some people than others. The truth is that 90% of the time ADHD is not caused by trauma, but if the trauma is extreme enough, it can cause severe ADHD-like symptoms.
Yes, unresolved childhood trauma can be healed. Seek out therapy with someone psychoanalytically or psychodynamically trained. A therapist who understands the impact of childhood experiences on adult life, particularly traumatic ones. Have several consultations to see if you feel empathically understood.
What does childhood trauma in adults look like? Childhood trauma in adults can impact experiences and relationships with others due to experienced feelings of shame and guilt. Childhood trauma in adults also results in feeling disconnected, and being unable to relate to others.
Although childhood trauma is not necessarily permanent, its impact on social-emotional development can be lasting.
When trauma impairs your ability to develop full emotional maturity, this is known as arrested psychological development. Trauma can “freeze” your emotional response at the age you experienced it. When you feel or act emotionally younger than your actual age, this is known as age regression.
Although there have only been a handful of studies, research suggests that PTEs experienced in childhood are associated with a greater degree of psychopathology than trauma first experienced in adulthood.
In their analysis of pubertal development, the researchers found that children who experienced violence reached puberty at an earlier age than those who did not, but this was not true for children exposed to deprivation or poverty.