TRAUMA CAN INCLUDE A VARIETY OF RESPONSES AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES, SUCH AS: Intense and ongoing emotional upset, including feelings of fear, terror or under pressure. Anxiety or being in a state of constant alert. Depression.
Attachment and relationships
Another warning flag of childhood trauma that carries over into adulthood are problems forming attachments and relationships. For example, if your childhood trauma was caused by a loved one or caregiver, you may learn to mistrust adults.
Some of the symptoms of trauma in children (and adults) closely mimic depression, including too much or too little sleep, loss of appetite or overeating, unexplained irritability and anger, and problems focusing on projects, school work, and conversation.
You might have difficulties trusting, low self-esteem, fears of being judged, constant attempts to please, outbursts of frustration, or social anxiety symptoms that won't let up. Can childhood trauma be healed?
Children may have PTSD symptoms related to watching their parent's symptoms. For example, a child might have trouble paying attention at school because she is thinking about her parent's problems. The impact of a parent's PTSD symptoms on a child is sometimes called "secondary traumatization.”
Emotional abuse includes: humiliating or constantly criticising a child. threatening, shouting at a child or calling them names. making the child the subject of jokes, or using sarcasm to hurt a child.
Emotionally abusive parents may use shame and humiliation as a way to hurt their children. They may tell embarrassing stories or engage in name-calling in front of other people. This is typically done in front of the child's peers, leaving them to feel embarrassed and hurt.
If the trauma is left untreated, one can experience nightmares, insomnia, anxiety, depression, phobias, substance abuse, panic attacks, anger, irritability, or hopelessness.
Intense Fear or Hypervigilance:
Sometimes people experience unexplained fears. This can include people or places. This often results in hypervigilance and a constant feeling of being on guard. Both fear and hypervigilance are clear indicators of unprocessed trauma.
Traumatic experiences can initiate strong emotions and physical reactions that can persist long after the event. Children may feel terror, helplessness, or fear, as well as physiological reactions such as heart pounding, vomiting, or loss of bowel or bladder control.
Emotional Trauma Symptoms
Not everyone responds to trauma in exactly the same way, but here are some common signs: Cognitive Changes: Intrusive thoughts, nightmares, and flashbacks of the event, confusion, difficulty with memory and concentration, and mood swings.
Trauma might show up as anxiety, depression, isolation, fear, pain (emotional and physical), shame, embarrassment, disordered eating, or alcohol abuse. The reality is, because trauma happens on the inside not the outside the chances are we are all living our lives with differing levels of trauma.
Examples of emotional neglect may include: lack of emotional support during difficult times or illness. withholding or not showing affection, even when requested. exposure to domestic violence and other types of abuse.
PTSD symptoms displayed by abused children and young people include learning difficulties, poor behaviour at school, depression and anxiety, aggression, risk-taking and criminal behaviours, emotional numbness, and a range of physical issues including poor sleep and headaches.
Many Young Adults Are Still Traumatized by Their Parents' Fights. This Leads Them Into Destructive Relationship Patterns.
If you can recall times when you've overreacted, and perhaps have even been surprised at your own reactions, this may be a sign of trauma. It's not uncommon for people suffering from emotional trauma to have feelings of shame and self-blame.
Most people are indeed entirely unaware that they are suffering from trauma at all. Many put their symptoms and negative experiences down to stress which is often vague and unhelpful, particularly when trying to get to the core of the problem.
Smiling is a way to “protect” therapists.
By downplaying their pain they are attempting to minimize the upset they believe they are causing. Laughing while recounting something painful says, “I'm OK, you don't have to take care of me. ' Instead, clients are actually attempting to take care of their therapists.
Delayed responses to trauma can include persistent fatigue, sleep disorders, nightmares, fear of recurrence, anxiety focused on flashbacks, depression, and avoidance of emotions, sensations, or activities that are associated with the trauma, even remotely.
When Symptoms Occur Without a History of Trauma. It is important to understand that trauma can be inherited independently of difficult family circumstances. A child can develop anxiety, depression, or other stress-related issues such as PTSD as a result of an inherited vulnerability rather than direct trauma.
Parental emotional abuse can take many forms, including verbally abusing, terrorizing, exploiting, isolating, rejecting, neglecting, and parentifying1. It occurs when parents repeatedly interact with their children in a harmful way.
The most common toxic behavior of parents is to criticize their child, express self-wishes, complain about the difficulties of raising a child, make unhealthy comparisons, and make hurtful statements1.