Your body remembers everything that has ever happened to you, even when your mind doesn’t. People forget how much of an impact our childhood has on us. The environment and way we were raised, traumatic events, and shapes and molds who we are today.
Sleep disturbance or having trouble sleeping, is often associated with comfort and safety. Good sleep may be something you once had as a child, but then your typically secure setting was disrupted either through physical or sexual abuse in the bedroom. This can lead to disrupted sleeping in adulthood.
Depression and anxiety are very common to experience throughout your adult years, and according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is being diagnosed more and more often. The roots can often be traced to repeated childhood stress. Often these children (and later adults) have a first reaction of stress in any situation, because after excessive transmission of stress to the hormones in the body, their natural response to events around them is anxiety.
About 70% of people go through a traumatic event in their life. According to Maple Mountain and Mental Health, not everyone develops a traumatic disorder. Trauma often comes from being unable to cope with these experiences. More often than not, unresolved trauma comes out through self-isolation. As humans, a natural response for us is to form a protective barrier from past situations, and find comfort in it. But when this trauma is left un-dealt with, it can decrease one’s chance of tackling future negative experiences.
The most extreme example of how childhood trauma comes out through our actions as adults, is serial killers. Joel Norris wrote a book called Serial Killers, and he describes the cycles of violence as generational: “Parents who abuse their children, physically as well as psychologically, instill in them an almost instinctive reliance upon violence as a first resort to any challenge.”
While serial killers are an extreme example of childhood trauma, it’s worth reflecting on and thinking about how we are impacted by the way we were treated as kids. When thinking back into your own childhood, it’s important to acknowledge that one way or another, none of our childhoods were perfect. But what matters is how we deal with that today.
Childhood Trauma and the Effects into Adulthood
By Kamila Gehman ‘26
Your body remembers everything that has ever happened to you, even when your mind doesn’t. People forget how much of an impact our childhood has on us. The environment and way we were raised, traumatic events, and shapes and molds who we are today.
Sleep disturbance or having trouble sleeping, is often associated with comfort and safety. Good sleep may be something you once had as a child, but then your typically secure setting was disrupted either through physical or sexual abuse in the bedroom. This can lead to disrupted sleeping in adulthood.
Depression and anxiety are very common to experience throughout your adult years, and according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is being diagnosed more and more often. The roots can often be traced to repeated childhood stress. Often these children (and later adults) have a first reaction of stress in any situation, because after excessive transmission of stress to the hormones in the body, their natural response to events around them is anxiety.
About 70% of people go through a traumatic event in their life. According to Maple Mountain and Mental Health, not everyone develops a traumatic disorder. Trauma often comes from being unable to cope with these experiences. More often than not, unresolved trauma comes out through self-isolation. As humans, a natural response for us is to form a protective barrier from past situations, and find comfort in it. But when this trauma is left un-dealt with, it can decrease one’s chance of tackling future negative experiences.
The most extreme example of how childhood trauma comes out through our actions as adults, is serial killers. Joel Norris wrote a book called Serial Killers, and he describes the cycles of violence as generational: “Parents who abuse their children, physically as well as psychologically, instill in them an almost instinctive reliance upon violence as a first resort to any challenge.”
While serial killers are an extreme example of childhood trauma, it’s worth reflecting on and thinking about how we are impacted by the way we were treated as kids. When thinking back into your own childhood, it’s important to acknowledge that one way or another, none of our childhoods were perfect. But what matters is how we deal with that today.
Sources:
https://www.nami.org/about-mental-illness/mental-health-by-the-numbers/?scrlybrkr=2e438887
Serial Killers by Joel Norris