Some mental health issues, including some trauma, may be rooted in childhood experiences. In fact, these traumas give rise to behaviors in adulthood that are important to know and identify.
Causes of childhood trauma
Childhood trauma can result from anything that can disrupt a child's sense of safety and security, including physical or verbal abuse, domestic violence, or an unstable or dangerous environment, parental separation , neglect, harassment, serious illness, or intrusive medical procedures related to an illness.
The trauma of childhood can then have a big impact on his little person. The human brain develops fastest between the ages of 0 to 6 years, and often the trauma is anchored in the person's mind and does not stop in adulthood.
An individual suffering from childhood trauma often does not know how it affects his life, the reason being that the memory of specific childhood events is buried somewhere in his subconscious. Often in psychotherapists, during therapy sessions, many people experience the emergence of traumatic memories. Although this is a crucial step in the recovery process, it can be devastating to recall cases of trauma.
Here are five behaviors that the victim of childhood trauma displays as an adult:
1. Chronic tension
Out-of-body trauma, such as abuse, aggression and stress, causes the brain to trigger the fight or flight response. Stress hormones such as cortisol and norepinephrine flood the body as it prepares to defend itself. Meanwhile, the body is tense. The problem is that the tension does not always dissipate once the threat is removed or neutralized. In this case, the neural networks of the brain will maintain a state of hypervigilance, acting as if the threat remains and preparing the body to take action.
2. Social withdrawal
Research shows that childhood trauma contributes to social anxiety disorder. Abuse of parents such as insults, insults, verbal aggression and emotional neglect such as not feeling cared for, loved or fed is directly related to the onset of seasonal affective disorder (depression in winter and fall ).
Victims of childhood trauma who experience social withdrawal often do so out of anxiety and fear. Patients with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) often report feeling "an intense and persistent fear of being viewed and judged by others," and may isolate themselves to avoid this feeling.
3. Persistent panic
Anxious and non-anxious brains are continually learning. Unlike the anxious person, a non-anxious individual can more easily "unlearn" the life lessons he encounters. An anxious person has trouble with that.
Imagine a situation where two people who have received a poor evaluation of their performance should follow up with their manager. The non-anxious person is much more likely to interpret the meeting as a neutral, non-threatening event, unless stated otherwise. On the other hand, the anxious person may start to panic after receiving a second negative critique. Worse, his anxious brain may be unable to focus on anything but the meeting. It remains in a constant state of anxiety unless otherwise stated.
4. Escape the fear
It's in the human nature to get around the things we fear, but childhood trauma victims take this circumvention to the extreme. While you may have an innate fear of going to the dentist, you will probably still go there. Why ? Because the benefits of dental intervention outweigh the fear. Too often, adults with a history of trauma allow fear to dictate their actions. Still using the scenario of the dentist visit, these people are more inclined to have reflexes to avoid the dentist, essentially allowing fear to paralyze their intentions. The strong desire to avoid things perceived as threatening even at a distance can seriously affect the quality of life of the person.
5. Poor performance
Researchers relate child trauma to a series of life problems. For students, poor academic performance goes beyond the educational framework, often leading to deviant behaviors, fewer opportunities in life and difficulties in earning a living. Researchers also found a correlation between socioeconomic status and traumatic stress. People from disadvantaged backgrounds are 65% more likely to have been traumatized as children than middle-class people.