Your childhood has a big impact on who you are as a person, and the trauma you’ve experienced as a child can end up following you into adulthood. If you’ve been experiencing negative emotions or thoughts, you may be experiencing childhood trauma. In this post, we’ll explain how you can identify childhood trauma and what can be done about it.
What is Childhood Trauma?
First, we should explain what exactly childhood trauma is. It’s any event or environment you experienced in childhood that put you in a vulnerable position. When you experienced that trauma, you felt like the world wasn’t safe. Childhood trauma can change how you think and how you handle situations, even in adulthood.
Childhood trauma doesn’t always have to be extreme. When some people think of childhood trauma, they may imagine the most extreme examples. For instance, they may picture a child who went through the worst physical abuse possible or a child who had another unspeakable even happen. However, not all forms of childhood trauma are extreme.
Something as simple as falling down can be trauma depending on the context. Bullying can end up being trauma. There are all sorts of events that could be due to childhood trauma. This is because childhood trauma doesn’t have to be something obvious, but instead something hidden. Having to move suddenly could be trauma, especially if you lost friends.
A child doesn’t have to understand the trauma to experience it. Children can be resilient at times, but they are vulnerable to feeling danger.
The symptoms of childhood trauma may suddenly develop into adulthood, and it may require therapy or counseling.
Some Symptoms of Childhood Trauma
Childhood trauma can be hard to identify. Oftentimes, some forms of trauma are subtle, or so traumatic that they’re forgotten. A child may forget the trauma, but then, in adulthood, something causes it to come back into the mind. This is known as a trigger, and many adults experience it.
Here are some symptoms that can happen when you relive trauma:
- You may feel intense stress or anxiety for seemingly no reason.
- It can be much harder to cope with stress. You may have a hard time handling it, making you feel more vulnerable.
- You may start to believe that the world around you is dangerous, or that no one is to be trusted.
- Someone experiencing trauma may suddenly feel isolated or numb, and they may not be able to have good relationships that last.
- It may come across as something more physical. For instance, you may feel more tired than usual despite getting enough sleep. You may also feel chronic pains.
- You may have a hard time sleeping. On the other hand, you could end up oversleeping.
- Irritability can occur as a result of childhood trauma. If it feels like more than a few bad days of waking up on the wrong side of the bed, you could be experiencing childhood trauma.
- Self-harm can occur, and so can abusing drugs or alcohol.
If you don’t handle your childhood trauma, it could grow into something far worse for you mentally.
For instance, you could develop borderline personality disorder or extreme depression. This can make it much harder for you to treat your source of problems.
Identifying Childhood Trauma
The first step of tackling childhood trauma is to always acknowledge it. Think about when you experienced these negative emotions. What do you think triggered it? What childhood memory could be due to it?
This may be something you have to think about it. Other times, you may have to ask your family. It may be a memory you’ve repressed, but your family remembers quite well. For example, trauma due to you getting extremely sick.
Also, don’t feel any shame if you’re experiencing childhood trauma as an adult. It’s not a sign that you can’t get over it. For one thing, many people are still fighting their trauma years later. For another thing, trauma symptoms can pop up years after your childhood is over.
Seeking Help From a Therapist
If you want to tackle childhood trauma, your best bet is to talk to a mental health professional. Often, trauma can make itself hard to identify. You may have to talk to a therapist who knows how to get into your mind and find the culprit of your emotions.
It’s also a safe place for you to explore your trauma. A therapist will go only as comfortable as you feel, and they can help you return to normal if you go too far.
Therapy is also important because it helps you to learn techniques to cope with the symptoms. For instance, you may learn mindfulness, a technique that keeps you in the moment. Awareness of the present may be a solution to childhood trauma.
In addition, a therapist may have you act out the trauma, but do it in a way where you “defeat” your source of trauma.
Everyone is different with how they handle their childhood trauma, and a therapist can help you to find the solution that is the best fit for you.
Learning to Live With It
With trauma, one of the worst mistakes you can make is pretending like it doesn’t exist. You need to name, sense, and identify your source of trauma. Doing this may help you to recognize that the trauma doesn’t hold as big of a grip on you as you once thought. This is another job for a health professional, but you can be able to explore your trauma at home as well.
Conclusion
Childhood trauma is an experience that is hard to tackle. You can’t go back and time and erase your trauma, yet you can learn how to cope with it and be better as a result. Your best bet is to speak to a mental health professional about it. They can help you live a happier, healthier life.
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