Millions of children are exposed to traumatic events that can have a lifelong effect. They may also have difficulty regulating emotions or other appropriate self-soothing mechanisms. In times of stress and crisis, it is challenging for parents to cope in healthy ways. Parents may also have trouble maintaining a balanced perspective.In turn, these symptoms can influence a child’s ability to feel a sense of safety, trust, and predictability in the world around them. People describe it as feeling ‘numb’ our ‘outside of themselves. Dissociation is a coping mechanism when a person is experiencing high amounts of anxiety. Reliving traumatic events, growing emotionally detached, or even experiencing dissociative episodes.
There are many ways parents can potentially pass down their symptoms to their children, some of which include: How it affects familiesĪdult children with parents diagnosed with PTSD often describe damaged, preoccupied parents who were emotionally not available when needed. In addition to the potential genetic changes inherited from their traumatized ancestors, they may also have to deal with psychological and social sources of trauma passed down from one generation to the next. For example, a child of someone who has PTSD can learn and internalize specific ways of thinking from their parents. Trauma can also be passed down through behavior. In this case, the genetic variations are passed down between generations and predispose the future generation to be sensitive to subsequent traumas and stressors. Being systematically exploited, enduring repeated and continual abuse, racism, and poverty are traumatic enough to cause genetic changes. LatinX and BIPOC communities are particularly vulnerable. Some evidence shows that trauma can alter a person’s genetic makeup. How does intergenerational trauma get passed down? Traumatic experiences can be transmitted in a few different ways: Genetics Other common symptoms of intergenerational trauma may include: This kind of wiring impacts personalities, relationships, parenting, communication, and views of the world. Symptoms of intergenerational trauma are often mistaken for other mental health conditions due to the similarity in symptoms, which can include: However, it is common for people to experience trauma symptoms and not realize the impact of what they went through. Depending on the events you or your family went through, symptoms can be experienced physically, emotionally, or behaviorally.
Many things get passed down through families, like heirlooms, genetic conditions, and physical characteristics.