How Childhood Trauma Follows Us to Adulthood

Mood And Mental Health

There aren’t always lessons in childhood that cover what feelings are and how to handle them. Experiencing things like shame, despair, fear, and hopelessness at a young age can be a heavy load to live with. You may not have ever healed through these emotions you experienced from a negative situation. Or you were taught to push those feelings under the rug and move on with life.

As you enter adulthood, those underlying feelings and emotions can find a way to creep into life or rear an ugly head when triggered by something else. Prolonged negative feelings can lead to depression, anxiety, or PTSD. 

Fearfulness

If you have experienced trauma, your mind and body have a way of retaining that experience, even if it is on a subconscious level. When you enter situations that make you feel uncomfortable, you may have a natural response or reaction that you weren’t expecting.

Negative emotions from childhood trauma can also lead to anxiety and panic attacks. You might excessively worry about things you don’t need to worry about. Depending on what your trauma was, you may find yourself always looking over your shoulder.

Physical Impacts

Stress over any period of time, especially from childhood into adulthood, can accumulate and present as physical symptoms. If you already had any chronic issues in childhood, it can exacerbate those symptoms. Illnesses can be made significantly worse by bottled-up stress.

Stress and harbored emotions can also affect your immune system. You are more prone to illnesses and injuries. New chronic conditions can begin to form. You can develop GI/stomach issues and bowel difficulties. 

Stress can impact your nutrition levels and hydration, which then, in turn, affects your body’s functioning, both internally and with external performance. Sleep disturbances can also lead to insomnia and fatigue, resulting in a never-ending spiral of stress due to lack of sleep.

Affected Future Relationships

Wounds from childhood trauma can sit pretty deep. It can affect your ability to open up to others or have close relationships with partners, friends, or even family members. You may carry a burden or feel broken in some sense.

If you experienced abuse, you may carry a sense of distrust and not be able to enter romantic relationships. You may be triggered by intimacy. If you are able to enter into a relationship, you may not have sustainable ones due to underlying traumas. 

The things that happened to you as a child do not define who you are as an adult or as a person in any capacity. There is freedom in learning about your trauma and finding ways of releasing its grip on you. Healing can be uncomfortable, but the grass is greener on the other side. Know that there is a journey possible, and you don’t need to find your way alone. Contact us for a consultation, and let’s start your journey.