SIGNS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD TRAUMA HOW TO

Or it might be more situational or behavioural avoidance, attempting to avoid certain places, people, even sounds or smells. This might show up in emotional avoidance – suppressing thoughts or feelings. People who have experienced childhood trauma may develop avoidance behaviours. It may lead to feelings of mistrust, fear of abandonment, problems with emotional intimacy and inhibit us from maintaining healthy connections. Childhood trauma can influence adult relationships in negative ways. Difficulty maintaining healthy relationshipsĪttachments to primary caregivers can condition how we create attachments to people later in life. The adults who had been exposed to four or more adverse childhood experiences were at a higher risk of suffering life-threatening health issues like obesity, alcoholism and depression. The well-known Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, drew a correlation between exposure to negative childhood experiences and an increase in health risk factors during adulthood. Any level of adversity can create psychological changes, and cause lifelong physical and mental health issues. Sometimes our basic needs are well met, but maybe our mother had postnatal depression so could not be present for us emotionally, or perhaps our father was absent in our life due to long work hours. This occurs when the primary caregiver cannot give that emotional nurturing that an infant requires. Often it is the subtle things that can affect us as we grow up, such as childhood emotional neglect, indifference or abandonment. However, childhood trauma can be caused by any early experience that was less-than nurturing for us. Most people believe that childhood trauma only occurs after a deeply traumatic experience in our younger years such as divorce, death or abuse.

Like what you see? Sign up to our newsletter for more stories like this. While some people may be aware of the traumatic events they experienced in childhood, others may not even realise they've suffered from childhood trauma. This idolisation can keep us safe and help us avoid some of the painful realities.Ĭhildhood trauma can have a lasting impact on a person's mental and physical health. We might idolise our parents and the memories of our childhood.

SIGNS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD TRAUMA HOW TO

Here, she explains the signs and symptoms of childhood trauma that you need to look out for and how to recover.Įarly in life as babies and children we rely on our parents for safety and nurturing. Psychotherapist Andrea Szasz at South Pacific Private says that many people don’t realise they have experienced childhood trauma until they undergo therapy as an adult. Research has identified that developmental or childhood trauma can inflict particularly serious, long-term damage on us in adulthood, affecting many aspects of our lives.

Have you ever wondered why you have difficulty trusting people? Or why you always seem to end up in toxic relationships? Perhaps you might experience anxiety and panic attacks? Struggling with problematic cyclical behaviours like these could be a sign that there’s something in your past that’s impacting your present.

Signs of early childhood trauma