The Impacts of Childhood Trauma on Adult Mental Health

“Trauma is a chronic disruption of connectedness” Dr Stephen Porges

Childhood should be a time of joy, safety, and nurturing. But for some, it’s marred by experiences that leave lasting scars. Studies show that early developmental trauma can damage the brain and  can have a profound and far-reaching impact on adult mental health. It can make it hard to handle emotions, have healthy relationships and feel happy about life.

What is Childhood Trauma?

Childhood trauma encompasses a wide range of adverse experiences, including:

• Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
• Neglect
• Witnessing violence
• Experiencing natural disasters
• Loss of a loved one
• Serious illness or injury

These experiences shatter a child’s perception of safety and security. Additionally, they foster diminished, defeated, and worthless beliefs about themselves. Feelings of shame, guilt, and failure accompany these emotional scars, which often persist into adulthood.

The Toll on Mental Health

Childhood trauma disrupts healthy emotional and psychological development, leading to difficulties regulating emotions, coping with stress, and forming secure attachments, all of which increase vulnerability to the risk of suicidal thoughts, self-harming behaviours, and various mental heath condions. Childhood trauma significantly increases the risk of developing various mental health conditions later in life, including:

• Depression: Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest in activities.
• Anxiety Disorders: Excessive worry, fear, and panic attacks.
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Flashbacks, nightmares, hypervigilance, and emotional numbness.
• Substance Abuse Disorders: Using drugs or alcohol to cope with trauma-related pain.
• Suicidal Thoughts and Self Harm: Suicidal thoughts andself harm can be a a means of coping with overwhelming emotional pain.
• Eating Disorders: Distorted eating patterns and body image issues.
• Personality Disorders: Difficulties with relationships, impulsivity, and emotional instability.

The impact of childhood trauma on attachment styles and health relationships

Childhood experiences, particularly the quality of early attachment with caregivers, play a crucial role in shaping our attachment style. This style becomes a blueprint for how we relate to others throughout our lives.

Secure Attachment: Children who experience consistent love, support, co-regulation and emotional attunement from their caregivers develop a secure attachment style. As adults, they tend to have healthy, fulfilling relationships and positive self-esteem.“I am free to ask for help as I am loveable”

• Insecure Attachment:When a caregiver is dismissive, inconsistent or is not emotionally attuned to their child,it can cause an internal conflict resulting in insecure attachment styles:
  • Anxious Attachment:When a caregiver is mostly inconsistent (moving between caring, dismissiveness and neglectful it can result in an anxious attachment style. This ischaracterised by fear of abandonment, clinginess, and a constant need for reassurance. There is a dependency on others but they are also seen/perceived as unhelpful, and unreliable. An inner state of feeling untrustworthy.
    ​​“I can’t do it myself but others are not trustworthy”
    “I feel anxious, angry or blaming”
    “I often feel helpless and hopeless”
  • Avoidant Attachment:Characterised by emotional distance, difficulty trusting others, and a tendency to suppress feelings.
    “I have to do everything myself; others are not helpful or they will reject me.”
    “My focus is on being independent, strong, achievements, fund and material success”
    
• Disorganised Attachment: When a caregiver is unpredictable, unsafe, and dangerous it can result in a disorganised awhich makes it difficult (and even frightening) to relate with others.

In adulthood, people with insecure or disorganised attachment styles or attachment state of mind,  may struggle to form close relationships and maintain healthy emotional connections with others.

The good news is that safe and supportive relationships, “good enough” caregiving and regular trauma-informed therapy can help a person form secure internal working models of attachment which Eric Hesse  referred to as “earned-secure.”

Healing from Childhood Trauma

If you’re struggling with the effects of childhood trauma, there is hope. Therapy can be a transformative tool for healing. Through therapy, you can:

• Process traumatic memories: Safely explore and make sense of your experiences.
• Develop coping skills: Learn healthy ways to manage triggers and emotions.
• Build healthy relationships: Understand and change unhealthy relationship patterns.
• Increase self-esteem: Cultivate self-compassion and challenge negative self-beliefs.
• Develop resilience: Learn to bounce back from challenges and thrive.

Trauma Recovery – Janina Fisher

Trauma recovery is a holistic and community approach. The below steps are guidelines for recovery and healing:

1. Safety and Stabilisation – The first step is safety and stabilisation in therapy. To overcome dysregulation, calming skills, and co-regulationcan help improve a person’s ability to emotionally regulate, feel stable, safe and secure. emotional regulation.  In addition to psychotherapy, something rhythmic and repetitive such as dance, drumming, equine therapy, tai chi, yoga, music etc will support recovery.
2. Coming to terms with traumatic memories – once safety and stabilisation has been established, the next step is to overcome the fear of traumatic memories so they can be integrated into the person’s life. The individual needs to process them, not just talk about these memories. This is where EMDR, and mind/body therapies are helpful. The task is to overcome the traumatic past with the help of a relating other.
3. Integration and moving on – This is where the work on integrating the trauma in a person’s life occurs. A feeling of a healthy present and a healed self occurs decreasing shame and alienation. The trauma feels further away, part of an integrated understanding of self. It is no no longer a daily focus in a person’s life. Some people refer to this as posttraumatic growth.

References

Bowlby, J. (1988). The role of attachment in personality development. In A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development (pp. 119–136). Basic Books.

Dana, D. (2020). Polyvagal exercises for safety and connection: 50 client centred practices (first edition)   W.W Norton & Company.

Crittenden, & Claussen, A. H. (2000). The organization of attachment relationships: maturation, culture, and   context. Cambridge University Press.

Fisher (2007) Psychoeducational Aides for Working with Psychological Trauma. Psychological Flip Chart. Centre for integrative healing.

Hesse, E. (2008). The Adult Attachment Interview: Protocol, method of analysis, and empirical studies. In J.        Cassidy and P. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, research, and clinical     applications (2^nd ed., pp. 552-598). New York and London: Guildford Press.

Kathy (2014) Perry: Rhythm Regulates the Brain retrieved from      https://attachmentdisorderhealing.com/developmental-trauma-3/

McLean, S. (2013). Attachment theory: From concept to support for children in out-of-home care. In F. Arney & D. Scott (Eds.), Working with vulnerable families: A partnership approach (2nd ed.) (pp.194–212).  Melbourne: Cambridge University Press

Porges, S. W. (2017). The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The transformative power of feeling safe. W.W Norton & Company.

Siegel. (1999). The developing mind: toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience. Guilford Press.

Winnicott, D. W. (2005). Playing and Reality (2nd ed.). Routledge.