PTSD in children can lead to depression, suicidal behavior, substance use, and oppositional or defiant behaviors well into adulthood, which can affect their ability to succeed in school, and create and nurture important relationships.
In the most extreme cases, however, a traumatic event can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to the National Center for PTSD, up to 15% of girls and 6% of boys develop PTSD following a traumatic event. PTSD is a mental health condition that can impact children in different ways.
Children who experience abuse or neglect, or grow up in unstable environments, have a greater risk of health problems including asthma, cognitive delays, obesity, heart disease and cancer, throughout their lives, a growing body of evidence suggests.
Without treatment, repeated childhood exposure to traumatic events can affect the brain and nervous system and increase health-risk behaviors (e.g., smoking, eating disorders, substance use, and high-risk activities).
Unhealed trauma can lead to a variety of mental health challenges in adulthood, including depression, anxiety, and addiction. By understanding the link between childhood wounds and mental health in adulthood, we can learn how to start the process of healing trauma and achieve a healthier, happier life.
Many adults, as a result of their childhood trauma, experience changes in their adult personality and their mental health.
Childhood trauma physically damages the brain by triggering toxic stress. Strong, frequent, and prolonged, toxic stress rewires several parts of the brain, altering their activity and influence over emotions and the body.
A study of young adults found that childhood trauma was significantly correlated with elevated psychological distress, increased sleep disturbances, reduced emotional well-being, and lower perceived social support.
Some of the symptoms of trauma in children (and adults) closely mimic depression, including too much or too little sleep, loss of appetite or overeating, unexplained irritability and anger, and problems focusing on projects, school work, and conversation.
Examples of emotional neglect may include: lack of emotional support during difficult times or illness. withholding or not showing affection, even when requested. exposure to domestic violence and other types of abuse.
While flashbacks can occur in the old and young, age exacerbates these symptoms due to increased memory loss and alterations regarding context of past trauma. Age also affects the impact of physical symptoms on your body.
Brain scans show childhood trauma can cause shrinkage in the hippocampus, the area linked to memory storage and retrieval. The constant state of high-stress can alter the amygdala, the brain's fear-processing center, and affect the neuro-endocrine and immune systems.
Continuous trauma can weaken remaining neural pathways to the thinking part of your brain and strengthen neural pathways to the survival part, thus bypassing the thinking part, which makes some children less capable of coping with adversity as they grow up.
A child who has experienced this type of trauma and holds much shame may show us behaviours such as: envy, anger, and anxiety, effects of sadness, depression, depletion, loneliness, isolation and avoidance. They will highlight to us their inadequacy, their powerlessness and at times their own self-disgust.
After surviving a traumatic event, many people have PTSD-like symptoms at first, such as being unable to stop thinking about what's happened. Fear, anxiety, anger, depression, guilt — all are common reactions to trauma.
cPTSD can develop from any prolonged traumatic experience, such as childhood abuse, neglect, domestic violence, or being in a war zone. People with BPD are likely to have unstable moods, poor relationships, and a low self-image. As a result, people with BPD often have difficulty regulating their emotions and impulses.
Childhood trauma in adults also results in feeling disconnected, and being unable to relate to others. Studies have shown that adults that experience childhood trauma were more likely to struggle with controlling emotions, and had heightened anxiety, depression, and anger.
Other manifestations of childhood trauma in adulthood include difficulties with social interaction, multiple health problems, low self-esteem and a lack of direction. Adults with unresolved childhood trauma are more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide and self-harm.
Bullying/cyberbullying. Chaos or dysfunction in the house (such as domestic violence, parent with a mental illness, substance abuse or incarcerated) Death of a loved one.
Young Children and Trauma. Children can experience trauma as early as infancy. In fact, young children between the ages of 0 and 5 are the most vulnerable to the effects of trauma since their brains are still in the early formative years.
Trauma can be held in the body, leading to physical symptoms years later — such as headaches, jumpiness, chronic pain, and dissociation. When you have an overwhelming experience, your logical mind might feel “over it” before your body does.