How childhood trauma affects adults later

Some people think we forget or get over the trauma. But the truth is that if someone experiences trauma as a child, it can lead to physical and mental struggles that affect their entire life.

Here, Thomas O’Connor, director of the Wynne Center for Family Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and Kristen Holderle, clinical director of HEAL Collaborative’s UR Medicine, share the ways that trauma affects the brain and the body, like PTSD. and trauma are related, and suggestions for healing:

What is the difference between trauma and PTSD?

With trauma, a person fears for their own safety or the safety of a loved one. It can be anything from losing a parent to experiencing or witnessing an assault or being in a car accident.

Trauma can lead to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), a condition that requires professional treatment. The key sign of PTSD is that the person has difficulty doing the day-to-day things they did before a traumatic event.

Symptoms of PTSD may include:

• Flashbacks
• Distressing intrusive thoughts
• Avoid things that remind you of the trauma
• Jumping sensation
• Difficulty concentrating
• Shut down emotionally
• Lack of interest in things you used to enjoy

Not everyone will experience the same traumatic event (even those exposed to the same traumatic event may respond differently) and a traumatic event does not necessarily lead to PTSD.

“It’s normal to react deeply to a stressful event,” says Holderle. “If you’re having a hard time, that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. It’s important to normalize big feelings and big reactions.”

Several factors can determine whether experiencing trauma will become a bigger problem and require help.

How can childhood trauma affect adulthood?

The impact of childhood trauma on adult life can depend on the environment in which the person was raised, how they coped with the trauma and the supports available to them, and when the trauma happened in life.

To determine the risks of developing mental illness, addiction, and other conditions, it is now common to ask about past traumatic events using measures such as the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience). The higher a person’s ACE score, the more likely they are to have negative physical or mental health outcomes.

“Studies suggest that this happens because early trauma affects the stress response,” says Holderle. “Your fight-or-flight response, your neurodevelopment, goes off the rails. It suggests that if you can intervene early, when someone has a childhood traumatic event, it could have a huge, lasting impact on their life.”

The earlier the intervention, the more likely treatment can help, especially for early childhood trauma.

When a person develops behaviors to cope with early childhood trauma, changing those habits later in life can be more difficult.

Can trauma affect physical health?

Yes. In addition to affecting mental health and coping mechanisms, trauma has also been shown to affect physical health.

“Research has shown that the experience of trauma not only influences our patterns of thought and behavior, but also our biology,” says O’Connor. “Trauma influences our stress response system and may be associated with compromised immunity and poor cardiovascular health.”

Researchers have identified ways in which the brain can be altered by a traumatic event. The saliency network, which is a part of the brain used for learning and survival, was shown to be disrupted in people exposed to trauma, including those with and without PTSD.

UR Medicine scientists are also investigating how the effects of trauma may be transmitted, such as how biological changes caused by trauma affect health during pregnancy. They are also exploring epigenetics, the study of how behavior and environment can affect the way genes work.

What can help healing?

If someone you care about has experienced trauma, it can help to listen and encourage them to talk about the event, rather than avoid it.

“Sometimes trauma happens and people are afraid to talk about it because they don’t want to make it worse,” says Holderle. “It is important to talk about it. You may not be able to fix things, and that’s okay.”

Therapy can help a person make sense of the experience and move forward.

The type of therapy recommended will vary, but could include:

• Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy
• Cognitive processing therapy
• Written expressive therapy

Most therapists will focus on helping people separate from the traumatic experience.

“A lot of the work we do is trying to help people even before their trauma story is solidified,” says Holderle. “We try to help with the narrative. We can’t change our past, but we can change our relationship with it.”