How does childhood trauma affect mental health?

There are all kinds of events that can be traumatic. Psychology researchers define trauma as any incident that creates the belief in a person that they are in danger of being seriously injured or dying. Childhood trauma can encompass physical or sexual abuse, single events like natural disasters, and ongoing stressors like being bullied. Children who witness distressing events occur to others can also experience trauma.

Adverse childhood experiences or ACES can contribute to risk for mental and physical health issues due to prior trauma. ACES include:

• Sexual abuse
• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Physical neglect
• Emotional neglect
• Witnessing domestic violence
• Substance abuse within the home
• Mental illness within the home
• Parent separation or divorce
• Incarceration of a family member

A problem that many closely related to trauma is posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Children can experience PTSD. These children may also have issues with anger, depression, difficulty with trust, fear, anxiety, and low self-esteem. Children who don’t meet the criteria for PTSD can still face anger issues, difficulty focusing, fear, anxious thinking about safety, sleeping problems, sadness, and even physical symptoms like stomach ache. Left unaddressed, these can contribute to the development of mental health conditions.

Childhood trauma is related to attachment style development and later difficulties in adulthood that may impact the ability to have healthy connections in adulthood. Anxiety disorders, depression, and other disorders are more common in people with untreated childhood trauma. Early childhood trauma is a risk factor for adult depression, PTSD, and most other mental health disorders and physical health problems like heart attack, stroke, cancer, and obesity.

Behavior changes resulting from trauma like engaging in risky behaviors like drinking or drug use or even overeating for comfort can contribute to mental and physical health issues.

When a person experiences something that triggers the body’s stress response and produces more adrenaline and primes itself to react, this causes wear and tear on the body. Chronic stress increases inflammation in the body has been linked with cardiovascular disease and autoimmune issues.

If you’ve experienced trauma in the past, talking with a therapist can help address both the past trauma and also the impacts it may be having on your present mental health and behavior.