Developmental Trauma

Developmental trauma is more common than many of us realize. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 78 percent of children reported more than one traumatic experience before the age of 5. Twenty percent of children up to the age of 6 were receiving treatment for traumatic experiences, including sexual abuse, neglect, exposure to domestic violence, and traumatic loss or bereavement.

 Trauma results from a degree of stress that overwhelms the person’s ability to process it at the time. People’s resilience or vulnerability to experiencing something as traumatic differs widely and the support a traumatized person receives after the event is a significant factor in how well they are able to deal with it and recover from what they’ve experienced.

A person who has just suffered a traumatic event may feel like they are in crisis and need help to regain a sense of stability and safety. Where there is a history of repeated trauma or abuse, the person’s baseline anxiety levels may be high so that it doesn’t take much extra stress to tip them over a threshold into crisis. The main symptoms are difficulty in emotional regulation, consciousness and memory, self-perception, distorted perceptions of perpetrators of abuse, difficulties in relationships with other people, and negative effects on the meaningfulness of life.

What can you do to have symptom relief?  Actively working on learning how to reduce the heightened state of arousal helps with calming and grounding, and body awareness are the best ways to manage and work through trauma. The normal sense of self may be shattered by trauma, so it is important to build and support the sense of self through re-establishing the basic routines of daily life, encouraging connectedness with friends and family, and fostering hope for the future.

Those who have been abused or neglected as children will often experience:

  • Increased rates of depression and anxiety

  • Increased rates of alcohol & drug use and risk taking behavior

  • Increased abusive relationships as an adult

  • Increased feelings of shame, guilt, fear, mistrust, rejection and being unlovable

  • Difficulty in managing strong emotions, mood swings and emotional outbursts

  • Relationship difficulties and poor relationship skills

  • Low self esteem and self confidence

  • Identity difficulties - not really knowing who we are

  • Experiences of numbing or dissociation

  • Fear around starting your own family

  • Feelings of hopelessness for the future