Childhood trauma - are you brushing it off as “just the way things were”?

Acute trauma results from one single, most likely powerful incident. However, it’s not the only type of trauma. Chronic trauma can be caused by events that are viewed as “smaller” incidents separately, however as they are repeated and prolonged (domestic violence, abuse) they can have the same effect as a single “big” event.

Complex trauma is exposure to varied and multiple events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature.

If you experienced shaming, belittling, emotional neglect etc. repeatedly in your childhood it probably won’t feel massive, you might not even think of it as trauma, it’s just “the way a parent was” etc. It doesn’t mean you’re damaged, it doesn’t mean you should be ashamed, it just means you need to understand and process what you went through and the impact it has on your adult life.

Adults that survived childhood trauma may have trouble regulating their emotions (behavioural issues, emotional immaturity) difficulty in relationships ( dependency, abuse) as well as low self esteem and poor memory. Childhood trauma may also manifest into adulthood as addiction/ substance misuse, mental health disorders (anxiety, suicide, self-harm) or chronic illness.

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