What you should know about Childhood trauma?

Can traumatic memories be forgotten easily? You should know what is running through a child’s brain? Be aware of What triggers intense behavior in the future after being traumatized? What you should know about Childhood trauma? These are some frequent questions that keep going on everyone’s mind. Somewhere later in this article, you will find answers to these questions.

Every life cycle has its own charm, whether it is your childhood, adulthood, or teen. Each cycle differs from one another based on your activities and interests. As we all move forward in life, we are offered new experiences. We meet new people and make new memories. Zero responsibilities and stress let you make the memories to the fullest. We all know and will agree that childhood is the happiest phase of life, yet the most underrated. However, some incidents in this phase make an absolute life dreadful to a child.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES this word itself is a wholesome feeling and brings back lots of emotions. Nevertheless, traumatized events are unforgettable and lamenting. They are stored forever. Childhood circumstances greatly influence the life of an individual in adulthood. If this childhood is tragic it surely affects the lifespan of being an adult adversely. Indeed, physical health and emotional wellbeing during childhood is the key to a happy future. Young children are more vulnerable to traumas and abuse with more harmful consequences as they are at a developmental age besides limited coping skills. Child traumas are quite neglected among the nations that contribute to severe symptoms in the future. Loads of children who suffer traumas very year still lack proper attention. To understand better, let us scroll down together to get further material about childhood trauma and how it impacts adulthood dramatically.

A TERM CHILDHOOD TRAUMA:

Before we move to the meaning of childhood trauma, we must be initially pretty clear about the infrequently used word “TRAUMA.” Trauma generally is the sentimental reaction to a disturbing and alarming occasion which someone finds reasonably stressful. Examples of trauma can be taken as a natural disaster, an accident, or rape in some cases. The thing obvious about a condition is not every person experiences trauma after stressful incidents. Numerous individuals develop symptoms that easily resolve within quite a few days whereas several have to face long-term impact. When this trauma attains severity and symptom doesn’t decrease, can also affect mental health triggering disorder called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  

Childhood trauma defined

Moving on to the childhood trauma as defined by The National Institute of Mental Health (USA), is the stressful and emotional event experienced by a child which oftentimes consequence in mental health issues followed by some physical sickness. Childhood trauma often leads to severe physical disruption, thus impacting children’s proper development in addition to a poor immune system. According to reports and researches, greater than two out of every three children survive at least 1 traumatic incident by age 16.

Trauma can begin with being sexually abused, violence experienced inside the family, or being emotionally mistreated. Children witnessing threaten situations at a quite early age can likewise lead to traumatization. These traumas sometimes have a limitless impact on a child’s mental health. By the increase in the number of such experiences throughout childhood increase the danger to adulthood period. The following picture is a brief example of events that can provoke trauma.

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LONG-LASTING EFFECTS OF PAST TRAUMA MAY HAUNT FUTURE HEALTH:

Early childhood trauma can cause long-term undesirable effects that result in lifetime physical and psychological deficits, and some severe cases, leading the child toward depression and suicide attempts. Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that the more traumatic experiences a person has endured in childhood, the more likely he is to suffer from chronic stress-related health risks, namely heart disease, nervous breakdown, or more significant premature deaths. Although grown-ups on some occasions say things like, “When that incident happened, I was pretty young, I don’t even remember it as an adult” trauma still does leave deep footprints in one’s life. Maltreatment of these traumas can easily lead to the disturbance in physical, psychological, and undoubtedly behavioral aspects in adulthood.

The link between physical abuse and physical health is as easy as ABC. The body develops from infancy to puberty. Under extreme anxiety, the immune system may not develop typically, likewise the brain and nervous system are restricted to develop to their full potential. Children with intricate trauma may develop chronic physical complaints like diabetes, high blood pressure, back problems, functional limitation, cancers, strokes, migraine, chronic fatigue syndrome, and so on. 

Psychologically trauma victims fear, self-isolate themselves, and distrust. Lifelong mental health affects the forthcoming education; they suffer from maintaining the relationship. A child facing complex trauma might easily fluctuate to intense behavior with inadequate impulse control. Numerous researches have been conducted on a causal relationship between the mistreatment of child trauma and juvenile delinquency and criminal records. They appear unpredictable, volatile, or extreme, he can self-harm and become a drug abuse victim. A child further faces difficulty in thinking, learning cracking problems, and reasoning.

CHILDHOOD TRAUMA AND SLEEP DISTURBANCE:

Sleep Childhood trauma is a risk factor for a long-term sleep disorder. Data confirms the association between childhood trauma, including abuse and violence with insomnia as multidimensional. Researches today are evaluating the fact that childhood trauma and depression determine the sleep duration among young adults. The sleep duration is completely dependent on the intensity and duration of stress and trauma. A child’s age and developmental level can likewise be the dimension of trauma. For instance, a girl sexually abuses at the age of 4 dramatically differs from a girl get abused at age of 10 and so does the trauma. More or less 10-18% population in the US undergoes chronic insomnia. The concern is, how do childhood traumas impact sleep among young adults? An answer to this question is in a traumatized event brain is flooded with a variety of neurochemicals that can effortlessly disturb the sleeping pattern and keep us awake.

Flashbulb memories and troubling thoughts can mark sleeping difficult enough thus resulting in insomnia and scary dreams. Children who have had trauma are more alert in order to protect themselves from anything like coming their way, making it difficult for them to fall asleep. Back in the year 2010, one of my friends become a victim of sexual abuse at night. In spite of 10 years, he found it practically impossible to sleep due to the fear of being in the same condition when he was asleep. Countless people utilize drugs or other substances to ease them to fall asleep. Approximately, 24% of the women are reported who take sleeping medications. Psychological trauma leads to poor sleep and poor sleep in turn worsens the trauma effects. 

EXPOSURE TO TRAUMA CAN AFFECT BRAIN FUNCTIONING IN HEALTHY HUMAN:

Trauma can cause several changes throughout the brain and body. According to psychiatrists, the question they heard most in everyday life is “how trauma affects the brain?” People frequently feel helpless in the time of trauma. They face lots of complications that is quite clear from their behavior. What you should know about Childhood trauma:The 4 main portions of the brain that affected by trauma include; the hippocampus, the amygdala, the brain stem, and the prefrontal cortex. Stress hormones, cortisol, and adrenaline are secreted by the body when we feel threatened. Cortisol has been reported to eat cells of some part of the brain, especially the hippocampus. Also, this part hippocampus shrinks by the stress and trauma, which leads to difficulty in learning and memorizing stuff.

Fight-or-Flight 

The second hormone adrenaline also referred to as epinephrine, is important when released during trauma for fight-or-flight reactions. Adrenaline in response to stress elevates heartbeat and increases blood pressure. When the adrenaline rush is recorded by the hypothalamus, it sends impulses to the body to react against the stress. Adrenaline in response to stress elevates heartbeat and increases blood pressure. The third part, the brain stem, reacts to the extreme trauma by varied responses similar to flight, fight, or freeze. Forth part of the brain is the prefrontal cortex, located in forefront of the brain, which helps in problem-solving and planning to escape the trauma-causing event.

Although the majority of brain development occurs in a prenatal yet starting 5 years’ life is very stressful in terms of brain development as the brain expands in volume and gets mature. Trauma in infancy however can lower or even stop the rate of development that surely affects the life of an adult. Positive experiences in this phase of life ease development while negative experiences and stress impair development.

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS TO RECOGNIZE CHILDHOOD TRAUMA:

Signs and symptoms of trauma in young children can vary to a great extent. They differ from child to child, with the age, or development level. The universal sign that is common among the children is; they behave in a way that is atypical or unusual. Researches conducted on this particular topic prove that the total trauma incidents that happened in one’s life will forecast the severity of symptoms. What you should know about Childhood Trauma: Signs of traumatic stress are established soon after it event occurs, but they are often developed gradually. A child who is being mistreated may feel ashamed, guilty. They show frustration when in public. Sometimes they show aggression or self-harm.

Some common signs that a child shows when he is mistreated are listed down:

• Daydreaming
• Loss of appetite
• Changes in sleeping pattern
• Hyperactive or restless
• Unexplainable wounds
• Irritability
• Avoid people and gatherings
• Lack of social relationships
• Refuse to go to school
• Nyctophobia, a fear from darkness
• Difficulty in trusting others
• Hypersensitive to touch
• Self-isolation
• Uncontrolled emotions
• Destructive activities
• Self-harm, attempt to suicide in some severe condition
• Difficulty in expressing problems
• Lack of self-confidence
• struggle in learning

WHAT ARE TRAUMA TREATMENT AND THERAPIES?

Children never recover on their own even when the family helps them. Every child needs a professionally trained therapist for evidence-based therapies to cope with the traumatic impact. What you should know about Childhood trauma: To move toward recovery numerous treatments are available. Treatment of a child depends on several factors including; the age of a child, the nature of trauma, and the extent of exposure to trauma. 

Treatment listed below is evident through researches to reduce childhood trauma. 

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT):

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is evident based management. This treatment aimed to target children age 4-21 years. It is a so-called family-focused treatment as parents also attend the session with a child. 16-20 treatment sessions are involved in TF-CBT. During every meeting advisor or therapist try to conclude the upcoming exposure to a trauma with the encouragement to use skills learned in foregoing sittings to cope up with the fear and anxiety. TF-CBT is designed to exclude the bad habits and negative thoughts and swap them with productive ones. Let us see this brief picture which fully makes you understand what perceptions does this treatment works on. 

Read the link below for more information here

Among other treatments, it is versatile and has resolved many of the mental health distresses. 

Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS):

 

You should know about Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools is designed to provide mental health screening in schools that aimed to reduce traumatic symptoms among school going kids. What you should know about Childhood trauma as a parent. Many Cognitive-behavioral techniques are used to evaluate student-facing several traumas. Why schools, in general, require school-based trauma treatment program? We should understand that this is because most of the children are exposed to trauma at the schooling age that made their learning power slow, affecting the schools.

Psychotherapy:

 

Psychotherapy, well known as talk therapy, aims to reveal the complete incident that happened in childhood. This therapy is essential for post-trauma stress disorder. It extracts the content stored somewhere in the subconscious mind. Therapists generally ask for the symptoms and thought bottled up in a child’s mind. It won’t be wrong if we called it a relationship-based treatment, a trust relationship between the patient and psychotherapist.

 

TO CONCLUDE THAT,What you should know about Childhood trauma: child trauma is a feeling of extreme anxiety, stress, fear, and hopelessness among children. Sometimes medicines can be useful but they on no occasion can stand alone for treating the trauma. Treatment from a professional psychotherapist is necessary along with medicines. Talking to a child about their pain can be valuable.

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