Early childhood trauma refers to the psychological trauma a child experiences while on their critical period of development that spans from conception to the age of five.
Adverse childhood experiences refer to the potentially traumatic events that can have negative and lasting effects on health and well being of the person.
Some of these adverse experiences may be caused by abuse, neglect, violence in the household, or a mentally ill parent. Regardless of the age you experienced trauma, its effects will naturally manifest in your adult life.
If not diagnosed or treated, this can have a significant impact on your life and your ability to function as an adult.
While the effects aren’t the same for everybody, here are some of the common manifestations of childhood traumatic experiences. Check for the possible symptoms that you may be manifesting without knowing why.
6 Odd Behaviors That Manifest In Adult Life Because Of Childhood Trauma:
1. You suffer from severe anxiety.
Most of the time you feel panicky and unable to grasp things easily. You’re anxious even though there’s no reason to be.
Life seems difficult to manage which makes you always on your edge. Even a slight trigger may put you on the verge of a panic attack.
Your mind is overactive and overthinks every possible situation. This additionally adds up to your anxiety, fuels your fears and distorts the image you have for the world.
2. You settle for things where you find most comfortable.
Childhood trauma cripples your emotions. It makes you scared to try new things.
Because your scars and woundedness go really deep, getting out of your comfort zone is next to impossible.
Even the thought of setting foot on a new territory unnerves you. Thus, you tend to settle even for small things that don’t promise a better future as long as you’re comfortable in it.
3. You allow fear to take charge of your life.
You make decisions based on the degree of “safety” that you feel. In your perspective, being safety means not doing things that scare you.
For example, if your trauma is associated with violence in the family, you’ll try to avoid having a family of your own.
Only that the more you avoid your fears, the more you’re giving it power over you.
4. You have withdrawal tendencies.
You feel safe only in your own company. Shutting yourself out from the outside world brings you comfort.
You’re detached even in the presence of family members.
You only go out when you have to but once you do, it’s with fears of getting judged. This leads to the development of social anxiety disorder.
5. You develop a passive aggressive attitude.
A passive aggressive attitude is resisting the demands of others in silence in order to avoid confrontation. You make others believe that you’re okay when you’re not.
Suppressing your emotions is a defense mechanism you use so as to avoid directly clashing with the problem.
This creates resentfulness and bitterness towards others and the world that you later judge yourself for feeling.
6. You always lose your nerve.
When faced with a stressful situation, you often lose your nerve.
It’s because your physical body is traumatized too and leaves you feeling tensed all the time, leading you to choose between fight or flight response.
You may no longer remember the trauma but your body remembers the emotions it triggered in you. Thus, you feel panicky or jittery.
How To Move Forward And Heal Your Trauma:
It’s not easy contemplating on the effects of childhood trauma, especially when the hurt, pain, or memory is deeply engraved within your soul.
No matter how difficult overcoming them might seem, you just have to start. Step by step. Go deeper and deeper and let yourself experience that pain and those emotions that you hold within.
The process may involve gradually exposing the different layers of your self, replaying the events one more time in your mind.
This process can be painful, but when you look at your broken self with forgiveness and compassion, you will come to understand that it wasn’t your fault.
You will then slowly realize that healing is possible. You will realize that all you had to do to heal is stop resisting the pain and letting it do its thing, feel the emotions, and let them go.
That’s how you get rid of the trauma and the emotional baggage and it’s much quicker and effortless than you think. Just let yourself experience those emotions.
Begin with self care. It’s the first vital step towards your healing journey.
