Childhood trauma can leave lasting emotional and psychological scars, even into adulthood. Recognizing the signs of childhood trauma is essential in helping individuals heal and providing them with the support they need to overcome their experiences.
Trauma can manifest in different ways, and it often stems from events like physical or emotional abuse, neglect, witnessing violence, or losing a loved one. Unfortunately, some people don’t realize that they experienced trauma during their childhood until they are an adult and begin working through their struggles.
Let’s review what childhood trauma is and ten telling signs that you may have experienced this in your lifetime.
What is Childhood Trauma?
Childhood trauma refers to frightening, dangerous, or violent events experienced as a child. This overwhelms their ability to cope, often leading them down a dark path where they self-medicate with drugs or alcohol, experience mental health problems, and develop unhealthy relationships with others, further exacerbating their circumstances. Trauma can come from acute events, such as a car accident or the sudden death of a parent, or from chronic situations like ongoing abuse or neglect. Traumatic experiences are known to affect a child’s sense of security, alter their ability to trust others, and even impact brain development and emotional regulation.
Common Signs of Childhood Trauma
Children can respond to trauma in various ways depending on the type of trauma they experienced, their age, and their support system. A child who witnesses a fatal car accident but has a loving family and access to support services is more likely to recover than a child who witnesses ongoing abuse in the home without guidance from loved ones.
Here are ten common signs that you may have experienced trauma during your childhood:
1. Emotional Dysregulation
One of the most common signs of childhood trauma is difficulty regulating emotions. You might find that you experience intense emotional responses to situations that others may view as minor. While there can be other underlying causes of emotional dysregulation, such as mental health problems, it’s possible that an overreaction to everyday stressors may indicate past trauma.
You may also have trouble calming yourself when you’re upset, or you might think that your mood swings come out of nowhere. On the other hand, some people have the opposite effect and feel disconnected from their emotions altogether. To others, this can appear as being numb, detached, and emotionless, making it difficult to form meaningful relationships.
2. Hypervigilance or Anxiety
Another sign of childhood trauma is a heightened sense of alertness (hypervigilance) as a result of your brain being conditioned to anticipate danger. As an adult, you might constantly feel on edge, scan your environment for threats, or become overly anxious in situations where there is no real danger. You might also startle easily, meaning you jump or feel uneasy when hearing loud noises or encountering unexpected stimuli. Trauma can also make it difficult to trust others.
3. Avoidance Behaviors
If you’ve experienced childhood trauma, you may avoid certain situations, places, or conversations that trigger painful memories. This avoidance can take many forms, such as avoiding conflict or emotional intimacy and using distractions like work or social media to avoid thinking about past experiences. To escape uncomfortable emotions and pass the time, you may also turn to drugs or alcohol. This can put you at risk for a substance use disorder, which can worsen mental health problems.
4. Difficulty With Relationships
Childhood trauma can significantly impact how you relate to others, especially in close relationships. The first people in your life may not have treated you well, which is where these insecurities come from. For example, if you experienced neglect in your childhood, you may have a fear of abandonment, causing you to be clingy or over-dependent in relationships. Or, you may react in the opposite way, pulling yourself away to avoid getting hurt.
5. Low Self-Esteem
Many individuals who experienced trauma during childhood carry feelings of inadequacy or unworthiness into adulthood. These feelings can manifest in various ways, such as negative self-image, perfectionism, or self-sabotage.
A negative self-image causes you to have persistent negative beliefs about yourself, feeling like you’re not good enough or don’t deserve happiness. You may also strive for perfectionism, often pushing yourself too hard and feeling like you don’t measure up. Self-sabotage behaviors like procrastination or avoiding opportunities can also contribute to a lack of success and happiness.
6. Flashbacks or Intrusive Thoughts
Do you ever have flashbacks to your childhood experiences? This could be a sign of childhood trauma, where you relive the experience as if it’s happening again. It’s also common to experience recurrent nightmares about the event or intuitive thoughts where memories of the trauma pop into your head at random times.
7. Substance Use and Risky Behaviors
In an effort to quiet the mind, cope with difficult emotions, and numb pain, some people who have trauma in their background engage in substance use and other risky behaviors like reckless driving and unsafe sexual practices. Unfortunately, these behaviors can lead to their own sets of consequences, which can further affect your self-esteem, success, relationships, and mental health. Dual diagnosis treatment can address both your mental health and substance use simultaneously.
8. Chronic Physical Symptoms
Unresolved trauma can take a toll on your mental health, manifesting as chronic pain, fatigue, and sleep problems. And, if you’re not sleeping well, it can worsen your existing symptoms and make it more difficult to manage pain and discomfort. Getting your mental health into a better state can improve physical symptoms like headaches, muscle tension, and digestive issues. Creating a healthy sleep schedule can also improve the quality of rest you get.
9. Difficulty Setting Boundaries
Do you have trouble setting boundaries with others? You might struggle with this because of childhood trauma. For instance, if you were abused or neglected, you might find it difficult to say “no” and set limits with others, causing you to feel taken advantage of. Or, you might have overly rigid boundaries where you build walls to protect yourself. This can lead to isolation, loneliness, and watered down relationships.
10. Dissociation
Some individuals with severe trauma may dissociate, meaning they feel disconnected from themselves and their surroundings. You might feel like you’re observing your life from the outside, or that you are not fully present in your body. You may also have gaps in your memory, where you don’t recall certain periods of time or what you did during those moments.
Seeking Support for Trauma, Mental Health, and Substance Use in Agoura Hills, CA
Childhood trauma is not something that goes away just because you grow into an adult. It can have long-lasting effects on your mental, emotional, and physical health. If you recognize any of these signs in yourself, know that these are responses to trauma and not signs of personal failure. Healing from childhood trauma is possible, but it often requires professional support to help you process and work through deeply rooted issues.
Awakenings Treatment Center can help you heal from childhood trauma. We also treat co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders using evidence-based and holistic therapies. Contact our admissions team today to learn more about our various levels of care and how they can support a full recovery from childhood trauma and the unhealthy coping mechanisms you have picked up along the way.