The Lasting Effects of Childhood Trauma on Your Mental and Physical Health

Childhood trauma is, unfortunately, far too common. In fact, studies show that two-thirds of children reported that they experienced a traumatic event by the time they turned 16. Although kids are very resilient and you can’t always overtly see signs of trauma, trauma can leave its lasting mark.

If you experienced something traumatic in your childhood — sometimes referred to as an adverse childhood experience (ACE) — you may not realize how much it impacted you. 

Because of that, our team at The Modalities Group located in Bowie, Maryland, wants to inform you on the kind of imprint childhood trauma can leave. In this blog, we review more about childhood trauma and what kinds of effects it can have on you later in life.

Explaining childhood trauma

There are lots of different events that can happen in your childhood that can leave you traumatized. Some are more obvious such as witnessing extreme violence, experiencing a natural disaster, or being physically, emotionally, or sexually abused. However, other things like chronic bullying, parents divorcing, or the death of a family member can also take their toll.

Even watching something traumatic happen to someone else such as witnessing a health crisis or violence in the media can have a tremendous impact.

When you were a child, you might have experienced symptoms such as having problems sleeping, being irritable, feeling sad, or the development of new fears.

How childhood trauma affects you in adulthood

Traumatic events actually affect the way your brain develops. This can start to severely impact your physical, mental, and emotional health well into adulthood. 

Your physical health can be influenced by trauma, and it can put you at risk for the following conditions:

• Asthma
• Heart problems
• Diabetes
• Stroke
• Autoimmune diseases
• Increased levels of pain

Trauma can also increase your risk for the following mental health conditions:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Anger control issues

Trauma can also impact your relationships and may cause you to have difficulties trusting others, being vulnerable, or giving others the benefit of the doubt. 

Healing from childhood trauma

One of the best ways to move past traumatic experiences is to work through them. At The Modalities Group, we offer different forms of therapy to help you heal from your trauma and all the effects that it has had on your life. 

If you’d like to schedule a therapy session with our team, give us a call at 240-599-3500 or use our online booking tool today.