How Childhood Trauma Distorts Your Perception of Life

Some people experience trauma at an early age and robswhichem of this sense of safety and security, and they often grow up to carry that trauma with them well into their adulthood.

Defined as “the experience of a singler multiple events by a child that is emotionally painful or distressful,” studies show that childhood trauma often leads to serious lifelong damages to one’s mental and physical health. Have you ever wondered how such experiences could impact a person? While there are a lot of ways childhood trauma can have an effect on us, here are the main ways they shape your view on life:

1. It Makes you more pessimistic

2. It makes you feel more alone 

3. It makes you self-sabotage

4. It takes away your sense of safety and security

5. It hinders your ability for meaning-making 

What was your childhood like? Well for most of us childhood was a simple and carefree time not everyone is lucky enough to have that some may have experienced trauma at an early age. Robbing them of their sense of safety and security defined is as the experience of a single or multiple event by eventsild that is emotionally painful or distressful. Studies show that childhood trauma often leads to serious lifelong damage and damages mental and physical health. Have you ever wondered how such experiences could impact a person?  Well, there a, re a lot of ways childhood trauma can impact you here are the main ways it can shape your view on life. 

1. It makes you more pessimistic.

How do you see the world? Many studies have proven that people who have experienced a traumatic event especially when they were younger are more likely to be pessimistic. They often generalize their traumatic experience into a generalized negative expectation of the world which makes it more difficult for them to see the positivethe  side of things or trust that good things will happen. Instead they internalize their unhealed trauma until it manifests as either self-blame passive helplessness or a pessimistic worldview.

2. It makes you feel more alone

A lot of research tackles the detrimental effects childhood trauma can have on a person's mental and emotional well-being but what we don't often realize is that these detrimental effects can trickle down to impact our view of not only ourselves but of the world in general too. How well childhood trauma is known to increase a person's likelihood of developing depression and anxiety as well as making them more vulnerable to feelings of guilt and shame this negative self-view then makes victims. More socially withdrawn and as a result suffer from lower levels of social and emotional support and poor quality of interpersonal relationships. 

3. It makes you self-sabotage

Similar to the previous point a person who's experienced childhood trauma may be more likely to self-sabotage. Especially when it comes to their relationships in fact studies have shown that a large majority of those who have suffered abuse or violence related childhood traumas go on to develop adult attachment disorders. Most of them have a hard time maintaining long-term relationships be it platonic or romantic because of how their trauma has distorted their view of human nature. Instead of believing in a person's innate capacity for good they've learned to fear their capacity for evil and deceit which makes them less trusting and more likely to self-sabotage creating problems where there might not even be one. 

4. It takes away from your sense of safety and security

Have you ever wondered why some people who've experienced trauma end up struggling with it for years even long after it's already over? Trauma of any kind can have lasting physiological damage and when you experience it at such a formative time of your life such as in childhood it can take years to unlearn and undo. Being traumatized takes away a person's sense of safety and security which is crucial to a child's development because it's what bonds them to the significant people in their lives and encourages them to explore the world and fulfill their potential without their sense of safety and security they might grow up to become overly timid anxious fearful or overly attention and approval seeking. 

5. It hinders your ability for meaning-making 

Making some of the most widely used psychological treatments given to victims of trauma include cognitive. Therapy narrative therapy and logic therapy all of which focus on helping clients make sense of the trauma they've experienced and create positive meaning out of it because victims of trauma struggle with this the most it's often what keeps a lot of them from moving on and healing from their painful past even though traumatic experiences are usually unexpected uncontrollable and seemingly random. We still try to make sense of it anyway but in doing so it can distort our way of thinking so much that victims often either victimize themselves where they take away their own sense of agency and being able to do something about their trauma or blame themselves for what happened so have you or someone in your life experienced childhood trauma. Let's change the way you view life if you are struggling with your mental health in any capacity please don't hesitate to reach out to a mental health care professional today and seek help.

References:

Aiosa, A. (2019). How Childhood Traumatic Experiences Shape Elements of Adult Personality and Mental Health.

Brown, A. D. (2008). The effects of childhood trauma on adult perception and worldview (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).

Dye, H. (2018). The impact and long-term effects of childhood trauma. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 28(3), 381-392.

Mental Health Center at Destination Hope. “How Childhood Trauma Affects Us as Adults.” Retrieved 10 June 2022 from www.mentalhealthcenter.org/how-childhood-trauma-affects-adult-relationships/

Wang, D., Lu, S., Gao, W., Wei, Z., Duan, J., Hu, S., Huang, M., Xu, Y., & Li, L. (2018). The Impacts of Childhood Trauma on Psychosocial Features in a Chinese Sample of Young Adults. Psychiatry investigation, 15(11), 1046–1052. doi.org/10.30773/pi.2018.09.26