Unresolved Childhood Trauma: What Happens When You Don’t Heal
Childhood trauma doesn’t disappear just because you’ve grown up. Instead, it often shows up later as anxiety, addiction, or broken relationships, quietly shaping your life until you’re ready to face it.
Here in Florida, adults are no strangers to traumatic events during childhood. A 2022 survey conducted by the Florida Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) showed that over 21% of respondents grew up in a household where someone had an alcohol use disorder. 29.6% reported being hit, beaten, kicked, or physically hurt at least once, if not more than once.
At Clean Recovery Centers, we understand how these experiences plant the seed of anxiety and distrust. If not properly addressed, these emotions carry on into adulthood, affecting your quality of life. Let’s talk about unresolved childhood trauma, how it shapes your emotional responses, and what therapy methods provide relief.
Shedding Light on Unresolved Childhood Trauma
You may wonder why you respond to stress the way you do or why you always feel on edge all the time.
Because the brain is in its developmental stage during childhood, emotion and behavior regulation directly correlate with the environment, both seen and experienced personally. Unresolved childhood trauma has a negative impact on these systems, resulting in higher chances of developing a mental health condition or substance use disorder.
The Lasting Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are traumatic factors that occur between birth and age 17. They can be physical, emotional, or mental and can affect how you feel about safety and security. Common ACEs include:
- Neglect
- Abuse (physical, emotional, sexual, or mental)
- Homelessness
- Poverty
- Substance use
ACEs can be experienced or witnessed. For example, a child seeing physical abuse being done to a parent or friend is considered just as traumatic as experiencing the abuse themselves.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), nearly 1 in 6 adults in the United States report experiencing 4 or more ACEs during childhood. This increases the risk of developing mental health conditions, substance use disorders, and poor stress responses.
Exploring the Many Types of Childhood Trauma
Similar to adult traumas, childhood trauma can occur in different forms, including:
- Acute trauma: Typically refers to a singular traumatic incident, such as being in an accident or experiencing the sudden loss of a family member.
- Complex trauma: When multiple traumas occur for a length of time, such as violence paired with parental substance use.
- Interpersonal trauma: Events that take place to or around the child. This includes abuse, neglect, family dysfunction, and exposure to substance use.
- Experiential trauma: Events that happen around the child, such as a natural disaster, accident, or bullying.
As we mentioned above, trauma can be physical, emotional, or mental. Complex traumas often require the most in-depth care as they stem from years of exposure.
The Lingering Effects of Unhealed Childhood Wounds
Unresolved trauma does not automatically get better once you enter adulthood – many wounds will still be present from the experience. A common effect is trust issues with those around you, resulting in difficulties forming healthy relationships. This adds to feelings of isolation, furthering negative emotions about yourself and others.
Trauma can manifest physically and mentally, causing emotional dysfunction and even physical pain. Let’s explore this further.
When the Body Keeps Score: Physical Symptoms of Childhood Trauma
Childhood trauma activates the fight-or-flight response within the body. During the event, fear and anxiety are at a high, triggering this response as a way of survival. However, when trauma is not resolved, this response remains active when faced with a trigger that makes you think about the event. As a result, the body feels physical symptoms, including:
- Muscle tension and pain
- Hypervigilance
- Abdominal pain, diarrhea, and gastrointestinal discomfort
- Insomnia
Experiencing trauma as a child has been linked to developing chronic physical illnesses in adulthood. Studies have reported that children who experience ACEs are more likely to have arthritis, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, chronic bronchitis, back problems, migraines, cancer, and chronic inflammation. Autoimmune conditions are also at a high risk of affecting children who have gone through trauma. This is due to the inflammation response that occurs during fight-or-flight.
Emotional Echoes: How Childhood Trauma Manifests Mentally
The emotional aspects of childhood trauma continue to manifest in adulthood due to the brain being in a developmental stage. Children learn from their environment and those around them; therefore, experiencing a trauma directly reflects how they react emotionally. One of the main emotional responses involves safety. Children who are abused or neglected are likely to have a higher sense of their surroundings and the people around them. It is difficult for them to trust and form relationships as their safety is the top priority.
Self-blame is a common emotion with childhood trauma. Feelings that the situation was their fault or that they deserved what happened to them become ingrained, resulting in depression that continues into adulthood. Childhood trauma increases the risk of suicide for this reason.
From Early Pain to PTSD: When Childhood Trauma Persists
Not everyone who experiences childhood trauma will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but the risk is significantly increased. PTSD is characterized by flashbacks, nightmares, avoidant behaviors, and intrusive thoughts that affect everyday life. It can develop during childhood or later in life if the trauma remains unresolved.
When you experience multiple traumas as a child, PTSD can become complex (CPTSD). Seeking professional help for this condition is an integral part of the healing process, as negative emotions can take over your mind and interfere with your daily life.
Healing the Past: How Trauma Therapy Can Help You Move Forward
Healing from childhood trauma is possible, but it requires patience, ongoing support, and a willingness to confront the experience directly. Trauma therapy offers a structured and compassionate environment to start this journey. Common and effective therapeutic approaches include:
- Prolonged exposure therapy (PET): With the guidance of a licensed therapist, you will confront thoughts, objects, and memories associated with the event to desensitize your emotions and reactions.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): This method helps you identify and change distorted thought patterns while developing healthy coping skills.
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): A structured approach that assists the brain in reprocessing traumatic memories through bilateral movements.
- Rapid-resolution therapy (RRT): A form of psychotherapy that specifically addresses trauma using guided imagery, hypnosis, storytelling, and other forms of communication to resolve negative thoughts and emotions.
- Group therapy: While individual sessions offer their benefits, group therapy provides a sense of camaraderie and normalcy as you hear stories similar to your own experiences.
Getting Started With Trauma Therapy in Hillsborough County, FL
Unresolved childhood trauma doesn’t magically go away, and it’s not too late to process it as an adult. Therapy for childhood trauma will give you a safe space to process your feelings and emotions to begin healing from your past. Whether you were neglected, abused, or witnessed a tragedy, help is available for you to process and move forward with your future. Don’t keep holding your feelings in – it’s time to let go and heal.
If you or someone you love is holding on to childhood trauma, help is here at Clean Recovery Centers. Each of our facilities provides housing and meals, so you only need to focus on your treatment journey. Call us today at (888) 330-2532 to learn more about our program offerings.
Get clean. Live clean. Stay clean.
