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While many people think trauma always means something extreme, it can be as simple as not being praised or feeling redundant in your own home. When left unaddressed, childhood trauma can be felt even in adult years, when all the childhood problems seem so distant now.

In this article, we'll explore why childhood trauma affects adulthood on a biological level and how it still affects you in adulthood.

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Childhood trauma significantly impacts the body and brain function because childhood is the time of the most impactful growth. Decades of neuroscience research show that early adversity alters how the nervous system reacts to stress, how the brain processes emotions, how the body regulates hormones, etc.

The human brain is remarkably adaptive. Traumatic environments in early years make this flexibility backfire because the body adopts unhealthy coping mechanisms. Determining whether your coping mechanisms are healthy and/or are caused by past experiences can be done by completing the test here with free results at the end. These are the changes that negative childhood experiences can cause:

• The amygdala, the brain's "alarm" system, becomes overactive, causing chronic fear and anxiety.

• The hippocampus, which stores memories and helps in learning, may shrink. Because of this, a person might grow up with difficulties concentrating or distinguishing between past and present threats.

• The prefrontal cortex, responsible for self-control and decision-making, usually shows reduced activity in trauma survivors. That's why survivors of early trauma can have impulsive reactions or emotional irregularity.

These changes explain why adults with high ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) scores have a higher likelihood of anxiety, emotional dysregulation, recurring cycles of self-sabotage.

Normally, cortisol, the stress hormone, spikes during challenges and drops when safety returns. But for children exposed to abuse, neglect, or unpredictable environments, cortisol stays high or, paradoxically, too low.

Both outcomes have consequences that make childhood trauma affect adulthood:

• Constant cortisol elevation keeps the body in a fight-or-flight mode. Because the body devotes all its resources to invisible threats, the immune system weakens.

• Low cortisol, on the other hand, makes a person numb to threats. That's why the consequences of their traumatic experiences hit them much later in life, in adulthood, when everything seems to be fine and there is no definitive threat/negativity.

Perhaps the most fascinating discovery in trauma research is epigenetics, the study of how traumatic experiences can modify gene expression. Trauma doesn't change your DNA, but it can leave chemical marks that influence how your body responds to stress.

The study of Holocaust survivors revealed that these genetic markers were present not only in Holocaust survivors themselves but also in their children. That's why even if parents experienced something negative, stressful, or tragic in the past that left them in shock, their children have a higher probability of developing similar coping mechanisms even if they didn't experience such traumatic events.

These biological markets don't define who you are, but they do explain why childhood trauma still affects you in childhood.

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The effects of childhood trauma evolve from signs in childhood to signs in adulthood. What once was a child's survival mechanism becomes an adult's habits and traits of character.

The most common ways childhood trauma affects adulthood are never-ending self-doubt, people-pleasing, emotional dysregulation, impulsivity, certain mental health disorders, etc. And neither of them is a personality flaw. They are adaptive responses learned long ago to survive.

Abuse and neglect during childhood interrupt vital stages of brain development. The brains of adults who faced emotional or physical trauma are trained to anticipate danger. Planning and learning are not priorities when your brain perceives it as under threat.

Many find it hard to concentrate, remember details, manage time due to undiagnosed ADHD, BPD, anxiety, depression, or overall stress. These states can make education and career advancement more difficult, reinforcing negative beliefs about oneself that started in childhood.

Trauma tends to repeat itself until it's consciously addressed. Those who grew up surrounded by conflict may unconsciously seek similar relationships in adulthood. Instead of a victim position, they may already be an aggressor. That's the only example of confidence and safety they observed in childhood, and they may not consciously remember it, but it already impacted their brain in a way.

Many survivors of critical or emotionally cold families develop perfectionism as a protective mechanism. Trying to be flawless may stem from a few reasons:

• Fear of rejection. "If I'm perfect, they will love me."

• Fear of failure. "I can't lose, it's not my personality."

• Need to control everything. "If I make mistakes, everything will go downhill. I cannot afford to be wrong."

As adults, children who were always compared or criticized, overwork and overachieve, but instead of a sense of success, they feel "not enough." Because in their heads, achievement isn't something special; it's their obligation.

When a child is forced to take care of emotionally immature parents, they grow up too soon. Such children are described as "too mature for their years." This is known as parentification.

The child becomes a caretaker: comforting adults, mediating conflicts, managing the household, taking care of other siblings. In adulthood, these individuals carry guilt for prioritizing themselves. Similar patterns appear in Eldest daughter syndrome, where the oldest girl bears the family's emotional burden, becoming the "strong one" for everyone, but crumbling inside.

Some children, however, experience the opposite extreme. Instead of being criticized, they are excessively praised or idealized. This may create a superiority complex.

Children who were raised to believe they were special, destined for greatness. One way this childhood trauma affects them in adulthood is that they cannot tolerate criticism, don't feel empathy, and isolate themselves in disappointment.

Neglect and enmeshment trauma blur the line between where a person ends and others begin. Adults raised without boundaries can become people-pleasers. They may say "yes" when they mean "no," and feel guilty for needing rest. This hyper-responsibility leads to exhaustion and resentment.

Those who were repeatedly invalidated or told to "just get over it" may internalize the beliefs that nobody likes them and they must suffer.

Adults who were constantly dismissed by their parents in childhood can see themselves as perpetually unlucky. "The world is against them".

In a study of 50 thousand American adults, it was shown that childhood trauma can be associated with poorer physical health in adulthood. Emotional pain turns physical. Chronic headaches, stomach issues, fatigue, insomnia, obesity, diabetes are common among trauma survivors. Studies show that bullied or neglected children are twice as likely to experience chronic pain and sleep disturbances in adulthood.

When trauma is never validated or processed, the internal pain becomes unbearable to the point that a person needs to feel something else other than that. Survivors of severe abuse or bullying have higher rates of self-harm and suicidal ideation.

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You don't have the power to change or erase the past, but you can learn how to live with it differently. When you know how your childhood trauma still affects you in adulthood, half of the work is done. Here's what you can do next:

Everything you are, everything you feel, you can be that. Sad, disappointed, angry, confused, grieving, "not enough," weird. You don't need to explain your emotions ("I'm sad because I recalled how lonely I was as a child") to feel them.

Sometimes, these emotions come back as a wave, and they can't be controlled. So, it's important not to judge yourself for them. They can be intense, come back from time to time, but you must take all the time you need.

It happens frequently that a person can't make sense out of their feelings. In such cases, it's recommended to tell about what's going on inside you out loud. The best way is to share your feelings with a friend or a therapist, but it's okay not to be ready for such a step.

Writing is one of the most effective ways to process stored emotions. Try a simple exercise: name what you feel, explore where it comes from, and write freely without censoring yourself. Breeze Wellbeing’s guided journaling feature makes this process more structured.

Another option - record yourself talking about your current problems and emotions. You may or may not revisit these recordings and evaluate them from the side. We are always more objective when we hear the story after a while.

One way how childhood trauma can affect adulthood is through harsh inner dialogue. Usually, the negative self-talk doesn't have any logical explanation behind it, but a person who thinks these thoughts takes every negative aspect very seriously.

Replace thoughts like “I’m not enough” with compassionate affirmations such as “My past does not define me” or “I am learning to trust myself.” Breeze also offers personalized affirmation prompts that can help you reprogram your self-talk and strengthen emotional resilience.

You may not believe these ideas at first, but the more you practice, the more realistic they will seem to you. If you can spiral about negativity, then why not spiral about something nice?

Visualize your younger self. Take a picture of you as a child and place it somewhere you'll see it quite often. Offer this child love, safety, and support they didn't have. You will be surprised how much kinder you'll be towards a helpless, positive, little version of you.

Healing doesn’t have to happen alone. Whether through therapy, support groups, or trusted friends, sharing your story reduces shame and reminds you that you’re not broken.