Breezy Harmon

5 November 2022

Genre 1

How childhood trauma effects adulthood

We have all heard the saying what does not kill us only makes us stronger. Its reality

there is a lot that does not kill us but still affects us deeply. Children are the susceptible to the

environments they are in or anything they experience during their developmental ages. Children

need more time to learn about how their minds work and what they are feeling. We as people

learn how to express emotions through people around us. Resilience is not something we have a

good definition for because we cannot always see what is going on in someone’s else’s mind.

Are we really make more resilient adults or more traumatized generations?

A beating teaches kids to be respectable adults. Studies have shown that adults that have

had traumatic experiences as children are more likely to have mental health issues. Adults who

experienced abuse or neglect are more likely to have depression, anxiety, and suicidal

tendencies. Studies done shown that children in these environments are more likely to be abusive

relationships in adulthood either as the abused or the abuser. Studies show, children who were

abused or neglected also tend to less satisfying lives due to lack of proper support systems. Their

support systems lack steady personal relationships, stressful friendships, or feel the need to put

other needs before their own. Adults who experienced sexual assault or rape as children have less

satisfying sexual relationships and less intimate with partners. According to research, almost all

abused children end up separated or divorced at least once in their life. These statistics show that

beating children leaves traumatized adults in its wake.

 Stop crying and grow up. While something may not be traumatic to you as an adult it

effects a child differently. Making a child’s emotions invalid can cause undeveloped emotional

intelligence. This lack of development can make it harder to show or identify emotions they are

feeling. They also develop maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation which the ability to shut off

negative emotions when stressed. This can cause emotion numbness or dissociation disorders.

Experiencing traumatic events at before adulthood can also increase the likely hood of substance

abuse later in life. People who suffer childhood trauma are more likely to develop eating

disorders. Childhood traumatic experiences have been linked to many mental health issues in

adults. An adult that experienced even just one traumatic event before eighteen can develop

anxiety and depression. Adults who experienced one traumatic event before are even more likely

to develop a mental illness. Taking the time to listen to children and helping them process their

emotions can help emotional intelligence.

I was beat as a child, and I came out fine. Many people believe that children from these

lives are more resilient later in life. While they do better at accomplishing some skills, they lack

in others. Studies have shown that people from these environments are more likely to drop out of

high school and college. They are also more likely to not put enough work into schoolwork.

Studies have shown that people are resilient when they get older if they receive treatment and

have a dedicated support system. Research done “resilient” adults show that while this people

may have their lives together are actually extreme emotional distress. Most of them have

undiagnosed mental health illnesses. Sadly, most of the people who grow up create their own

support system through friends, religion, and community. They rarely ever have any support

from their families. Sometimes this can be a good thing since studies show that mental health can

be affected by generational trauma. Another way people get help is group therapy which helps
people understand they are not alone. Resilience does happen for some, but many are left to

figure out everything on their own with little to no help.

Are we really make more resilient adults or more traumatized generations? Until recently,

no one saw the problem with disciplining their children or telling them to grow up. Children are

hiding their emotions and not learning how to properly process them. Younger and younger

children are developing mental health illnesses due to untreated trauma. They are not resilient;

they are trying to end generations of trauma. Future generations deserve to not know these

sayings. We are the generation of change, and this is a critical issue we need to fix.