Childhood Trauma Usually Stems from the Typical Family

Thank you Dr. Nadine Burke Harris for addressing a truth that is too often denied. Your courage to speak out on this issue is extraordinary. Most people do not realize how early childhood trauma affects people into adulthood. For instance, the leading cause of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is not military combat, but rather growing up in domestic war zones where household violence is common and or neighborhoods have become more like war zones. And you are correct, children often remain unseen and unheard by even Health Care professionals should they be fortunate enough to have access to such care because of issues like 'transference' where the health care provider is unable to treat the patient with compassion because the patient triggers feelings of shame or other strong emotions as the Health Care provider struggles to deal with repressed emotions that linger from their own childhood trauma.

The child or later in life, the adult, may be treated as if they have a character flaw or as if they have Attention Deficient Disorder or are Mentally ill. Practitioners seem more comfortable treating a 'disorder' with medications rather than in addressing the life circumstances that are detrimental to a human being. Mostly, I think that Doctors feel that they do not have the resources or training to help patients deal with issues related to trauma, but sometimes the simple act of listening and truly caring can empower a patient by awakening a sense of worthiness that may lead to healing and better health. Compassion is good medicine.

Most of the childhood trauma usually stems from the typical family issues like domestic violence, abuse, neglect, divorce, mental or physical illness of a family member or even a death of a family member. What this implies and suggests is that a system called 'family' is enormously important in an individual's life and plays a big role in shaping us and making us who we are today. Society consists of family and family is the basic component of everything. We are first socialized in our family and conditioned by what we see, hear, and experience in our family.

Childhood trauma, just like other social problems, cannot be eradicated and neither can the causes of it although they should be. However, it surely can be gradually lessened in degree and in prevalence. We should first try to solve family problems because most of the time they are where the trauma comes from. Some people might say that family problems can stay inside the family, that they should be addressed within the family. But that's not the case. Family problems are not theirs or others' or something far from us. They are near us, they live with us, they can be everywhere. And it's ours and our society's to vigorously react to them.

Even before this extraordinary discovery, childhood trauma always was an important matter that should be discussed openly and sincerely. But with this finding, it became an even more important matter, and it is requiring our attention more than ever. Now that we know there is a direct link between childhood trauma and health, I believe there is no better time than now to talk about childhood trauma.

Cite this page