If you will have ancestors or older relatives who went through a really stressful or distressing event, their emotional and behavioral reactions can ripple through generations of your loved ones and impact you. This known as intergenerational trauma. You may additionally hear it known as generational trauma, historical trauma, or multigenerational trauma.
It could also be on account of personal trauma, comparable to: B. Child or domestic violence, or to trauma suffered by a specific cultural, racial or ethnic group. It has been related to major events comparable to wars, slavery, the Holocaust, and colonial violence against Native Americans. There may even be natural disasters comparable to a flood, earthquake or pandemic.
Intergenerational trauma can affect your health in some ways. Responses may vary from generation to generation, but may include:
- shame
- Fear and guilt
- Feeling helpless or vulnerable
- Low self-esteem
- depression
- Higher likelihood of suicide
- High rates of heart disease
- Drug abuse
- relationship problems
- I find it difficult to regulate aggressive feelings
- Extreme reactions to emphasize
- Damaged cultural identity (the sense of belonging to a bigger group)
Yet many individuals haven’t any obvious effects of trauma experienced by previous generations of their family.
The exact causes are usually not clear. However, some experts imagine that the unique traumatic event could influence the one you love's relationship skills, personal behavior, and attitudes and beliefs in ways in which impact future generations of your loved ones.
How your parents discuss with you (or don't speak about it) and the way your loved ones functions appear to play a very important role in whether the trauma is passed on. For example, a parent's traumatic experience may affect their parenting skills and play a job of their children's behavioral problems.
Researchers are also studying the possible role of “epigenetic changes.” The idea is that your environment could cause changes that affect how your genes work, and that these changes may very well be passed on to younger generations.
Epigenetic changes can affect the way in which your body reads a DNA sequence. But they’re reversible and don’t change DNA sequences like gene mutations.
Most studies of intergenerational trauma have focused on descendants of people that experienced a historical traumatic event. This includes:
- Holocaust survivors who survived concentration camps
- African American individuals who have experienced years of slavery, segregation, or systemic racism
- Native Americans who endured colonial massacres or whose children were taken away and placed in boarding schools due to federal policy
- Japanese Americans forced to live in internment camps (detention camps) during World War II
- Veterans of the Vietnam War
Some experts say we want more research on intergenerational trauma amongst families of individuals with disabilities. Throughout history, some groups of disabled people have suffered trauma on account of unfounded prejudice, discrimination, forced sterilization or psychiatric treatment, and more.
It can be believed that intergenerational trauma may affect relations of people that have suffered trauma comparable to:
- Murder or rape
- Natural disasters
- Physical, sexual or mental abuse
- Drug abuse
- Abandonment or neglect
- Serious injury, illness, or untreated mental illness
- Poverty and food insecurity
We need more research to find out which treatments are best for managing intergenerational trauma.
If you think that you or a loved one could have symptoms, discuss with your doctor first. They may give you the chance to treat mental illness or other medical issues that could be related to intergenerational trauma.
They may additionally refer you to an experienced mental health skilled (comparable to a psychologist or licensed therapist) who can make it easier to:
- Trace your loved ones's trauma history
- Manage any anger, stress, or numbness that could be related to your loved ones history
- Discuss current traumas, comparable to racism, that could be tied to the unique trauma
- Practice self-care techniques comparable to mindfulness and exercise
- Recognize things which may trigger the consequences of trauma for you and show you the way to limit them
Choose a health care provider or therapist who respects your culture, race or ethnicity.
Depending in your background and treatment goals, it’s possible you’ll give you the chance to seek out an expert to make it easier to reconnect along with your ancestral culture and traditions to make it easier to process grief over old traumas. Some treatment methods include traditional healing methods and ceremonial practices.