What Don’t People Tell You About Going Through Childhood Trauma?

By Dr. Betsy Usher

First of all, what people don’t tell you about suffering from childhood is:

That it is rampant, and rarely talked about, in our society. And yet, it is a massive issue, in a majority of cultures, that changes a person forever, in every way possible.

I’m going to discuss three important topics about childhood trauma; including how it goes unnoticed for most of a person’s life, biological effects that can happen to your body, and that the root of the majority of mental health issues is from childhood abuse and chronic trauma.

I’m focusing on chronic childhood trauma, such as abuse; not so much a single incident that created PTSD trauma, but ones that created C-PTSD.

Hidden Abuse that’s rampant.

The majority of those who experienced childhood trauma/abuse did not know they were being abused, until their much later adult years. Most likely when they entered into an intimate partner abuse dynamic.

Children don’t know they are being abused, because their life is all they know—and because most family’s issues are hidden behind closed doors, they had no one to compare their life to.

Some of you may have noticed unfair treatment because you were the scapegoat in the family, which made you the rebel and act as a whistleblower, calling out unfair treatment and exposing the family’s hidden secrets.

You may have been diagnosed with depression or bipolar in your teenage years. Or, maybe even borderline personality disorder…when, in fact, you were abuse survivors.

See here is the problem. A lot of therapists are not trained in abuse, and do not know what to look for behind the curtain of a covert narcissist, nor how to treat the patient.

They are not trained in these types of family dynamics, so the child remains the scapegoat and continues to be abused through adulthood.

This is a massive problem, because it leaves little help for the child. They have already been incredibly betrayed by their parents.

In order to heal from C-PTSD, they need a new, healthy relationship that a therapist can provide, in order to be reparented.

Biological Experiences.

A few things can happen to a person’s body when they have been in chronic fight or flight for years on end. One, they can become addicted to drugs/alcohol; two, they can develop an autoimmune disorder, or another illness; and three, they can develop adrenal gland fatigue.

Alcohol and drug abuse come from childhood trauma. Period. It doesn’t just happen to people, it’s not the drugs. It’s from childhood trauma. Always.

Research Gabor Mate, if you want to further delve into this.

Autoimmune Diseases are the same thing, except they usually come about later in adulthood, after another trauma—like having a child,or getting into another abusive relationship.

Adrenal Gland Fatigue happens when cortisol levels (stress hormones) are chronically being released, which then travel through your adrenal glands, which regulate your energy along with ATP.

If you have chronic fatigue, you most likely have adrenal gland fatigue. One study found that 80% of abuse survivors had adrenal gland fatigue.

Now if you have adrenal gland fatigue AND an autoimmune disease, it is common to have an over production of yeast (candida), which leads to chronic fatigue.

The way to check this is through bloodwork, to see if it has reached your blood. If not, it could still be in your gut; in which case, taking Diflucan will waken you right up and get you back to feeling like your old self.

But, while you’re at it, get your magnesium, potassium, copper, and zinc levels checked! This is your ATP production, so if any of these are low, taking the mineral will affect your ATP production—which is energy.

Read WHY AM I ALWAYS SO TIRED? by Ann Louise Gittleman, for more information.

Mental Health Issues.

What they don’t tell you—because they are always looking for genes to explain mental health, which is just about medications, which is about big pharma—is that the majority of mental health issues come from childhood neglect and or abuse.

Depression, anxiety, personality disorders, conduct disorder, OCD, etc., all come from a lack of emotional validation, an unstable childhood, abuse, neglect, dysfunctional family dynamics, deep betrayal of your parents that were needed to be healthy, loving, validating, understanding, and kind.

It doesn’t have to be both your parents, as even one is enough to create this damage.

Then, therapists try to work on the depression and anxiety with CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), when underneath it is C-PTSD and trauma, which needs trauma work; such as somatic experiencing, Polyvagl Therapy, EMDR, Biofeedback, among others.

The entire body needs to come with the mind in therapy, not just talk therapy. Yet, very few people know how to do this, even though childhood abuse has been around forever.

What they also don’t tell you is:

That these old, deep parts of you can be healed, and worked on—trust can be built again, relationships can be stable; you can be stable, you can be happy and “normal”, functioning in a way that is meaningful and productive.

I do have some other articles here on how to go about doing that! :)