It showed an association between parental stress before a child is even conceived, and the epigenetic changes that then appear after the child is born. The study that caused a stir around epigenetics and trauma was published at the end of 2016. But it does change how your body reads and understands a DNA sequence. So an ‘epigenetic change’ is not permanent, it doesn’t change your actual DNA sequence. These are not proper genetic changes but responses. Trauma and our genes – can it be passed through our DNA?Įpigenetics is the study of how the ways you behave and the environments and experiences you live through can change how your genes work. And she makes sure that when she pops into the shops and he’s in the car he’s locked in (passing on anxiety and negative core beliefs).Īs you can imagine, the child of this parent will grow up into an adult with anxiety, hyper-vigilance, attachment issues, relationship problems, possible low self-esteem. She won’t let him play ice hockey, for example. She really does try to keep her child safe. How bad her luck was, but that is just the way life is (transmitting anxiety via stories). How hard it was, how she learned you can’t trust anyone or anything. Sometimes she tells him stories about her life.

When her child is good she tells him what an angel he is, and when he isn’t an angel she locks herself in her room for a few hours. But now she has a child, who is her reason for living and can make her happy ( codependency/ controlling parenting). In truth, she often doesn’t know who she is, or if life has a point. And sometimes she is just miles away without meaning to be ( dissociation). And so she is inconsistent with her child, sometimes loving and sometimes cold ( attachment issues). She wants to love her child, but sometimes she is just so, so tired, and feels so unhappy ( depression). (The above are all symptoms of complex PTSD). She also has ongoing health issues and often has colds/flu. She suffers with symptoms of hyper-vigilance, anxiety, low self-esteem, repressed anger, inconsistent moods, depression, damaged sense of self/ lack of identity, paranoia. Let’s look at an example of a mother who was badly sexually abused and never sought support to deal with her trauma. the behaviours a child witnesses and adult carry out.the perspective, personal values and core beliefs a parent teaches the child.the activities a parent decides to do or not do with their child.the parent’s ability to offer a child proper attachment.Trauma affects the way someone parents because it affects things like: So while nobody can experience exactly what a relative has lived through, what can be passed on are the symptoms of surviving trauma, and the ways we manage stress.īy: dadblunders How does trauma affect parenting?

a sudden or violen t death of a family memberīut how is it possible to ‘inherit’ trauma?Īgain, it is thought to transmit behaviourally and then through how our body responds to our DNA, called ‘epigenetics’.

Other types of trauma that could cause intergenerational trauma include things like: What types of trauma can become ‘trans generational’?Ī classic example of transgenerational trauma in a family would be childhood abuse that causes a cycle of abuse and anxiety in ongoing generations. Let’s first look at how transgenerational trauma affects families, and then how it affects the collective. They can then pass the symptoms and behaviours of trauma survival on to their children, who then might in turn pass these further along the family line, to the grandchildren and so on.Ĭollective trauma, when a group is traumatised for things like their ethnic, cultural, or religious identity, is also a form of transgenerational trauma.

Which means that not only can someone experience trauma. A new field of research, only started in the 2000s, the idea is that trauma is passed on behaviourally but also potentially biologically, affecting the way our DNA behaves. It refers to how trauma passes through generations. Transgenerational trauma is also referred to as ‘intergenerational trauma’, or shortened to ‘generational trauma’. Heard about ‘transgenerational trauma’, and wondering if it applies to what you are dealing with? What is transgenerational trauma?

Quotes intergenerational trauma