The Lasting Effects: How Does Childhood Trauma Impact Adult Mental Health?

Introduction 

Lack of knowledge and lack of public awareness on the issue of trauma, especially Childhood trauma, makes it not important to consider when someone deviates or experiences mental health disorders such as suicide attempts. To better understand, we need to know first what trauma is, according to the American Psychological Association, Trauma is a reaction from a person's emotions to a terrible event that can be in the form of violence, accidents, physical or mental abuse, neglect, experience or witness of violence, war, death of a beloved person or many other examples. After the event, the most immediate effects are shock and denial, but in the long term, it can involve unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships, and even physical effects such as fatigue and headaches.

Furthermore, this article will discuss how childhood trauma affects a person's mental health. The purpose of this article is to encourage us to become aware of the existence of childhood trauma, which may be considered normal in our social environment. Childhood trauma is trauma that has happened to someone in their childhood, which is still left behind and has an effect after the incident, the effect may be recognized by the victim or may not be recognized. One example that can be found in the social environment is children who are victims of divorce from both parents in their childhood. Children of broken homes will usually follow in the footsteps of their parents or on the contrary, will be afraid to establish relationships with the opposite gender, this is part of a person's response that is influenced by events in their past.

Main Impact of Childhood Trauma On Mental Health

As previously explained, childhood trauma will have an effect on victims who are involved in or directly experience the terrible event. Various effects may happen after the event, which may not be predictable in the future. However, in general, one of the things that is affected or impacted by this problem is mental health. As explained earlier, trauma is an emotional response to a terrible event, where emotions are closely related to mental health. A person's mental health will be the most impacted by this trauma, a person's mentality will be very exposed during and after the event. Below are some of the mental health problems caused by childhood trauma that can be felt by a victim, including:

• Depression

• Excessive stress

• Inner pressure

• Excessive anxiety and fear

• Excessive anger

• Delusions and hallucinations

Childhood trauma will slowly affect the way a person acts and thinks in seeing the reality of life. Challenges or problems in life that seem normal to some people, will be very different for victims of trauma, and may even behave or think unnaturally.

Mental Health Recovery

After knowing the impact of childhood trauma on victims, the question will then appear in our minds how to minimize or cure the trauma. But before going further, you need to remember the principle of “better prevention than cure” This applies to this problem, prevention can start with yourself. Recognizing yourself well is very important, it could be that you are a victim or also potentially a perpetrator or even already a perpetrator who causes someone to experience trauma in childhood. Therefore, the principle of prevention is very appropriate to use, you can start with yourself and apply it to your environment such as your loved ones.

But if you are a victim of childhood trauma, there are some tips that you can do to recover from it, such as:

• Forgive and let go of the event

• Doing meditation 

• Joining a supportive community

• Utilize online mental health-related consultation services

• Consult and undergo therapy with a mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist

The recovery of childhood trauma will take time to be able to release from the trauma, this is obviously because the trauma has been settled for a long time in the victim's soul. It takes patience and also intention and sincerity to disappear and heal the trauma.

Conclusion

Finally, at the conclusion of this article, we will already know and understand that childhood trauma will have a very strong effect on a child in the future. If you look deeper, maybe many people around you have experienced childhood trauma and have become victims, or maybe you are one of them. The main thing we can do is to prevent such terrible events from happening to our loved ones. You should always keep in mind that recovery for a trauma victim will always take a lot of energy and time until they are finally released from the trauma.

By Melkynorris Putramar Sindruhu Duha