The Trauma Is Inherited From Your Parents!

This theory was developed when children of Holocaust survivors who were never in a concentration camp were observed and yet had the same symptoms of post-traumatic stress as their parents; their children, the grandchildren of the concentration camp survivors, also had the same symptoms.

In the last 50 years, the understanding of human nature and the study of psychology have registered a real revolution, and the idea that we inherit not only physical traits but also the emotional traumas of our ancestors is both disturbing and liberating.

The consequences of this legacy create conditions that until now seemed incomprehensible even to specialists.

This article is based on two materials recently published in the international press on this topic.

One of them, published by Science and Nonduality, tries to introduce us to this theory of intergenerational trauma, and the second, a material posted by the Huffington Post by a mother - Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal, who started during pregnancy. A journey of documenting this experience and making the documentary Utero.

What does not come to the surface as awareness returns to us as Destiny. - Jung

The first ideas on this topic were sketched by Freud and Jung, but the trends in psychotherapy are starting to show very clearly today, not only to the trauma suffered at the individual level but also to the traumatic events suffered in the family, going deep into the social history of a person, to get a broader picture of the emotional issues he is facing.

Thus, tragedies varying in type and intensity - such as abandonment, suicide, and war, or the early death of a child, parent, sibling - can transmit emotional shocks from one generation to the next, writes Mark Wolynn, author of "It Didn't Start with You, "for Science and Nonduality.

Recent research in cell biology, neurobiology, epigenetics, and psychology emphasizes the importance of exploring at least three generations in a family's history to understand the mechanisms of traumatic patterns and recurring suffering.

Specialist Mark Wolynn further describes the experience that one of his clients had. Jesse was almost 19 years old when she began to have aggressive episodes of insomnia.

Soon, the young man with a grade of 10 and athletic talents lost his zest for life and went to therapy after a year of insomnia. Mark Wolynn and his patient discovered that the young man's experience had to do with intergenerational trauma.

Jesse's fear of falling asleep and the cold sensation that engulfed him in such moments was, in the end, correlated with the tragic death of his father's brother or, in the middle of a snowstorm, a brother about whom the young man had only recently learned from his mother.

Unlocking this emotion was crucial on the road to healing.

A boy can inherit his grandfather's long legs, a girl can have a mother's nose, but Jesse inherited his uncle's fear that he would never wake up again.

In an attempt to decode such life stories, scientists today are able to identify biological markers - obvious trauma passed down from generation to generation.

People with post-traumatic stress relive the feelings and emotions associated with trauma despite the fact that it has happened in the past. Symptoms include depression, anxiety, numbness, insomnia, nightmares, scary thoughts, tremors.

Yehuda and her team found that the sons of Holocaust survivors, who had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, were born with low cortisol levels, like their parents, and were prone to reliving the same symptoms as the previous generation.

Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal: Let's not blame mothers anymore!

When we learn about intergenerational trauma, we can't help but be stuck in the realization of the author of the Huffington Post: "What shocked me was to think about the long traumatic history of humanity - war, slavery, rape persecution and you start looking around, and you understand that we are all recipients of this history and consequently we are traumatized to varying degrees. And this is where this fresh and refreshing truth begins to unfold. "

Studies also show that the neural structure and, therefore, the procedural mind of a child is formed by the emotional influences of the mother and those close to him that he feels between 0-5 years, but even before he is born! And so we tend to fall into an evil trap: "Mothers are to blame!"

We are all to be condemned, and we are all to blame

Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal goes on to point out this very important issue that needs to be addressed: "When this information is taken completely and utterly wrong, mothers often become scapegoats. We need to stop attacking mothers because they are not to be condemned. We are all in this dynamic, we are all to be condemned, and we are all to blame. "

Every man, woman, and child (or fetus) who has been the subject of war, poverty, abuse, natural disasters, injustice, neglect - whether they have caused trauma or inherited its effects - will pass on this trauma.

We expect mothers who are already experiencing psychological changes in pregnancy, all the discomfort, and anxiety between checkups, or what about poor mothers who worry about tomorrow to expect them to maintain their mental balance. not to affect the fetus' intrauterine life… Let's stop the attacks and accusations, says Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal.

We can only conclude in this note that we should each take responsibility for individual and family histories and become more aware of a path to healing:

Raising ourselves above the remnants of the traumas suffered by our ancestors each helps to heal future generations. - Psychology Today.