Generational Trauma: How Past Family Experiences Affect Present Mental Health

 

People experiencing generational trauma may display a wide range of symptoms, psychological effects, and reactions endured by their ancestors—sometimes even generations ago.

Generational trauma is primarily passed through family dynamics and influenced by psychological, social, environmental, and biological factors. For example, chemicals involved in maternal stress can affect a child while still in the womb and impact its future development.

Lately, a growing number of mental health issues among the youth, particularly millennials and Gen Z individuals, has illuminated the far-reaching effects of trauma through generations. In this article, we will explore this connection in detail, highlighting the signs of generational trauma and means of breaking the cycle.

What Is Generational Trauma?

Generational trauma, also known as transgenerational, intergenerational, ancestral, or multigenerational trauma, refers to traumatic experiences or stressors passed down from trauma survivors to their descendants.

It typically stems from significant historical events, such as war, colonization, and systemic oppression. However, it can also have its roots in harmful habits, such as opioid addiction, which impact entire families.

These occurrences affect groups of people and their behaviors, emotional responses, and coping mechanisms. These then get passed down to their descendants through family dynamics, cultural practices, and even genetic changes.

 

Contrary to this phenomenon, individual trauma is specific to a single person’s experience, often stemming from traumatic events such as abuse, violence, and accidents. Its impact is primarily personal; it doesn’t necessarily affect future generations, although this can happen.

On average, we have 25,000 genes in our DNA. The way our genetic material determines our physical features, behaviors, and predisposition to certain diseases is known as epigenetics. According to it, some genes are dormant when we’re born but have the potential to get activated by environmental triggers.

Therefore, when a person experiences trauma, their DNA activates the genes necessary to help them survive stressful situations. They then pass those genes to their offspring, preparing them for possible traumatic events.

The most notable examples of groups affected by generational trauma passed through genetic changes include Holocaust survivors, African Americans, and Indigenous communities.

According to a paper by Tori DeAngelis, people from these groups have higher risks of developing various physical and mental health issues, including heart conditions, depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Recognizing the Signs of Generational Trauma

Generational trauma can have a significant impact on people’s physical and mental health and well-being. While the symptoms are numerous and diverse, there are several prominent signs indicating the effects of ancestors’ traumatic experiences on a person.

These signs can appear individually or together and cause further problems, often resulting from unhealthy ways of coping with stressors. These include emotional unavailability, chronic family conflict, and substance abuse.

Anxiety

Anxiety is one of the most common signs of generational trauma. It occurs when a person inherits emotional distress from their ancestors that stems from traumatic experiences they’ve been through. Since anxiety is heightened alertness at its core, it’s common in descendants of war survivors and victims of systemic discrimination.

Even if an individual hasn’t experienced the traumatic events themselves, their ancestors’ coping mechanisms developed as their way to survive. They can be passed down to them through certain behavioral patterns or influence their gene expression through epigenetics.

This type of anxiety is often unconscious because people suffering from it can rarely pinpoint its cause. Regardless, it can have a significant impact on emotional regulation, relationships, and decision-making processes, creating feelings of insecurity, uncertainty, and impending doom even when there’s no threat.

Depression

Over recent years, depression has been on the rise among young people, especially in regions that were impacted by political and economic instability. These people are likely to experience the emotional and psychological weight of the traumatic events their ancestors were subject to.

Generational depression can arise from inherited feelings of grief, loss, and hopelessness stemming from cultural erasure and displacement, among other things. In addition to epigenetic changes, family narratives specific to survivors of these events are the most likely to pass on this type of depression.

Therefore, persistent feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and disconnection that seem to have no root in an individual’s life are some of the most common signs they’re suffering from generational depression.

Depersonalization

Depersonalization in relation to generational trauma manifests as a feeling of detachment from oneself as a result of previous generations’ traumatic experiences. This dissociative state can have its roots in survival mechanisms formed by ancestors who endured severe stress, often related to forced migration or genocide. Due to this, they developed emotional numbness to protect themselves in extreme situations.

People with depersonalization as a result of ancestral trauma often experience feelings of disconnection from their own bodies and emotions, as well as an overwhelming sense of unreality. This state serves as a defense mechanism, protecting them from the emotional burdens of previous generations.

Heart Diseases

Heart diseases are among several physical health issues a person can develop due to inherited trauma. For example, traumatic experiences such as famine and war can leave a person merely fighting to survive, resulting in chronic stress responses. These can lead to severe health issues, such as cardiovascular problems.

This heightened reactivity to stress can get passed down through generations via familial behaviors and epigenetic alterations, increasing the risk of various heart conditions. Namely, chronic stress and anxiety caused by generational trauma can trigger certain physiological responses, including elevated cortisol levels, inflammation, and hypertension.

Moreover, families experiencing generational trauma can adopt unhealthy lifestyles, such as poor diet, which further increases the risk of heart disease.

The Role of Family Dynamics in Passing Down Trauma

The mental issues caused by generational trauma can lead to dysfunctional family dynamics, which can then play a significant role in perpetuating the trauma. Unresolved grief, controlling behaviors, and neglect can create an environment of emotional instability in various different yet equally harmful ways.

Unresolved grief, often deeply rooted in a family, typically results in developing unhealthy coping mechanisms, such as suppressing emotions, which can then continue through generations.

Controlling behaviors, although usually coming from a place of concern for a loved one’s safety, hinder their personal growth and autonomy, contributing to feelings of inadequacy and fear.

Lastly, neglect fosters feelings of insecurity, uncertainty, and abandonment, resulting in dysfunctional future relationships.

All of these behavioral patterns within families are likely to cause further problems, one of the most prominent ones being substance abuse disorder. Namely, unresolved trauma can lead to misuse of opioids and other drugs as a way of coping with stress. Children raised in such families may internalize such behavior as normal, failing to recognize the risks and dangers of addiction.

Other examples of passing down ancestral trauma to descendants through learned behaviors include aggression and silence around sensitive or painful topics. For example, if a parent deals with stress by screaming, the child is likely to replicate this coping mechanism and carry it over to future generations.

The same goes for the lack of communication within a family, which can deepen feelings of disconnect, shame, and emotional suppression.

The Impact of Generational Trauma on Mental Health

Generational trauma can severely impair the mental health of both individuals and families. In addition to depression, anxiety, and depersonalization, which stem from unresolved grief, inherited stressors, and emotional numbness of previous generations, it can directly or indirectly cause a broad array of others, such as:

• Eating disorders
• Insomnia
• Low self-esteem
• Irritability
• Trust issues
• Higher chances of suicide
• Fear of death
• Nightmares
• Substance abuse disorder
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

These can arise from depression and anxiety as the most common mental issues resulting from generational trauma, while others can occur alongside them.

For example, insomnia and irritability can stem from anxiety, while suicidal thoughts and ideas can have their roots in untreated depression.

Moreover, people experiencing mental health issues as a result of inherited trauma may seek solace in substances like opioids, whose misuse and abuse can lead to dependency and addiction.

Similarly, there’s a proven correlation between opioid addiction and PTSD. Namely, people suffering from PTSD often experience intrusive thoughts, hypervigilance, and hypersensitivity, which can lead to opioid abuse. Additionally, PTSD and opioid abuse change brain chemistry in similar ways, meaning that the triggers for the two are often the same.

Breaking the Cycle of Generational Trauma

Although ancestral trauma can go on for generations, it’s possible to break the cycle. Self-awareness, boundary-setting, and self-compassion are crucial for healing.

To resolve the underlying issue, it’s critical that you recognize the signs and symptoms and address them accordingly, preferably through both individual and family therapy. However, in cases of severely dysfunctional family dynamics, setting boundaries for your well-being may be necessary as well.

Group therapy is another form of therapy that can help break the cycle of generational trauma. It’s especially beneficial in cases of opioid addiction and substance abuse in general, as sharing experiences with other people who are on the same path can decrease feelings of isolation and shame.

Whichever way you go, it’s paramount that you do it with self-compassion and without assigning blame.

Having all that in mind, let’s explore some of the most effective therapeutic approaches for addressing generational trauma and mental health issues that stem from it.

Family Therapy

Given that generational trauma usually impacts entire families, it’s only natural that family therapy is the first option when it comes to resolving it.

This form of therapy involves multiple family members and seeks to address the impact of ancestral trauma on their interactions, relationships, and dynamics. It puts an emphasis on breaking unhealthy coping habits, improving communication, and resolving conflict among relatives by changing dysfunctional behavioral patterns perpetuated through generations.

In family therapy, each family member is responsible for creating a healthier environment. Moreover, their collective engagement in the healing process creates a support system within the family unit, fostering mutual understanding and compassion.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

EMDR therapy helps people address and process their own traumatic experiences, thus breaking the transmission of ancestral trauma to descendants. It aims for individuals to access and reprocess their unconscious behavioral patterns and unresolved grief, offering the possibility for closure and emotional healing.

This form of counseling provides the tools necessary for building resilience and creating healthy coping mechanisms during the process.

Additionally, EMDR therapy is available for groups, where people can share their experiences with others who have a similar background. This approach is especially beneficial for racial minorities and immigrants, whose generational trauma is usually related to wars, famine, discrimination, and country separation.

Trauma-Focused CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)

Trauma-focused CBT is typically focused on children and adolescents who display signs of anxiety, depression, and PTSD resulting from traumatic experiences, including generational trauma. It helps them address their upsetting and distorted beliefs and gain skills for coping with everyday life stressors.

This type of therapy typically involves a parent or caregiver, incorporating the principles of family therapy. It aims to help children learn how to challenge the intrusive thoughts of fear and guilt to reorganize their thinking in a healthier way.

Conclusion

Generational trauma has numerous causes, including significant historical events such as wars, famine, colonization, genocide, and forced migration. It manifests across generations in various ways, most likely as depression, anxiety, depersonalization, PTSD, and substance abuse disorder.

The means of transmission of generational trauma include family dynamics, cultural practices, and epigenetics.

Given the broad range of causes and effects, there are several therapeutic approaches that can help address and resolve generational trauma. However, all of them entail self-awareness, self-compassion, boundary-setting, and breaking unhealthy patterns, which is critical for disrupting generational trauma transmission.

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