Although trauma should not be viewed as a positive experience, individuals can overcome childhood trauma and avoid its long-term impacts with the right factors. These factors include cultural practices, individual values, and child-rearing methods used in upbringing.
Trauma can have a positive effect on your ability to be changed by life's experiences as it opens your capacity to positive events. It has been observed that people strongly affected by negative events are also most sensitive to positive events.
The definition of PTSD as a trauma is too specific and outdated. New definitions and categories have emerged to identify different symptoms, behaviors, and reactions, and new language is being created to describe trauma more accurately – such as intergenerational trauma (passed-down trauma) and collective trauma (trauma shared by a group).
Trauma experienced in childhood can result in an overactive amygdala, leading to increased responsiveness to emotional stimuli and difficulty processing social and emotional information. This can have a lasting impact on how the brain functions in individuals who have experienced abuse or neglect.
The body knows and remembers every trauma, both physical and emotional, and taking off the armor could feel like death.
Dr. Nicole LePera describes the ways past trauma can trigger your nervous system, causing anxiety and controlling behavior in relationships.