8 Signs of Childhood Trauma in Adults

The developing brain learns through experience what is safe or unsafe and how to deal with the world’s challenges. When a child experiences traumatic events, the effects on their neurology and emotional well-being can last longer than the event itself.

In the United States, 63.9% of adults can recall adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)–the formal term for a potentially traumatic childhood event, such as child abuse or neglect. More than 17% can recall four or more childhood traumatic experiences.¹ With so many people who are childhood trauma survivors, it’s essential to understand and recognize how it affects a person’s everyday life in adulthood.

This post details eight common symptoms of childhood trauma, and what traumatized adults need to begin healing.

Children need a safe environment and trusted adults to help them learn self-soothing and emotional regulation. Because survivors of childhood trauma experienced disruptions in this aspect of development, they often struggle to process intense feelings and have difficulty calming down.

Childhood trauma victims are often unable to name their emotions or work through them. Some have the default response of internalizing, directing those feelings inward with emotional or physical self-harm. Others externalize their reactions, “acting out” against the world even long after the childhood trauma.²

One of the most common signs of childhood trauma is an inability to maintain healthy relationships. Mistreatment, neglect and violence teach children that family members are not the secure base they should be, and those lessons lead to insecure or disorganized attachment styles.³

Relationship-related childhood trauma symptoms can range from “chasing” people in a desperate bid for connection to pushing people away for fear of closeness.⁴

When a child experiences a traumatic event, their brain may learn to protect itself by disconnecting from reality. This disconnection allows the mind to escape when the body cannot. Clinicians refer to this trauma response as “dissociation.”

For some survivors of complex trauma, dissociation becomes a go-to coping mechanism. Seeking to escape emotional numbness and detach from traumatic childhood memories, they detach from reality. ⁵

Experts have linked repeated dissociation with repressed memories, which some clinicians refer to as dissociative amnesia. The nervous system “seals off” an early traumatic memory, though some adult survivors recover those memories of childhood trauma.⁶

Not all survivors who dissociate will have repressed childhood memories. Some use dissociation to escape memories of traumatic events and the associated chronic stress, often as an alternative to constructive coping.⁷

Mental health disorders are pervasive among childhood trauma survivors. Like post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders are particularly prevalent, as the traumatized childhood brain has learned to fear a world that should be safe.

This heightened sensitivity can present in various ways, from panic attacks to generalized anxiety disorder.⁸ Studies show that survivors of early emotional trauma are 1.9 to 3.6 times more likely to develop anxiety disorders in adulthood, with social anxiety symptoms being a particular risk.⁹

Research also shows that mistreated children are up to 3.73 times more likely to develop depression in adulthood. Survivors are particularly likely to develop severe, chronic and treatment-resistant depression.¹⁰

Adults with childhood trauma-related anxiety or depression may experience mental and physical symptoms. People with these mental illnesses often describe physical sensations such as low back pain, headaches and digestive disorders.¹¹ Mood swings are common with both diagnoses.¹²

Trauma is never a child’s fault, yet persistent guilt and shame are common childhood trauma symptoms. Children and adults look back on traumatic experiences and childhood abuse, wondering if they somehow deserved it or could have done more to stop it.¹³ A child’s mind, needing love and protection, cannot accept that their caregivers are dangerous, so these children take the blame on themselves.

Though factually inaccurate, these beliefs often follow a child into adulthood, when ingrained traumatic memories make self-blame part of the person’s mental model. Part of healing childhood trauma is learning to accept that the adults, not the child, were in the wrong.

Mistreatment and abuse teach a child that the world is a dangerous place. This perception persists into adult life, making it more difficult for survivors to trust other people.

One study found that survivors of childhood maltreatment perceive others as less trustworthy and more threatening. This reactive mistrust persists even after survivors received positive feedback, suggesting that they have more negative feelings toward others.¹⁴

Multiple studies have shown that childhood trauma harms physical health. According to the National Center for PTSD, adults who experienced trauma in childhood have more diagnosed medical disorders, including lung and heart disease.¹⁵

Sleep disturbances are widespread in adults with unresolved trauma. In one study, 33% of adults with traumatic experiences in childhood had trouble falling or staying asleep.¹⁶

Nightmares are also common signs of childhood trauma in adults. One study theorized that the brain can use dreams to process repressed childhood trauma. The brain uses representations of the traumatic experience to restore the sense of self without forcing the person to face those intrusive memories while awake.¹⁷

Another theory is that the body becomes more attuned to threats after surviving a childhood trauma. This hypervigilance plays out during sleep, causing a fight-flight-freeze response in the dream.¹⁸

Studies have shown that childhood trauma survivors have higher rates of addiction and substance abuse than the general population.¹⁹ Like dissociation, substance use provides a temporary escape from traumatic memories and the chronic stress that many survivors live with.²⁰

Treatment must address childhood trauma and the addictive disorder to be successful.²¹ Trauma-informed approaches consider known and repressed trauma while incorporating other mental health considerations, including depression and anxiety.

Yeshiva University’s online accredited Master of Social Work (MSW) will help you develop the skills to treat trauma in adults. You’ll build the tools you need to practice informed trauma therapy for people at all stages of their healing journeys.

The engaging and culturally aware curriculum in the Wurzweiler School of Social Work will prepare you to treat clients and support their personal growth. Prepare for a dynamic career in the classroom and with hands-on experience working alongside mental health professionals.

Wherever you dream of working, from mental health clinics to online therapy rooms, Yeshiva University’s online MSW will help you get there. Build the foundation that will prepare you to master gold-standard trauma treatments, such as exposure therapy, eye movement desensitization and cognitive processing therapy. Learning in the Wurzweiler School of Social Work will be your jumping-off point.

Don’t wait to take your mental health care career to the next level. Schedule a call with one of our admissions outreach advisors today.