Signs of Unresolved Childhood Trauma

Traumatic experiences can continue to haunt us in ways that we aren’t aware of. This is especially true for traumatic experiences that occurred during childhood. Although time can help us forget about our trauma, it can’t heal us from it. 

Understanding where unresolved trauma comes from can help us identify how it affects us throughout our lives. Let’s take a look at what unresolved trauma is, what the signs are, and how you experience relief from it. 

What is Unresolved Trauma?

Unresolved trauma comes from traumatic experiences that haven’t been dealt with. Most of the time, unresolved trauma comes from intensely stressful experiences that occurred during childhood. Some of the common sources of unresolved trauma include:

• Physical, verbal, and sexual abuse
• Physical and emotional neglect
• Food insecurity 
• Housing insecurity
• Witnessing violence, serious injury, or death

Children don’t have the ability to process or express trauma in a healthy way. This leads to trauma being repressed and stored in the mind and body. When childhood trauma is left unresolved, it can express itself later in life in a variety of harmful ways. 

Read our related article for more signs of repressed trauma.

Physical Signs of Unresolved Childhood Trauma in Adults

Unresolved trauma can trigger your fight or flight response when you encounter any level of stress. Being in a prolonged state of fight or flight requires a lot of mental and physical energy, and it can take a serious toll on your physical health. Some of the common physical signs of unresolved trauma are:

• Chronic fatigue
• Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
• Unexplained aches and pains
• Digestive issues
• Skin issues 

Unresolved trauma can also lead to severe conditions like autoimmune disease, cardiovascular disease, and chronic illnesses. In some cases, unresolved trauma can lead to certain types of cancer. 

Trauma can cause our body to respond in several different ways. Read our related article for more information on the types of trauma responses.

Behavioral Signs of Unresolved Childhood Trauma in Adults

Unresolved trauma plays a role in how we act and react to certain situations. Avoidance behaviors are common in traumatized individuals. This will cause them to avoid people, places, and experiences that may remind them of their trauma. Hyperarousal is also common, and this can lead to risky, destructive, and impulsive behaviors.

How we express our emotions is also affected by unresolved trauma. Some traumatized individuals are prone to strong emotional outbursts, while others will experience emotional numbness and muted expressions. 

The way that trauma affects someone’s behavior can make it difficult for them to connect with others and form healthy relationships. 

Signs of Unresolved Trauma in Relationships

People with unresolved trauma may find it difficult to relate to others. This can cause an inherent distrust of others, and these trust issues often lead to a variety of interpersonal struggles. Traumatized individuals may appear to be overly clingy or withdrawn. This can severely impact their ability to form healthy friendships and relationships. 

Unresolved trauma can manifest itself through unhealthy relationship attachments. The common unhealthy attachment styles include:

• Anxious attachment—clingy behavior and needs constant reassurance
• Avoidant attachment—self-reliant behavior and feels uncomfortable with closeness
• Disorganized attachment—alternates between anxious and avoidant attachment

These unhealthy attachments often stem from childhood trauma caused by an unhealthy relationship between a child and their parents. Resolving someone’s childhood trauma can help them form secure and healthy attachment styles.

Attachment style therapy helps you identify what attachment style you have and helps you form healthier, secure attachments. 

Psychological Signs of Unresolved Trauma in Adults

How we view ourselves and the world around us is also affected by unresolved childhood trauma. Trauma can severely impact someone’s self-esteem, and they may develop negative beliefs about themselves or their ability to feel better. They may also view the world as dangerous, and they will often be hypervigilant about potential threats. 

Unresolved childhood trauma can cause a variety of psychological symptoms, some of which include: 

• Flashbacks
• Intrusive thoughts
• Panic attacks
• Nightmares 
• Irritability

In addition to these psychological symptoms, unresolved trauma often leads to the development of several mental health conditions.

Read our related article for more information on the psychological effects of trauma.

Mental Health Conditions Caused by Unresolved Trauma 

Many mental health professionals believe that trauma is the direct cause of most mental health conditions. Some of these conditions include:

• Depression 
• Anxiety 
• Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Dissociative identity disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Trauma is often the root of nearly every mental health condition. Treating someone’s underlying trauma is an essential step of treating any mental health conditions that they are facing. 

Read our related article for more information on mental health disorders caused by trauma. 

Experience Relief—Treating Unresolved Childhood Trauma

The best time to treat trauma is quickly after the traumatic experience occurred. That being said, it is never too late to start treatment for your trauma. Even if the traumatic experience happened long ago, you can still experience relief from your trauma with the help from a mental health professional. 

Mental health professionals provide you a safe and constructive environment to address your traumatic experiences. Specific trauma therapies are proven to provide relief from your trauma symptoms and the many issues that come with it.

Somatic Experiencing

Somatic experiencing is an effective trauma treatment that targets the trauma that’s stored in the mind and body. It encourages clients to become more aware of bodily sensations and how they relate to trauma. 

EMDR

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) uses bilateral stimulation to help people work through their trauma. EMDR uses the brain’s natural process of rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep to store traumatic memories that weren’t stored correctly to begin with.

Talk to Trauma Treatment Experts At Sequoia Behavioral Health

At Sequoia Behavioral Health, we recognize that trauma plays a larger role in our overall well-being. Our mental health professionals are experts in resolving trauma to heal your body and mind. 

Trauma-Based Treatment at Sequoia Behavioral Health

Even if trauma relief isn’t your primary concern, it is often an essential part of the mental health recovery process. Our trauma-informed programming will help you resolve your trauma while we directly treat the mental health conditions that brought you in. 

If you or a loved one is suffering from the lasting impact of unresolved trauma, reach out to our mental health professionals today. No matter how severe you think your symptoms are, you deserve to live a healthy and trauma-free life.