Do you ever feel like you’re struggling with the same mental health challenges that your own parents or grandparents struggled with? In the past, there was a greater stigma around talking about mental health. Therefore, problems in your family may have simply been brushed under the rug.

You might not have had the words to describe how you were feeling. Additionally, you may not have felt comfortable talking to older members of your family about these problems. But generational trauma is very real. The experiences of older generations in your family can contribute to the problems you’re dealing with today.

Here’s what generational trauma is and how you can deal with its effects.

From One Generation to Another

Generational trauma is, at its core, exactly what it sounds like. This term refers to traumatic issues that affect more than one generation within a given family. Perhaps your parents experienced something before you were born that left its mark on you.

Or maybe your grandparents dealt with serious mental health conditions and never received the help they needed, and in the end, your parents felt the impact of this, too.

Taught or Implied Patterns

Sometimes, generational trauma patterns are taught. You might have witnessed violence or abuse within your family and saw older relatives treat each other very poorly throughout the years.

Alternatively, you might have noticed that your relatives are all grappling with similar mental health conditions and displaying the same unhealthy coping mechanisms. Sometimes, generational trauma patterns can be taught explicitly over and over again. But sometimes, they go unsaid, and you may not recognize what you were dealing with until adulthood.

External or Internal Causes

Generational trauma is not always caused by something that happened within your family unit. At times, it can be a result of issues that were happening in society that your family lived through.

Many people who have lived through war, genocide, natural disaster, times of political instability, famine, or other devastating events end up passing this distress onto their children in some way, through no fault of their own. However, generational trauma can also be caused by problems that occur entirely within a family unit, such as abuse.

Reactive Mindset

Dealing with generational trauma can leave you with a reactive mindset. You may feel as though minor events set you off, and that you can’t deal with stress as well as some of your peers.

If your parents were not able to cope with challenges in a healthy way due to their trauma, you may have some of the same difficulties. You may also find that you have difficulty trusting other people at times, especially if your relatives displayed some of the same tendencies. The thought of letting your guard down can feel like too much.

The Healing Process

It is possible to heal generational trauma through therapy. Different people choose different approaches. For example, you may not feel comfortable attending therapy with your family members. You may not be in contact with the relatives who would benefit the most. In cases like this, going to therapy on your own can still be very helpful for healing generational trauma.

However, if you would like to explore alternatives, you might be able to attend therapy with some of your other family members as a group. In some cases, focusing on healing together can be a very powerful and moving experience, and you can repair relationships throughout your sessions.

—

Are you suffering from the effects of generational trauma? Working with a therapist in trauma therapy can help. Reach out to us today to discuss your options for scheduling your first session.