Why Childhood Trauma Can Inflict Lifelong Wounds

This is an excerpt from The GOD Prescription by Dr. Avery Jackson, III. Learn more about the book here.

The prefrontal and frontal lobes of the brain, which enable reasoning, don’t fully develop until our mid- to late twenties. Therefore, the experiences of young people under the age of twenty might not be properly contextualized. A young person’s developing imagination can distort a non-threatening situation into a huge problem.

This is why something that doesn’t seem like a big deal to an adult can be a huge deal and traumatic to a child. When we are older, we can look at a situation and use reason to understand why something is occurring and how it is relevant to our lives. Children often carry the traumas they experience with them throughout their lives, and the results can manifest physically. This relative chronology relational example applies to God’s view versus our view as little children compared to Him spiritually, intellectually, and emotionally.

Horrific injustices and trauma occur to young people in many homes. And when children remember past hurts, injustices, and trauma, these experiences often get packaged and mislabeled as something they need to remember for self-preservation. Trauma that a child experiences gets packaged deep inside these structures and then becomes incorporated in the soul (mind, will, and emotions). It can have long-term, detrimental consequences if the reasoning part of the child’s brain doesn’t put the experience into context and then convert it into useful energy.

To deny any of our tri-part being due to our feeling wronged (setting aside the truth of that feeling) leaves us unsettled throughout our adult lives. It can leave our emotional, spiritual, and mental lives in shambles. We often live irrational, fearful lives while denying that our spiritual, emotional, and physical selves require loving connectedness and positive reinforcement.

Satan uses these loops of negative mental processes in an attempt to discourage us and to separate us from God. And it’s an effective strategy. We are often quick to believe the worst possible scenario. When something goes wrong, we begin to question our abilities, our relationships, and everything else. We become discouraged and even question God’s love for us. We must make a choice to rebuke Satan’s attempts to discourage us. When children receive no affection or human connection, or if the people close to them say negative things to them or treat them badly, those children are likely to develop anxiety and personality issues. Cortisol is released. Then they are likely to grow up to have high blood pressure related to stress. This is true even if a child merely perceives to be neglected. Sometimes parents are in a hurry and don’t pay attention to a child. If children perceive an unintentional slight as neglect, it will affect them negatively. Any lack of input leads to the same results. Love and appropriate relationships result in a healthy perception of self. This love is delivered in the form of appropriate touch and verbal affirmation. We develop unnatural habits when we don’t have appropriate relationships with Mom and Dad, with each other, and especially with God. We all have a desire to be loved and to love. However, if that desire isn’t appropriately addressed early in life, then cynicism (iniquity) develops in our hearts. From this lack of appropriate loving relationships as young children, we develop relationships that become destructive physically or emotionally. We then function based on our self-view, which we project inwardly and outwardly.

This neglect, whether real or perceived, can cause psychological damage that leads to low self-esteem, depression, personality disorders, eating disorders, anger, and fear. A child’s developing mind tries to make sense of what is occurring before his or her eyes in social environments. These observations are ingredients in the formation of their worldviews and their perspectives about themselves, others, and their Maker.

Negative social experiences (perceived or real) create negative perceptions and thoughts, which then “loop” in our brains and minds from a young age due to external and internal cues and experiences that manifest in all three parts of our existence.

Everyone needs a relationship with Christ to combat the negative effects of the negative loops playing constantly in our minds. The sooner we develop this relationship, the better. Parents would be giving their children the best gift possible by taking them to church starting when they are very young. When they learn that Jesus loves them and that the Word of God contains all the answers to all of life’s problems, they will build their own coping strategies that will sustain them for the rest of their lives.

We must focus on God’s guidance and promises for our lives. For faith to work, we must believe that He exists and that He loves us. We must know who we are and what tools are available to us. When we do that, we can achieve success in every area of life. Love and relationships are at the center of the solution, this prescription from God. They can help us overcome addictions, mental and emotional disorders, autoimmune disorders, high blood pressure, cancer, and other debilitating illnesses and conditions.