Generational Trauma is a term that’s been thrown around a lot in recent years. As the conversation around mental illness has opened up and become less stigmatised, our ability to receive and share information about our traumas has increased exponentially, allowing many people to shamelessly seek treatment and a better life for themselves.
While attaining a full understanding of something like generational trauma would require a qualification like an edd in counseling psychology online, we can help you get started with the basics, and with a little guidance on how to start the healing process for yourself.
What is Generational Trauma?
We generally tend to think of trauma as a personal thing, something that is deeply rooted within our psyche from a traumatic event that we went through. And while there is a truth in that, it is possible to spread your trauma to others through the fallout of not seeking treatment or support.
“Generational Trauma” refers to two different kinds of this form of legacy trauma: Collective (or historical) trauma, and intergenerational trauma.
The former refers to trauma that has affected an entire social group and is then passed on to the future generations of that social group. Examples include the Jewish people and the trauma of the Holocaust and other persecutions suffered. Similarly, there is the prosecution of the LGBTQI+ community through the generations, or the trauma of the African-American community due to America’s period of slavery and the institutionalized racism that followed it. Australian Aboriginal groups are also victims of this form of trauma as a result of English colonial genocide and slavery.
Intergenerational trauma refers to trauma inflicted on offspring by parents who are themselves trauma survivors. As an example, let’s examine a grandfather, father, and son. If the grandfather was physically abusive to the father, then the father’s trauma may manifest as physical abuse against their own son. Many toxic family dynamics are rooted in untreated intergenerational trauma, particularly abusive cycles, narcissistic abuse, religious abuse, and absentee or neglectful parents.
Surviving Generational Trauma
Generational Trauma is fed in different ways depending on which one you’re talking about, but they share a common element for healing: breaking the cycle. How this is done changes drastically in both access and ability depending on whether the trauma is historical or intergenerational.
Historical Trauma
Generational trauma survives because the behaviours continue. One person’s trauma becomes another’s pain, which causes them to act in a way that is traumatic to others. This is particularly difficult to deal with in cases of historical trauma for two reasons:
- The traumatic behaviours are perpetuated by a society that either ignores or belittles the traumatic events the survivors suffered.
- It necessitates social change, rather than interpersonal change, removing the possibility for immediate reconciliation and healing.
When trauma has been inflicted on an entire social group and their descendants, at the hands of another social group and their descendants, what we see is a cycle of ongoing attack and defense. The descendants of the victims defend themselves against harmful ongoing social dynamics, which the descendants of the perpetrators then feel that they are being blamed for the acts of their forbears, causing them to react in an attacking way against the trauma victims.
Breaking the cycle of historical trauma requires active efforts as a society to move towards tolerance and education, and thus requires a shift in social understanding that allows for laws and legislation to pass that seek to atone for the violence and horrors of the past.
Intergenerational Trauma
Intergenerational trauma has its own difficulties, and breaking the cycle will depend on exactly what kind of trauma is being suffered. Breaking its cycle can be incredibly difficult, potentially even dangerous, depending on the age of the victim and the power dynamics of the family.
For children, surviving generational trauma can be incredibly difficult, as they aren’t old enough to put into concrete terms or understand what it is that’s happening to them, and during these formative years, they will often internalise their suffering as something that is normal or deserved. It can be years before they find out that the difficulties they suffer are, in fact, not normal and constitute abuse.
Violent abuse can be incredibly scary for young people to suffer, as confronting the issue may be met with considerable violence. People living in a religiously abusive household may not know that they are being abused due to the emotional manipulation of religiously abusive authority figures.
Where Healing Can Be Found
It is difficult for the young to heal from any kind of generational abuse, as abusive parents are usually stuck in their ways after a lifetime of adhering to their patterns, and when they are called out by their offspring, they are quick to dismiss any concerns.
Most people heal from generational trauma in adulthood, when they’re old enough to think critically, have better access to resources, more autonomy, and can actively make their own decisions.
If you feel you’re suffering from generational trauma, there are several ways you can start the healing journey, some harder than others, but all of them are worth it. It will be a long, difficult journey, but if you make the decision to break the cycle, you are already further along than any of your forbears got. Be proud of that.
And if you are subject to some form of historical trauma, it may be worth seeking some form of therapy to help you deal with it, as well as joining a group made up of members of your community so that you can make friendships and connections with others who understand what you’re going through.
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