Trauma is a topic that’s been receiving a lot more attention as of late. As we learn more about trauma and its effects on addiction and behavior, questions arise. One of the more compelling ones asks: Can you inherit trauma from your parents?
This Achieve Wellness and Recovery article explores the question, ‘Is trauma genetic?’ and discusses links between trauma and addiction.
What Is Trauma, and Where Does It Come From?
Trauma is an intense emotional and physiological response to very dangerous, frightening, or upsetting events. Trauma occurs when the events overwhelm a person’s internal coping abilities. The effects of trauma are often long-lasting, occurring years after the traumatic event.
3 Main Types of Trauma
- Acute Trauma: A result of a single stressful or dangerous event, like a car accident or a natural disaster.
- Chronic Trauma: Prolonged exposure to highly stressful events, such as ongoing abuse, bullying, or domestic violence.
- Complex Trauma: Exposure to multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature.
Can You Inherit Trauma Genetically?
The short answer to the question is maybe. However, research into trauma and its origins continues, and some data suggest there may be a connection between trauma and heredity.
The most substantial evidence may be a 2015 study led by Rachel Yehuda. This study examined the DNA of Holocaust survivors and found changes in the FKBP5 gene, which affects how the body manages stress hormones. However, it was not a controlled study, so there’s no sure way to eliminate other variables.
However, the findings of that study suggest that parents who experienced extreme trauma in the darkest days of WWII and suffered from PTSD may have passed on some changes in stress management to their children.
What We Know About Trauma, Addiction, and Mental Health
While we haven’t found a definitive link between trauma and changes to inherited genetics, we do know a lot more about how trauma affects us than we did just 20-30 years ago. The fact is that even without a DNA component responsible for inheriting trauma, there are other ways trauma can be transferred that are better understood.
How a Parent Can Transmit Trauma to a Child
- During Pregnancy: A mother who experiences trauma during pregnancy can affect the developing fetus through elevated stress hormones like cortisol.
- Modeling Behavior: Children often learn how to react to stress by observing their parents. If parents exhibit unhealthy coping behaviors toward stress, children may adopt these behaviors.
- Attachment Issues: Traumatized parents might struggle with forming secure attachments, which can impact a child’s emotional development.
- Emotional Transmission: Unresolved trauma parents are carrying can lead to emotional instability, which children can sense and absorb, leading to anxiety and other emotional issues.
How Trauma Affects Addiction
Trauma can affect addiction in several ways. The most commonly seen is when a person with a trauma disorder, like PTSD, uses drugs or alcohol to manage their symptoms. This ‘self-medication’ becomes less effective over time, leading to abuse and addiction. Sometimes, people with trauma become addicted unintentionally when they are prescribed a controlled substance, like benzodiazepines for anxiety or opioid pain medication for injury or chronic pain.
How Addiction Affects Trauma
Sadly, trauma is often one of the costs of a life centered around an addiction. The addiction lifestyle is more likely to put the user in risky situations around risky people. Addiction also comes with emotional highs and lows and countless situations that may traumatize children or other family members. Addiction also makes a person more likely to have legal problems or criminal charges, car accidents, physical abuse, and unwanted pregnancies or miscarriages—all of which frequently come with trauma.
How is Trauma Treated in a Dual-Diagnosis Alcohol and Drug Rehab?
The best addiction treatment centers in NJ and throughout the U.S. have adapted their curriculums to be more trauma-aware as a result. More people are talking about trauma and trauma disorders like PTSD and anxiety. This is a positive development because it will likely lead to more people receiving trauma-aware addiction treatment and help for trauma-related disorders.
At Achieve Wellness and Recovery, we offer more than just a trauma-aware environment for people ready to overcome their substance use disorder. You will also find first-class mental health support for the co-occurring conditions often seen with people trapped in addiction and trauma. Our dual-diagnosis care tackles addiction and addresses anxiety, PTSD, and other trauma-related disorders with evidence-based treatment.
Achieve Wellness and Recovery: Raising Addiction Awareness
If you or someone you love is ready for help with addiction, don’t hesitate to contact us, whether trauma is present or not. We are here to answer your questions and provide guidance so you can make an informed choice about dual-diagnosis substance use disorder treatment.
Reach Achieve Wellness & Recovery at: (833) 680-0142
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