15 Steps Adults Need to Take to Recover from Childhood Trauma

8. Open up and share your feelings Now that you have had the time to identify, name, acknowledge, and express your feelings, you will find yourself… Simi - June 8, 2018

8. Open up and share your feelings

Now that you have had the time to identify, name, acknowledge, and express your feelings, you will find yourself amenable to sharing your feelings with a trusted confidante. It might be possible for you to share your journey of emotional self-discovery with someone who was there during the time you experienced the trauma. You may feel more comfortable speaking to your partner or a friend who may or may not even have known about the trauma you experienced.

In sharing with other people, it will be necessary to explain the circumstances of the trauma and everything that happened so that they can understand. But don’t stop there, and don’t dwell on the events alone. Go further into the matter by discussing the emotions you felt at the time and how you reacted. Speak about the impact the event has had on you as an individual. Describe the process you have undergone to work through what you feel.

Sharing something like this with someone who truly cares about you can be liberating. It can also open your eyes to new perspectives and give you insights you might not have had before. Maybe it can even open the door for the other person to take strength from you and begin to address a trauma they experienced. It would make the painful process you’ve worked through even more rewarding if you knew it was going to help someone else.

You also need to share your feelings with the people who were there and who you feel failed you in that situation. You have been hurt, and you have the right to express that to those who hurt you. However, it may be better for you, in the long run, to write that person a letter about your feelings but keep it instead of sending it. Opening up to people who have hurt you can give them power over you again, which you obviously want to avoid.

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9. Release your feelings

The feelings you have now had the chance to work through and express have taken their toll on you in the years between the trauma and now. Suppressing and repressing feelings causes stress which can damage the body physically.

Now it’s time to start to let those emotions go. It’s time to free your mind and body from the toxic stress caused by your unaddressed emotions. They are preventing you from moving forward in life and achieving the goals you’ve set for yourself. But don’t be fooled by how simple it sounds. There is a difference between acceptance and letting go. When we accept something, we acknowledge that it happened, and we decide to go on in spite of it. Letting go is about leaving what happened behind and no longer allowing it to dictate your future. This is a process that might take you some time.

You might feel that you’ve let something go only to find it has remained in your life’s baggage. Be kind to yourself and don’t have unrealistic expectations. It might take more than one attempt to let something go, and that’s okay. Make it a conscious event, by ceremonially burning the letter you wrote to the person who hurt you or thinking about the option of releasing petals which represent your hurt and trauma into a river or the sea to be borne off away from you.

Once you have truly released your emotions about the trauma you have experienced, you will feel as if a weight has been lifted from your shoulders. The burden you have carried alone and in silence will no longer be your master. This gives you the chance to look forward with nothing holding you back and move into your future with a renewed sense of confidence.

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10. Reclaim your sense of self

On the path to dealing with the emotions you experienced during a childhood trauma, you will have begun to unlock your sense of self. Being able to identify the feelings you felt, understand them, acknowledge them, and let them go gives you an opportunity to surrender their control over you. When you release your feelings, you become unburdened by them. This will give you control over yourself and your destiny.

Your true self, now unfettered by all those negative emotions from childhood trauma, will have a different perspective on life. Your goals and ambitions may change due to your new emotional perspective. You may find yourself able to enter new relationships with a degree of closeness you never imagined possible. Embrace these opportunities as rewards for the difficult process you have gone through.

Whatever you do, bear in mind that this is a rare chance for you to re-invent yourself and change your approach to your future. That can have life-changing consequences. For the first time, you will be looking far beyond what happened to you and examining what you plan to happen to you in the future. If you make the most of it, you can make what you have been through work for you.

Many people may not make immediate changes in their work or personal lives. They may instead choose to reclaim themselves by helping others. This is very satisfying to them as it gives them a way to ‘pay it forward’ and help someone else escape the shackles of childhood trauma. If this is an option that sounds attractive to you, find out what opportunities there are in your area for you to help others by supporting them through the process.

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11. Take care of yourself

People who have gone through a childhood trauma can experience physical as well as emotional symptoms, even if they were not bodily harmed during the trauma. The sense of fear and hopelessness can cause them so much stress that it can have an effect on the heart. Many report heart palpitations when they become aware of a trigger that makes them remember their trauma.

Childhood trauma can also affect brain development. During childhood, the brain is constantly developing as you acquire new skills. Studies have shown that the stress caused by a childhood trauma can have a negative impact on your brain’s development, particularly in the areas that regulate your responses to stress. These are the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex.

The body responds to stress with the brain instructing the release of hormones to help you cope. This is done through the HPA-axis (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal gland). The adrenal glands produce the hormones cortisol and adrenaline to help you cope with a stressful situation. This stress response pathway can be affected by an adverse childhood experience. One of the functions of the hormone cortisol is to protect the immune system.

If the adrenaline glands do not produce enough of this hormone or do not secrete enough, the immune system can be compromised, rendering you more susceptible to infection and illness. It is advisable that you have regular health check-ups to make sure that there are no long-lasting effects of your childhood trauma on your body over and above those resulting from injuries you may have sustained during the event. If there are, you should be aware of them so that you can employ the proper treatments to manage them.

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12. Don’t get caught up in bad habits

Childhood trauma can make you susceptible to different coping mechanisms, not all of them healthy. Some habits are hard to break because they are addictive, which means you’ll have to undergo a whole new process to quit them. Others, like the promiscuous behavior of a sexual abuse victim, could be easy to stop once the process of letting go is complete.

Quite often, smoking is a habit that people who had a childhood trauma may pick up. The belief that smoking will make you feel better because it relieves stress is the reason so many people resort to it. However, over time, the sense of stress relief is no longer there, but stopping is difficult due to the addiction to nicotine and the fact that the habit of smoking has become part of your routine. Similarly, using drugs such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and speed may offer temporary relief from the emotions you feel, but in the long-run, you need more and more to get the same relief.

Alcohol abuse is also prevalent in adults after a childhood trauma. The long-term negative effects of alcohol on the body and brain are well-documented, but it continues to be a problem, as alcohol gives people an escape and some desperately sought solace when they are in emotional pain as a result of what happened to them as children.

Once you have gone through the process of addressing the emotions you felt during the trauma, and you are able to let them go, you may find yourself in a position to get out of these bad habits because your reasons for succumbing to them are no longer so dominant in your life. The courage and willpower to do so are now within your reach.

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13. Get plenty of exercise

Exercise is a great way to take your mind off the events you have gone through. Or, it may offer you the chance to sort your emotions out in your mind. Either way, exercise is an important regimen throughout the process of dealing with the feelings caused by childhood trauma and beyond. Yoga, which combines exercise and mindfulness is often used as a tool during the process to help keep you focused on the task at hand but also provides a way to obtain and feel the serenity and inner peace.

Exercise gets the blood pumping and the heart rate up. An increased heart rate means that oxygen and nutrients are being pumped all around the body at a faster rate. This includes the brain. Exercise is well-known to improve memory which can be helpful during the stage of the process when you are trying to recall all the events and the emotions you felt as a child.

Furthermore, exercise is a great way to work through emotions. Feeling angry and working through it by using a punchbag is a productive way to express the feeling. Power exercises such as weightlifting give you the opportunity to gain complete control over your body through your brain. This is a great pre-cursor to gaining control over your emotions and how you express them.

Endurance exercises such as running, cycling, and swimming release endorphins and chemicals such as dopamine and norepinephrine from the brain into the body. These help to deal with the stress and anxiety your childhood trauma may bring upon you. They also help after you’ve had a session that has left you very emotional. Getting active afterward can help you to recover.

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14. Sleep is a wonderful tool

Just as exercise is critical during and after the process of dealing with the emotions brought on by childhood trauma, so is sleep. Many people who went through a childhood trauma report that they have difficulties sleeping. When the body is not getting enough sleep, the mind cannot do the necessary work to heal the harm that has been done. Having difficulty sleeping is an indication of unexpressed emotions that have not been addressed.

If you have trouble sleeping, try some natural remedies and methods before you turn to prescription drugs to make you sleep. Most are habit-forming and, in many instances unnecessary, as there are alternative options before you. Remedies as simple as warm milk and honey can make a difference. Lavender is well-known for its sleep-inducing properties. Lavender candles and bath products are great but using lavender essential oil together with a carrier oil (such as almond oil, olive oil, or coconut oil) and massaging the tense areas of your body can work wonders.

Some of the methods recommended for getting a good night’s sleep are taking a hot bath shortly before going to bed. Make sure that you have created a sleep-friendly environment in your bedroom. This includes ensuring the room is the right temperature, that your bed is comfortable, that you are wearing non-restrictive sleepwear, and that the room is dark enough. These sound like simple things to do, but you’d be surprised how many people’s sleep-space is not conducive to a good night’s rest.

Right throughout the process of dealing with the after-effects of your childhood trauma and beyond, a good night’s sleep is essential to maintaining a healthy mind which allows you to let your feelings go and move on to a successful future.

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15. Seek help when it’s not working

If you’ve tried the steps in the process and looked after your health, but you feel it’s not working and nothing is getting better, it may be time to admit that you need the help of a professional to get you through it. Do not interpret this as a failure on your part, but rather a need for support.

When you see a professional, you will be able to discuss the events that occurred in your childhood. They will then guide you through the process of identifying, understanding, acknowledging, and expressing the emotions you felt and still feel. Sometimes, the trauma is so great that you cannot deal with it alone and to have an impartial professional help you may be the only way you’re going to manage. Don’t be ashamed by consulting a professional and avoid it. All you’re doing is making the effects of your childhood trauma worse and jeopardizing your chances of recovering from it.

If at any stage during the process you feel the symptoms of depression engulfing you, consult a professional immediately. When depression is not dealt with, it worsens. A depressed person feels like they are at the bottom of a pit trying to climb out. The longer they postpone treatment, the deeper the pit will become and the harder it will be to climb out of it.

Symptoms of depression include but are not limited to feelings of helplessness, mood swings, insomnia, drastic changes in the appetite, a lack of interest in things that used to excite you and reduced libido. A professional will diagnose you and determine if you need antidepressant medication, therapy or a combination of both.

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