Season Two, Episode Eight: The Wounded Time Traveler

Peace, Love, and Psychology

In this episode we continue the discussion of trauma by focusing on the impact of early childhood traumatic exposure throughout the lifespan and into adulthood. Exposure to trauma in early childhood can carry through to adulthood and may present in one of the following experiences: obsolete decisions, misdiagnosis, and the “frozen self.”
We review how trauma can affect anyone, and we consider several reasons why children in particular may be vulnerable to the effects of traumatic exposure. We discuss how the neurophysiological systems of children are especially sensitive during early development, how the symptoms of traumatic exposure can be overlooked or overshadowed by normal stages of personality development, and how children’s lack of experience and worldview deprives them of necessary context for a fuller understanding of a crisis experience, leaving them vulnerable to over-generalization and magical thinking.
We explore how the overwhelming impact of traumatic exposure at a young age can result in the child making survival-based decisions that do not adapt well as the child ages and matures. In adulthood, these obsolete or outdated decisions can affect a person’s functioning in ways that may seem mysterious, until the connection to the underlying trauma experience is discovered. We then discuss how childhood symptomatic reactions to traumatic exposure may result in a diagnosis that may describe the surface behaviors or moods but does not identify the trauma mechanism driving those behaviors and moods. Sadly, these diagnoses may follow a person through their life, stigmatizing them and cutting them off from potential sources of support and healing.
Finally, we discuss the phenomenon of the “frozen self” or “frozen child.” This describes what can happen when traumatic exposure overwhelms the child and creates an obstacle at a particular stage in normal development. Although the child may recover and develop compensating strategies that serve them in most other areas of their life, in adulthood they may experience a dysphoria in certain circumstances that leads them to feel immature relative to their peers—like a part of them had become stuck back at the time of the original injury.
The pathway to coming back from trauma that was discussed in the last episode—recovery, healing, and post-traumatic growth—still applies and provides a road map for healing childhood trauma. By understanding why early exposure to trauma may have serious ramifications into adulthood, we can learn to identify that trauma from childhood may still be impacting our lives as adults. The path of coming back from trauma through recovery and healing can lead to post-traumatic growth, no matter when the original injury happened.

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