What is transgenerational trauma?

Transgenerational trauma is an impact, a transfer where emotional pain, physical or social suffered by a person at a given time that is transmitted to new generations in ways that go far beyond simple learned behavior. We talk mainly about epigenetics and how the influence of the environment can change the expression of certain genes.

The topic is not new, in fact, Transgenerational or intergenerational trauma has its origin of study in those decades after the Second World War. It was then that various studies were able to verify how the generations following the Holocaust survivors showed certain behaviors (nightmares, emotional and behavioral problems) where it became evident that the grandfather’s original trauma was still contained in very different ways in the grandchildren.

We could say without a doubt that all of this can be determined by the parenting style and the educational pattern, by the weight of memory and that conscious or unconscious narrative that surrounds all family dynamics. The one where the past continues to be present in very different ways. However, it is something that transcends further, something that, as we have already pointed out, can even reach the genetic level.

For example, let’s think about what effect can be associated with the fact of having suffered malnutrition. Let’s also think about the genetic impact that fear and suffering expressed in those high cortisol levels that have been wreaking havoc on an organism for several years can cause. Let us also reflect on those traumas that are sometimes not channeled, not relieved and almost always translated into post-traumatic stress. and in chronic depression…

The generations following the person who has suffered the original trauma will not necessarily develop these same disorders, but they will, however, be much more vulnerable than other people to anxiety, stress and depression. Let’s see it in detail.

An example of transgenerational trauma

Andrea suffered sexual abuse from a family member during a good part of her childhood and adolescence.. She grew up in an unstructured environment where her mother was also abused in her childhood. Once she was able to leave that scenario, having reached the age of majority, she refused to receive psychological support to deal with that trauma. I just wanted to forget, turn the page as soon as possible.

The imprint, the wound, remains latent in her in many different ways: anxiety, eating disorders, low self-esteem, hypervigilance, depression, insomnia… Added to this is a fragile immune system, with low defenses that make her a person with a propensity. to infections, flu, allergies…

Andrea now has a 7-year-old boy. It is her reason for being and her whole world, she has found stability and strength, as well as a reason to take care of herself much more. However, she is realizing that Raising your child is increasingly complicated: he sleeps poorly, has attention problems, many tantrums and defiant behavior. When they call her from school, Andrea has the feeling that her role as a mother is being questioned, to the point that she has the clear feeling that “she is doing something wrong.”

Unaddressed trauma and its impact on genetics

The last thing our protagonist should do is doubt herself as a mother. Peter Loewenberg, psycho-historian and professor at the University of California, is one of the leading experts in the study of transgenerational traumas and it is he who explains to us that grief and unaddressed traumatic events impact subsequent generations in very diverse ways. .

We cannot forget, for example, that High levels of cortisol in the blood during pregnancy affect the development of the fetus. In fact, as psychobiologist BeaVan Den Bergh demonstrated, experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety during this period can “program” certain biological systems in the fetus, predisposing it to suffer various diseases and emotional disorders. On the other hand, as Peter Loewenberg explains to us, Unfaced grief or unmanaged trauma forms a kind of neuronal “short circuit.” This impact reaches our DNA, altering it, so that our descendants are trapped, without knowing it, in a kind of collective and unconscious solidarity with that original trauma.

Epigenetics and transgenerational trauma

We were all taught in school that we receive genes from our mother and father, and that this genetic material defines our physical traits, intelligence at times and even the tendency to inherit certain diseases. However, assuming that traumas as such are also inscribed in the chromosomes of the same family line is undoubtedly something that is quite difficult to believe.

Epigenetics made a qualitative leap from the most orthodox genetics to explain various phenomena.. The first is that our lifestyle, the environment in which we live, our diet and even certain traumatic events can generate genetic changes in our offspring.

This is explained by a small chemical “tag” called “epigenome”. What this tiny element does is something as fascinating as it is shocking at the same time: it modifies the expression of certain genes depending on the variables mentioned above.

Various scientists from the Mount Sinai Hospital already demonstrated at the time that the effects of post-traumatic stress in Holocaust survivors activated that epigenome capable of altering the person’s genetic expression. This traumatic imprint was passed on in very different ways to subsequent generations.

Thus, something that Andrea should look for in the proposed example is first find the right mechanisms and strategies to deal with your past and overcome that trauma. The strength you gain from this process will allow you to give the best of yourself to your child to meet her needs, work on his behavior, and make him a happy, strong, and emotionally mature person.

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