Few recent studies connect early childhood trauma and the likelihood of future depression, as well as potential substance abuse. The trauma can be several things ranging from child abuse and sexual abuse to witnessing at a young age a domestic abuse in a spousal or parent-child relationship.
Clinical psychologists and psychiatrists always insisted that childhood trauma could be a contributing factor to a long list of mental disorders. This is now confirmed by the studies that show that the likelihood to have self-esteem problems and a need to ‘escape’ or ‘numb’ are much higher in adults who survived childhood trauma. Neuroscientists found a disruption of ‘white matter’ in the brain that are defined as ‘nerve fibers’, and act as ‘computer network cables’ that interact with the processing of thoughts in the brain.
In layman’s terms, the relevance early childhood trauma has with depression is that the experience of some very traumatic events early in life leads to a significantly higher likelihood to feel bad about yourself and to develop potential bad habits and addiction (e.g. substance abuse) in order to cope with your inner problems. These potential bad habits lead to a higher likelihood of depression, and a vicious cycle of dealing with the depression through the use of negative means.
Trauma and How-to prevent Depression
When it is known that an individual or a family is experiencing challenges or hardships that can impact social interaction with people or society, then the approach of counseling or intervention should be offered to the victim and the family. By addressing the conflicting nature of a situation with proper awareness, you can attempt to prevent the development of depression and the challenges it can bring to life.
Depression stemming from traumatic events that are ignored leads to further depressive feelings. The repressing nature of hiding what an individual is feeling is likely to have detrimental effects. Hiding feelings, repressing memories, and other things of similar nature are all situations that lead an individual to encounter the condition of depression.
The analysis that trauma, which occurs at an early age in life, leads to a situation of possible depression and other mental disorders is something that should be taken with careful consideration. The more important things to consider are effective ways of addressing such problems, and how to prevent the negative influence from permeating the person’s life. The ignorance toward the core problems that develop depression and symptoms involved with the condition is as much a problem as the medical condition itself. The best approach is to understand the underlying issues and deal with those issues as quickly and effectively as possible. This makes the development of depression less likely to occur.
Sounding Intelligent versus Identifying a Problem
Many reports are based on the theories and concepts involved with depression and how it evolves; this can be both positive and negative. If the same amount of time and energy were spent toward evaluating the best ways of treating the various kinds of trauma, there would be a stronger grasp on the condition of depression and anti-social tendencies. The key to curing depression isn’t the scientific evaluation of it; it’s an effective approach toward finding the common patterns (both genetic and non-genetic) that are associated with depression altogether. The challenge presented with depression is an enhanced feeling of negativity, which can actually redirect focus and productivity.
The amount of influence these negative factors have on productive thinking depends upon the person. If more time was spent toward developing ways of helping improve that singular condition alone, then the path to more success stories would be paved.
About Author:
I am a clinical psychologist in private practice located on Upper East Side, New York, NY. My blog posts are not clinical recommendations or guidelines and should not be interpreted as such.