Emotional & Psychological Trauma Can Be Passed On
Extreme and traumatic events can change a person and may even, years later, affect their children. The phenomenon has long been known in psychology but it is only recently that scientists have begun to understand the physiological processes that are passed down from one generation to the next (Gapp et al., 2014).
Inheriting trauma: An epigenetic explanation
Epigenetics is the study of gene expression. While genetics looks at what genes someone inherits, epigenetics looks at which genes get activated and which genes stay dormant. Your genes do not determine whether you get a disease or not, your genes determine whether you’re vulnerable to getting a disease or not.
For instance, you might have the gene for heart disease, but you may not ever get heart disease if you never “turn on” those genes because you practice a healthy lifestyle. Whether or not genes get expressed can be influenced by our environment, culture, disease state, and lifestyle choices. In other words, epigenetics means you have a good amount of control over which of your genes end up actually affecting your life.
To be a bit more scientific about it, your environment and lifestyle does not change or damage or mutate your genes. You are born with certain genes and certain mutations, and those are (mostly) fixed.
However, environment and lifestyle can alter the mechanism by which the gene is converted into functioning proteins or expressed by DNA methylation, histone modification, or non-coding RNA (ncRNA). This mechanistic shift, in turn, affects how cells read the genes you have and thus influences your metabolism. The change in your gene expression is not genetic. It is epigenetic.
Traditionally, it was believed that only genetic information is transferred from one generation to the next generation via eggs and sperm cells. Research has now found that “soft-wired” information which is not written into the genetic code can also be transferred from one generation to the next via the germline: the tissue derived from reproductive cells (egg or sperm) that become incorporated into the DNA of every cell in the body of the offspring.
Epigenetic inheritance specifically looks at how our parents’ and ancestors' traumas can leave a chemical mark on them, which is then passed down to subsequent generations.
Some evidence based research on epigenetic inheritance...
Several studies have documented this. For example, it has been found that adverse health outcomes and elevated risk of neurodevelopmental and depressive symptoms affected the future children of those exposed to severe psychosocial stressors such as child abuse (Roberts et al., 2018). Exposure to social instability and psychological trauma early on in life can also lead to anxiety and defective behavioural and social interactions, and animal studies have found that these consequences can be transmitted up to three generations through the father (Saavedra-Rodríguez & Feig, 2013).
People who have had discriminatory experiences or racist micro-aggressions throughout their life can develop aberrant biological responses, abnormal gene activity, increased inflammation, and persistent health consequences such as a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (Xu et al., 2019). All of this can be passed on from one generation to the next through the body’s “biological memory” and epigenetic influences (Kuzawa & Sweet, 2009; Thames, Irwin, Breen, & Cole, 2019).
Furthermore, in the largest investigation ever of its kind, researchers have found that the daughters of women exposed to childhood trauma are at increased risk for serious mental health conditions (Santavirta, Santavirta, & Gilman, 2018).
What can cause emotional & psychological trauma?
Over 70% of people have experienced trauma during their lifetime (Benjet et al., 2016) , whether it is extreme traumas such as accidents, the unexpected death of a loved one, traumatic birth, serious illnesses, natural or man-made disasters and domestic violence/abuse , or more moderate traumas such as bullying, toxic relationships, financial struggles, being mugged, and divorce.
It is your individual perception of the trauma that is important, and which can have a large effect on your behaviour and the way you live your life (Baumgärtel et al., 2008).
Healing from Trauma
Even beyond any inherited passing-on of trauma, it’s fairly obvious that the neurological effects of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in parents will certainly influence and shape a child’s environment and responses to everyday stresses.
Not only can it have a severe impact on family life as well as your relationship with your baby, it may affect your child’s future immunologic development and function, brain development, and life-long vulnerability to mental illnesses such as ADHD, autism, and schizophrenia (Marques, O’Connor, Roth, Susser, & Bjørke-Monsen, 2013; Rifkin-Graboi et al., 2013; Talge, Neal, & Glover, 2007).
Additionally, it has been proven that your mental and emotional health before pregnancy is closely related to antenatal depression, anxiety disorders, pregnancy complications, poor obstetric outcomes, and postnatal mood disorders such as postnatal depression, postnatal anxiety, postnatal OCD, and postnatal psychosis (Frieder, Dunlop, Culpepper, & Bernstein, 2008; Witt, Wisk, Cheng, Hampton, & Hagen, 2012). Reported mental health problems in pregnancy and the first year after birth are experienced by up to 20% of women and up to 10% of men.
Therefore it is important to seek healing before starting a family.
A few suggestions that can help…
* Physical & Mental Health : Trauma disrupts the body’s natural equilibrium, therefore it is even more important to focus on health and well-being by exercising, eating a well-balanced diet, optimising the digestive health, getting enough sleep, avoiding alcohol and drugs and reducing stress with techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, mindfulness, yoga and Qi Gong.
So for those recovering from trauma who want to conceive, it then becomes even more important to focus on health and well-being by exercising, eating a well-balanced diet, optimising digestive health, getting enough sleep, avoiding alcohol and drugs, and reducing stress in the preconception period. This can feel overwhelming without equal support for mental health. But if done right, trauma-related symptoms can be reversed (Gapp et al., 2016), thus breaking the cycle of passing them on to the next generation.
* Psychobiotics : These are mind-altering probiotics (good bugs in your gut) and prebiotics ( what feed the good bugs in your gut) , when ingested in adequate amounts, can have an important role in influencing brain development and plasticity, enhancing the gut-brain connection, improving overall mood, decreasing anxiety, easing depression, and improving other mental health and cognitive issues (Dinan, Stanton, & Cryan, 2013).
This may seem counterintuitive, but the gut has its own brain (of a sort) and is often nicknamed “the second brain.” You may think that your brain is the location of all your neurons, but your digestive tract contains a mesh-like lining containing a network of millions of neurons, from your mouth all the way to your anus. This network of neurons is responsible for coordinating and managing all digestive functions, and it does so with input and feedback from the brain and central nervous system, via the vagus nerve.
Dysfunction in the gut-brain axis and an unhealthy imbalance of gut health (called dysbiosis) have been linked to neuropsychological disorders including depression, anxiety, and autism spectrum disorder (Zhou & Foster, 2015).
The best psychobiotics and the best dosages, as well as the long-term effects of those psychobiotics, have yet to be determined, but a number of strains have been used in several studies and are found in fermented foods as well as being commercially available.
If you would rather supplement, look for those with at least 10 billion (and preferably up to 100 billion) CFUs (colony forming units). Store the supplements as directed on the package—some require refrigeration and others don’t. Also, take the dosage as recommended on the package, as different supplements contain different formulations.
Below are some of the most beneficial species found to improve human moods. (If you can’t find one formula with many species, it can be useful to rotate different formulas that contain different species):
· Bifidobacteria Species: B. longum, B. bifidum, B. breve, B. infantis, B. bulgaricus and
· Lactobacillus Species: L. helveticus, L. rhamnosus, L. plantarum, L. reuteri, L. casei, L. bulgaricus, and L. acidophilus.
* Talk Therapy: Connecting to others face to face may help with healing and minimising the need to withdraw and isolate oneself. This can be done by joining a support group, seeking an experienced trauma specialist or a Cognitive Behavioural therapist.
Sometimes, the best way to handle emotional issues is to connect to others face to face. This may help with healing and minimise the need to withdraw and isolate oneself. Friends and family members can help with this, but for more structured therapy, it can be beneficial to join a support group or seek an experienced trauma specialist or a therapist who specialises in Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
In primary care based interventions for depression and PTSD, it was found that CBT sometimes had better outcomes than antidepressants, and may modulate gene expression and stress-related alterations in the body and brain (Levy-Gigi, Szabó, Kelemen, & Kéri, 2013; Unützer & Park, 2012).
* Other treatments :
For more severe anxiety and trauma, another treatment to consider is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a form of psychotherapy that can relieve the distress associated with traumatic memories. EMDR was initially developed in 1987 for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unlike other treatments, EMDR therapy focuses directly on a specific memory. The goal is to change the way that memory is stored in the brain. Incorporating the use of eye movements and other forms of bilateral (on both sides) stimulation (BLS), patients briefly focus on the memory of the trauma while simultaneously experiencing BLS. This reduces the vividness and emotion connected to the memory (Marcus, Marquis, & Sakai, 2004).
The effectiveness of EMDR therapy in treating PTSD and other mood disorders was recognised by the World Health Organisation in 2013 as the psychotherapy of choice in the treatment of PTSD in children (de Roos et al., 2017) teenagers, and adults.
Somatic therapy is another therapy that is particularly helpful in resolving the negative effects of psychological inheritance of trauma, thus benefiting both yourself and your future children. It is meant to change symptoms of chronic and traumatic stress via the physical body rather than only through the thoughts or emotions connected to it. It uses both psychotherapy and physical therapies to release pent-up tension and balance the nervous system to its normal cycling between alertness and rest. It can be used effectively as a supplement to CBT (Grabbe & Miller-Karas, 2018; Payne, Levine, & Crane-Godreau, 2015).
References+
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DR NAUF ALBENDAR
My name is Dr Nauf AlBendar and I am the founder of The Womb Effect. As a medical scientist with a BSc in Molecular Genetics and Genomics, an MSc in Nutrition & Food Science and a PHD in clinical medicine, I have developed a deep appreciation and understanding for the developmental origins of health and disease.