If you live with chronic anxiety, you already know how frustrating it is. You’re tired of it getting in the way of the things you want to do and the life you want to have.
Like many people, you’ve probably spent hours trying to pinpoint what has caused the anxiety in your life. You’ve tried to identify sources, experiences, and situations that could have contributed to it. And perhaps you’ve put your finger on some of them.
One cause of chronic anxiety gets often overlooked, however—developmental trauma.
What Is Developmental Trauma?
When you think of childhood trauma, some experiences may immediately come to mind. Physical and sexual abuse are probably at the top of this list.
But other factors that aren’t as obvious can also create childhood trauma. It’s typically referred to as developmental trauma because the trauma interferes with the very way that a child grows and develops cognitively and psychologically.
Children’s development depends heavily on the way in which their parents and caregivers respond to them. The earliest years are crucial for laying the foundation of emotional health later in life. When parents respond quickly and compassionately to their child’s needs for food, affection, and protection, the child learns to trust. A stable, sound environment insulates children from developmental trauma.
But neglect, whether physical or emotional, can create worry and anxiety in a child. Verbal abuse can damage a child’s soul as much as physical abuse damages their body.
A parent’s own issues with mental health, substance abuse, the legal system, and unstable relationships often lead to developmental trauma to their children as well. Natural disasters, war, serious health issues, and accidents can also interfere with emotional development.
How Developmental Trauma Contributes to Chronic Anxiety
When children experience the types of situations described above, a number of things occur. Developmental trauma often causes a child to live in a constant state of wariness and fear. The autonomic nervous system is designed to protect us when our bodies sense threats. This system is even at work in infants and toddlers.
When parents neglect or abuse their children, however, this protective response system can get stuck in the primal response known as fight, flight, or freeze. Because the child has to remain on guard and isn’t able to trust, anxiety and fear become their natural state.
Staying stuck in this biophysiological state isn’t healthy for the brain or body. When this happens, the parts of the brain responsible for monitoring fear and emotions even change physically. These effects of developmental trauma are real and observable through brain scans.
It’s easy to see how chronic anxiety arises as a result of these experiences. If fear for their safety and survival controls a child’s life, they will often carry this reality with them into adulthood as chronic anxiety.
Finding Healing
Despite the strong consequences that developmental trauma can have on someone, it can be addressed through therapy. It doesn’t have to define an individual’s life forever. Healing can be found!
As we’ve seen, developmental trauma and the anxiety it can create are deeply interconnected with the brain itself. Anxiety plays out in the body as a result: tense jaws and foreheads, tight stomachs, aches and pains with no physical cause, insomnia.
Because of this, therapeutic approaches such as EMDR and somatic experiencing are very effective at treating developmental trauma and its subsequent anxiety. These treatment methods address the roots of anxiety at their deepest levels—directly in the neurological and biophysiological systems. They provide a way to help the brain itself heal and replace old patterns of anxiety with new, healthier coping methods.
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I have worked with many clients who have struggled with chronic anxiety. By putting specific modalities into use in our sessions, they have been able to move forward with newfound joy and confidence.
If you are ready to address your chronic anxiety, please email or call my office to find out more.