What Are The Effects Of Childhood Trauma?

Trauma is an uncontrollable and unmanageable sense of depression that commonly occurs as a result of startling and horrific circumstances such as car crashes, kidnapping, natural disasters, and other debilitating occurrences. People are affected by trauma in both the short and long term. Short-term effects include shock and self-denial, while long-term effects can include impulsive feelings, recurring flashbacks, strained relationships, and physical symptoms such as headaches and nausea (Nakazawa, 2016). Trauma is a significant problem not just for children but also for adults, and regular visits to a doctor are important in resolving the condition. Unlike amongst the adults, childhood trauma causes severe psychosocial, medical-oriented, and public policy-based challenge to present increased consequences to the victims and the entire society. The research question for this assignment is; what are the effects of the childhood trauma?
What are the effects of the childhood trauma?
Effects of childhood trauma are both short-term and long-term. Long-term effects progress into adulthood are extremely devastating. The effects are characterized based on the emotional health, mental health, and physical health. Consistent with the American Humane Association (AHA), physical child abuse is one of the main cause of the children trauma. According to AHA, intentional physical injury triggered by physical causes such as punching, kicking, biting, burning or even inflicting intentional injuries to a child is the main trigger to child trauma. Normally, there is the indistinct boundary between the physical discipline of children and child abuse. Based on findings from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in 2006, roughly 905,000 U.S. children were abused. According to the statistics, virtually 16% of children were physically abused while around 14 to 43% of the children were found to have undergone at least one traumatic abusive episode before attaining adulthood (Nemeroff, 2004).
Short-term effects childhood trauma
According to (De Bellis & AB, 2014), some of the short-term effects of trauma on children, for instance, domestic violence include generalized anxiety, increased cases of sleeplessness, perpetual nightmares and challenges of concentration in learning. The children also have increased aggressive nature, heightened levels of anxiety, massive worry regarding safety and security. Short-term effects of trauma usually happen immediately after traumatic incidences, and they have intensive impacts on a child’s daily life’s activity thus hampering the ability to intermingle with adults, siblings, and even peers. Such children relentlessly get into trouble while at school, at home, and even with the law enforcement bodies (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 2014).
Long-term effects of trauma
The long-term impacts of child trauma are associated with reduced quality of life to survivors. Its challenges proceed into adulthood and hamper the emotional health, mental health, physical health and even personal relationships. The symptoms are notable on the elementary day-to-day happenings, for instance, troubles on eating, sleeping, working and even studying difficulties (Briere, Kaltman & Green, 2008).
Emotional Health
Children who have been exposed to complex trauma often internalize and externalize stress responses, therefore, feel a critical level of downheartedness. They feel insecure are always keep hallucinating or even reminded by very many occurrences in the space or environment regarding the past dangers. Trauma occurrences make them feel that the world is perilous and they feel diminished trust levels for people. Such children fear interactions with other people and are overly vigilant while others may behave in emotional numbing model thus exposing them to revictimization. People who experienced childhood trauma perpetually undergo feelings of nervousness, apprehension, shame, guiltiness, helplessness, desperateness, grief, wretchedness and even anger. The people continually exhibit uncontrollable cases of inability to handle feelings or grief. They usually cannot explain their feelings. Only timely remedy from psychiatrist can make their life worthwhile; nevertheless, the childhood trauma survivors live with protracted anguish and pain. Many of the adults who were affected by their childhood resort to adopting new negative behavior to assist them to manage their problems, for instance, alcohol misuse, drug consumption, sex, gambling, or other habitual behaviors. Some of the survivors normally injure themselves due to high levels of despair. The combination of the self-remedying or self-coping strategies usually acts in worsening the already bad situation of childhood trauma victims (Kolkmay, 2011).
Mental Health 
According to National Child Traumatic Stress Network website, children past trauma cases regularly exhibit reduced cognition capacity which affects their thinking, reasoning and learning process (The national child traumatic stress network, 2017). Studies have also indicated that most of them are unable to plan ahead, expect a better future and also act as expected in the society. Such children always grow up in frequent fear and use all their internally available resources for their survival. Constant fears also create disbelief, reduced self-esteem and inability to tackle life challenges effectively. Such children fear trying new things in life and always pre-empt danger. The children perpetually try to maintain attention, fight constant distraction and curiosity that are related to the past encounters. They even experience challenges of developing linguistically and attainment of the abstract reasoning skills (Babbel, 2011).
Children exposed to such adverse conditions continually face the challenge of coping up with self-regulation, the urgent need for impulse control. Other key fundamental behaviors that hampers academic process and reduced mental capacity of such children are unpredictability, oppositional outlook, volatility, and extremity exposed by the children as regards their behavior. It creates a scenarios whereby children may grow up feeling powerless, stressed and dreading abusive authorities; therefore, they adopt defensive and aggressive natures in reaction to directed blames or even attack (Giller, 2016). Such children are unmanageable, rigid and noncompliant. They may also dissociate and distance themselves from the true reality. Children with past traumatic incidences have been blamed for having increased level anxiety, worrying depression levels, heightened cases of suicides and self-harms, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), drug and alcohol abuse (Heim & Nemeroff, 2001).
Physical Health 
Childhood marks critical points of body development and growth. Through infancy stage, indolence and to adulthood human biology develops and become even more sophisticated; nonetheless, some critical biological functions are influenced by the environment. Child trauma causes children to grow in constant fear, and extreme stress, therefore causing malfunctioning of the body immune system and even compromised body’s stress response systems (Ravello, 2016). The later life of such children have abnormal characteristics, for instance, challenges of responding coherently to the prevailing ordinary stresses in the community. Unnatural response to situations are notable through common physiological reactivity such as breathing. Children who witnessed enervating occurrences in the past may instantly faint or even collapse when an abrupt scene happens in their environment. They respond by over-reacting, unresponsive or even detached behavior (Herman, Perry & Van der Kolk, 1989).
Some levels of stress in the human environment usually can damage or even impair the development of the brain and the corresponding nervous system; moreover, weak mental stimulation in which is usually present in neglectful environments hinders the appropriate development of the brain. The study indicates that children who have complex trauma pasts may experience chronic or persistent physical challenges, for instance, headaches and even stomach aches (Einerson, 2016). Such conditions run through to adulthood. Without opportune aid professionals, victims may seek help from the smoking and substance use which leads into addiction and compromise their condition. Other physical indicators and effects of trauma are regular body dysregulation which indicates that the body over-reacts or under-reacts to sensory stimuli. Such children may complain of pain from their body parts which normal medical diagnosis may not detect. Physically, the children develop heightened stress response, sleep difficulties, low immune functioning and increase a number of physical ailments throughout to adult life (The national child traumatic stress network, 2017).
Personal relationships
Childhood traumas caused by abuse from a caregiver, a parent or even a guardian destabilizes the mind of the minor. Such strained relationships reduce vital attachment to other people who they thought were crucial to them. The children become less trustful and undertake reduced interaction with others. They develop self-reliance hence they easily ran into street life and commenced independent life. In the absence of personal attachment to a caregiver, children are more likely suffer increased vulnerability to the stress, reduced capacity to handle emotions and adopt violent reactions to various situations. The study also shows that people who experienced traumas back in their childhood are more likely to expose their future family relations to similar danger without understanding. Cases of mistrustful spouses, unreliable family relations and undependable members in the community are common. Such weaknesses encroach into professional lives of such people if not handled well. Children need close relationship and psychological help from adults to prevent them from going astray, for instance, adopting thug life. Child trauma from the family level breaks the family which is the initial fabric that holds the society intact (Reinberg, 2016).
The difference between credible and non-credible sources for this research is that credible sources provide more in-depth factors that contribute to the effects of childhood trauma as opposed non-credible sources which mainly rush over. Non-credible sources also avail general information without providing sufficient references hence it is difficult to establish the efficacy of the truth. Both sources find that child hood trauma has negative impacts to the society and to the victim. While credible source enlists deep research process regarding the effects of the childhood trauma, non-credible rarely go deep in to undertaking deep research and stating their findings (Bodkin, 2016).
Conclusion
In summary, this research establishes that the effects of the childhood trauma can be segmented based on long-term and short-term. Childhood trauma has far-reaching impacts into adulthood of people, and if appropriate measures are not reinstated, then society may have people with crude characters. Occurrences of childhood traumas in a community does not alter the family unit of the society but also destroys the social fabric that unites a community and destroys that culture. The society is further challenged to adopt appropriate methods of correcting discordant children and not to expose to the extreme conditions that may push them to the point of feeling hate and rejection. Childhood trauma hampers the emotional health, mental health, physical health and even personal relationships. Kids who have undergone child hood trauma exhibit disturbed mental stability, weakened immune body development, and experience hard times trying to create relationships. If the children do not seek medical or psychiatrist assistance, then their condition may worsen and become unmanageable.



















References
Peer reviewed articles sources
De Bellis, M. D., & AB, A. Z. (2014). The biological effects of childhood trauma. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North America, 23(2), 185.
Herman, J. L., Perry, C., & Van der Kolk, B. A. (1989). Childhood trauma in borderline personality disorder. The American journal of psychiatry, 146(4), 490.
Heim, C., & Nemeroff, C. B. (2001). The role of childhood trauma in the neurobiology of mood and anxiety disorders: preclinical and clinical studies. Biological psychiatry, 49(12), 1023-1039.
Briere, J., Kaltman, S., & Green, B. L. (2008). Accumulated childhood trauma and symptom complexity. Journal of traumatic stress, 21(2), 223-226.
Nemeroff, C. B. (2004). Neurobiological consequences of childhood trauma. The Journal of clinical psychiatry.
Websites sources
Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. (2014). Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207191/
The national child traumatic stress network (2017). Children and Domestic Violence, NCCTS — University of California, Los Angeles http://www.nctsn.org/about-us/contact-us
Giller, E. (2016). We help people understand, manage, and treat trauma and dissociation. Sidran Institute. Brooklandville https://www.sidran.org/contact/
Einerson, L. (May 11, 2016). The Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Trauma on Children, Integrated Counseling and Wellness, Serving South Eastern Idaho, Rexburg http://www.integratedcounselingandwellness.com/2016/05/11/short-term-long-term- effects-trauma-on-children.
Babbel, S. (Apr 24, 2011). The Lingering Trauma of Child Abuse, Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, LLC. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/somatic- psychology/201104/the-lingering-trauma-child-abuse
Newspaper articles
Kolkmay, B. A. (10, may, 2011 ). Post-Traumatic Childhood. The New York Times's Brookline, Mass. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/opinion/11kolk.html
Nakazawa, D. J. (07/29/2016). Childhood Trauma Leads To Lifelong Chronic Illness — So Why Isn’t The Medical Community Helping Patients? Huffingtonpost http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/childhood-trauma-leads-to_b_11154082.html
Ravello, C. C. (January 13, 2016). Childhood traumas impact adult mental, physical health. Guardianhttp://www.guardian.co.tt/lifestyle/2016-01-13/childhood-traumas-impact- adult-mental-physical-health
Reinberg, S. (Dec. 19, 2016).The Impact of Child Abuse Can Last a Lifetime, HealthDay. U.S.news http://health.usnews.com/health-care/articles/2016-12-19/the-impact-of- child-abuse-can-last-a-lifetime
Bodkin, A. (Nov 10, 2016). Childhood trauma damages children, adults and society,St. Louis American Foundation. http://www.stlamerican.com/your_health_matters/health_news/childhood-trauma-damages-children-adults-and-society/article_dead6476-a6e6-11e6-9a95-7b97c8ede29e.html