Sometimes, I have felt doomed by the things that happened before I was even born. It’s made me a touch paranoid about my mental state. I feel acutely aware that chronic anxiety – a brain and body in long-term fight, flight or freeze – increases my likelihood of heart disease, Alzheimer’s, even osteoporosis. If I decide to have a child, they’ll be more likely to have “negative developmental outcomes” from birth to adolescence. This is the burden of intergenerational trauma, whether caused by abuse, war and displacement, the legacies of colonialism and slavery, poverty, abandonment.
While the Very Bad Thing that didn’t happen to you, the effects shaped how you were raised, your core beliefs about the world and yourself, and how your brain and body respond to perceived threats, big and small. Can you escape it?
Intergenerational trauma is passed down in two ways. Scientists are still only beginning to understand how trauma can change our gene expression – part of the field of epigenetics. While trauma does not alter the actual gene itself, it does appear to change the chemical tags that switch genes on or off in response to your environment. These epigenetic markers are then passed on to children, even though they themselves did not experience the trauma firsthand. A study of pregnant women in New York who suffered PTSD from witnessing September 11 found that at nine-months-old their babies also showed symptoms of PTSD (specifically, low cortisol). Their study on the adult children of Holocaust survivors found similar results, prompting researcher Rachel Yehuda to theorise it is “the body’s attempts to prepare offspring for challenges similar to those encountered by their parents.”
The second way is more readily understood. Trauma changes a person’s behaviour, mindset and relationships; being raised by a parent affected by trauma means you’re very likely to adopt and internalise their coping mechanisms and patterns of behaviour. If you have children too, some of those same patterns may be present in the way you raise them – their grandchildren, now twice removed from the initial trauma.
The effects can continue for generations…. unless, like many Millennial and Gen Zs, you consider yourself to be a cycle-breaker.
Trying to break the cycle
Dr. Valerie Lieu, clinical psychologist and founder of Head in the Clouds psychology practice, sees a lot of clients grappling with the intergenerational trauma. Many young people, especially first- and second-generation immigrants, are the first in their families to live in a society and culture where they are allowed to confront these topics.
Some are completely aware of the historical trauma from the get-go, but Dr. Lieu says lots of clients come in seeking help with general anxiety, depression, persistent worries and a sense that “something isn’t sitting right”.
“Then as we dig deeper and figure out why a particular situation has activated certain anxieties or thoughts, there is often a link to experiences their families have gone through before them and the way their parents or families have responded to it.”
For me, the realisation was one of the biggest ‘a-ha’ moments of my life to date. Quickly followed by the most pressing question for cycle-breakers: how do I heal this? What do I do?
Step one: Truth-telling
It begins with facing the trauma itself. “Truth-telling and history are important parts of Indigenous and non-Indigenous healing,” says renowned research professor and Australia’s first Indigenous psychologist, Bardi woman Patricia Dudgeon.
“We deliver a cultural, social, emotional being program that goes through [Aboriginal] history – where we are now, what we need to do to become empowered and strengthened in a culturally appropriate way. When we evaluated it a lot of the participants said that the big thing for them was knowing the history,” Professor Dudgeon says. “Obviously we can’t change it, but to acknowledge it is very important.”
Indeed, we cannot talk about intergenerational trauma in Australia without talking about First Nations people. They suffer some of the worst mental health outcomes in the country – twice as likely to die by suicide, twice as likely to experience high levels of psychological distress – thanks to systems that continue to re-traumatise every new generation to this day.
Professor Dudgeon pioneers culturally-responsive psychology models that focus on Indigenous people, but the Social and Emotional Wellbeing framework created by her team is beneficial to all. It’s especially useful for addressing intergenerational trauma, as it directly acknowledges that political and historical factors, connection to family, land and ancestors, impact how we feel.
Acknowledgment that begins and ends with “Well, that happened – just get over it” (as Indigenous people are so often told) is not really truth-telling. It might involve asking questions of family to get as clear of a picture as possible, learning about historical events, exploring painful memories, unpacking how each development impacted the people involved at each signpost of the story until it arrives at you.
Step two: Processing
After acknowledgment comes the processing. Intergenerational trauma is trauma, so any type of therapy you seek out must be trauma-informed. Dr Lieu says the gold standard treatments are trauma-informed Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), while Schema Therapy is an emerging option.
While CBT is often considered the ‘default’ form general therapy, Dr. Lieu warns it might not always be the best fit. “The prolonged exposure [for processing] can be hard and it doesn’t quite map onto relational traumas that you might see with intergenerational trauma, where it’s actually your parents or grandparents who’ve gone through it.”
EMDR, which involves moving your eyes from side-to-side or other forms of bilateral stimulation (like tapping), lets your body process the emotion. “It’s helpful for processing key memories or early experiences where there’s a really strong emotional charge or intensity… Once that emotion is processed, it’s then a lot easier in the present moment to access the rational part of your mind to make choices about how you want to respond.”
Step three: Reinforcing new values, daily
What it means to have ‘processed’ will look different for everyone – and Professor Dudgeon, perhaps sensing my impatience to arrive at ‘mentally well’, stresses that healing is not a linear journey. Dr. Lieu likened it to grieving.
Both believe healing is possible, and that you can get there by making decisions every day that reinforce the life, beliefs and values you choose to lead from this point on. “You have to start appreciating your own values, even if that is different to the system you are operating in,” Professor Dudgeon explains. “These are everyday activities.”
There are no shortcuts. It is a continuous process of strengthening the sense of self – from taking care of our physical health, being in touch with and regulating our own emotions, and carrying that through into stronger connections with our family, community, Country and culture. With enough daily practice, our response to triggers and threats (that will always exist) won’t default to fight, flight or freeze.
While the work may begin from an individualist perspective, it benefits the collective. If we absorb the negative after effects of trauma from our loved ones, surely we can transmit the keys for healthy resilience too? Replacing even one destructive, inherited pattern with a healthier alternative sets up the next generation for better than you had. “I think that’s one of the great human strengths, that we have the ability to heal ourselves, to be compassionate, and to heal other people,” Professor Dudgeon tells me. Even though the weight of inherited trauma often feels like inescapable doom… once it’s acknowledged and the truth is told, there really is nothing to lose.
Smart people read more:
How Parents’ Trauma Leaves Biological Traces in Children – Scientific American
How Do We Move Beyond Mental Health Awareness To… Real Action? – Zee Feed
Podcast: The Intergenerational Impacts of Racism – Centre for Mental Health
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