CHILDHOOD TRAUMA: HOW TO COPE AND HEAL AS AN ADULT
3 tips as you start healing your inner child as an adult
When we acknowledge and face our fears, they lose power over us. In our society talking about mental health and its impact has been unfamiliar. No one wants to admit that they are struggling and sometimes the effect of not seeking help becomes a problem to those who are around us. These could be family members, friends, colleagues, or our partners. We make them go through a lot of emotional traumas and the damage goes on and on without an end, and it becomes a vicious cycle of trauma.
However, that shouldn’t be the life we ought to live, we shouldn’t let our childhood trauma have a say in our present and future life, our trauma doesn’t define us, but our resilience does, so I urge we should take the initiative to provide a better environment and try to heal ourselves from our inner child traumas.
Before I jump into ways we can use to cope and heal ourselves with our childhood trauma let’s first identify what are the traits that might make us suspect that these types of behaviors are coming from our wounded place or childhood trauma.
First and foremost, we tend to have difficulties in creating and maintaining a healthy relationship because we might have been traumatized with the sense of being blamed, betrayed, left out, compared, criticized, laughed at, abandoned, or neglected. So now we try to create our safety nets as adults by controlling, pretending to be strong, critical, distrusting or being passive aggressive.
With all these adult traits it’s very difficult maintaining a healthy relationship with your peers at work, in society or in romantic life.
Another trait is the sense of being hypervigilant like always in a fight or flight mode. This usually signifies that we might have experienced physical trauma before. This might be rape, harassment, physically assaulted or violated in one way or another so when we face any situation where we feel unsafe, we end up trying to escape that situation or trying to take control over it.
Also, depression and anxiety have also been linked with people who have endured childhood trauma, with the fear of facing their innermost childhood memories or experiences that are re-occurring back in their life. As adults, they try to hide or block that and go to their own safe space which is depression.
So now let’s look at ways how we can cope with our childhood trauma. I will just take you through simple steps on how to become a better version of yourself.
Tip #1 - Meditate
Through meditating we get time to ask ourselves the sincerest questions we are scared to ask ourselves, and at that point that’s when we need to acknowledge our inner childhood traumas, you need to recognize, connect with those feelings, and validate them that they are real and try to practice safety boundaries with yourself.
Tip #2 - Journaling
There’s such a huge power in jotting down your life experiences and asking yourself why you acted the way you did or why is it important for people to see you in a certain type of way. Journaling will encourage you to go further and reconnect with yourself. With the consistency of always trying to find our authentic selves, we end up loving whom we are without trying to get validation from someone else or pleasing someone else. We find worth in ourselves.
Tip #3 - Talk to someone or therapy
When you have tried doing it yourself and you realize you don’t think you can face your inner childhood trauma or face your fear alone, it’s okay to ask for help from someone whom you think you can trust or a professional like your primary care doctor or therapist. Talking to someone and letting them help you with your struggles helps a lot.
The most important thing
One key thing in healing from your trauma is self-awareness. Always ask yourself WHY you reacted a certain way, WHY are you scared, WHY are you angry and so forth. However, it may not be as easy as said. Click Here, if you want to talk to a trusted doctor who will guide you in healing your inner child.