Our ability to develop healthy, supportive relationships with friends and significant others depends on our having first developed those kinds of relationships in our families. They have trouble controlling and expressing emotions, and may react violently or inappropriately to situations.

Children who do not have healthy attachments have been shown to be more vulnerable to stress. The majority of abused or neglected children have difficulty developing a strong healthy attachment to a caregiver. When primary caregivers exploit and abuse a child, the child learns that he or she is bad and the world is a terrible place. When those relationships are unstable or unpredictable, children learn that they cannot rely on others to help them. Through relationships with important attachment figures, children learn to trust others, regulate their emotions, and interact with the world they develop a sense of the world as safe or unsafe, and come to understand their own value as individuals. The importance of a child’s close relationship with a caregiver cannot be overestimated. As a child grows up and encounters situations and relationships that are safe, these adaptations are no longer helpful, and may in fact be counterproductive and interfere with the capacity to live, love, and be loved.Ĭomplex trauma can affect children in a multitude of ways. These kinds of learned adaptations make sense when physical and/or emotional threats are ever-present. They may withhold their own emotions from others, never letting them see when they are afraid, sad, or angry. For instance, they may be overly sensitive to the moods of others, always watching to figure out what the adults around them are feeling and how they will behave. Children whose families and homes do not provide consistent safety, comfort, and protection may develop ways of coping that allow them to survive and function day to day.

Signs emotional trauma in children