How Childhood Trauma Leaves a “Scar” Inside Brain Cells
Childhood trauma has profound and lasting effects, changing how the brain functions and how it develops. This includes how the brain responds to stress, even minor stressors like a change in the day’s schedule. When caring for a child with trauma, understanding how the brain responds to stress can help you better understand your child, have more empathy toward them, and better guide them toward regulation and healthy tactics for dealing with stress in the future.
In this article, we’re taking a deep dive into brain development in children, how the brain responds to danger (stress/fear response), and how childhood trauma affects the brain.
Brain Development is from the Bottom Up
Different parts of the brain deal with different things. The lower part of the brain, which is sometimes referred to as the “primitive brain,” develops first. This part of the brain controls sensory motor input and survival. It is responsible for basic functions, such as the things we do without thinking about it, like heartbeat, breathing, blinking, and digestion. But it also controls our flight-or-fight response (fear response).
The higher parts of the brain develop throughout childhood and into adolescence. The midbrain and limbic area develops second and is responsible for attachment and emotional development. The cortical brain develops last and controls thinking, learning, language, and inhibition.
The Fear Response
Our fight-or-flight response is what protects us from danger. It’s a primal function that has evolved to keep us alive and can be useful in the right scenario. Here’s how it works:
- Sense Danger: First, we hear or sense danger.
- Emotional Processing: This information is immediately sent to the amygdala, which is responsible for processing this danger.
- Distress Signal: Next, the amygdala sends a signal to the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that controls the fight-or-flight response.
- Burst of Adrenaline: The hypothalamus then activates the sympathetic nervous system to release adrenaline into the bloodstream, triggering the fight-or-flight response. This can cause our heart to beat faster, pushing blood to vital organs, our breathing quickens to get as much oxygen as possible, our sight and hearing sharpen and blood sugar and fats from temporary storage flood into the bloodstream to provide the body energy.
- Maintenance: As the initial surge of adrenaline subsides, the hypothalamus activates the HPA axis to maintain regular release of cortisol, the stress hormone, so that the sympathetic nervous system can remain switched on until the threat passes.
- Threat Passes: Once the threat passes, cortisol levels fall and the parasympathetic nervous system is activated to reduce the stress response and allow the body to return to a normal state.
How Childhood Trauma “Scars” the Brain
Remember, childhood trauma involves a loss of trust between the child and adult figures in their life. And because childhood trauma isn’t generally a one-time event, children who experience trauma are always on guard to something scary happening again. They’ve come to expect it and being in a heightened state of alert is what has kept them safe in the past.
In other words, children with trauma are constantly in fight or flight. In normal circumstances, the brain recognizes the danger has passed and the parasympathetic nervous system allows the higher parts of the brain to begin to function again.
But because children with trauma feel like they are in danger all the time, they mostly operate out of their primitive brain. The best way to understand this is that childhood trauma causes a brain injury, or scar, that rewires the brain to remain in fight or flight. They have adapted to survive danger.
Children with trauma can become oversensitive to even the slightest stressor, leading to outbursts or withdrawal. This is often referred to as dysregulation. Remember, each child and their experiences are different and they will display signs of trauma in their own way.
But most importantly, you must understand that when your child is stuck in fight or flight, you cannot reason with them, as reasoning is controlled by a higher part of the brain. That is why helping your child learn to regulate is key to their healing journey.
What is Regulation?
Regulation refers to the regulation of our emotional and nervous systems. It helps us transition our brain out of a hyper-reactive survival state, lowers stress hormones, and helps to restore a sense of physical safety. Regulation helps build neural pathways required for long-term resilience that help us to better handle stress in the future.
Regulation can be something as simple as going to a calm and dark room and cuddling up with a cozy blanket. It can also look like rhythmic breathing exercises or meditation. But it can also be more physical like stretching, yoga, taking a walk, or even doing jumping jacks to get excess energy and movement out.
Providing your child with the tools and guidance to learn how to self-regulate can help them return to higher levels of brain functioning. Only then can they operate with reason and focus on tasks such as learning. What works for self-regulation for one child doesn’t work for all. So it will be a process of trial and error for you and your child until you find what works.
Final Thoughts
Stress happens in life. But childhood trauma causes a real brain injury that rewires the brain to be in a constant state of hyper-vigilance for danger. Understanding that this is the cause of your child’s unwanted behaviors or outbursts means that you can be better equipped to help your child and to diffuse the situation better. By focusing on helping your child regulate, you can move to higher levels of brain functioning and help rewire and heal the brain from past trauma. And when your child is more regulated, you’ll then be able to work on rebuilding trust and a healthy relationship with your child that are also essential for your child to work through their trauma.
Want to learn more about how trauma rewires the brain and how you can help your child rewire and heal? My new book, Rewired through Relationship, takes a look at what a child’s brain needs to heal from trauma and how parents can help.
