Cactus Bloom
Silver Member
Hi! There are many studies done to understand what can predispose a child or adult to develop PTSD or other mental illnesses. Things such as adverse child experience, frequent or prolonged activation of the bodies stress response system in the absence of the buffering protection of a supportive adult relationship, low cortisol levels and structural changes in the brain. The perception of stress varies from child to child. Perceived threats may not disturb one child, while minor ones may be traumatic to another. The variability is multifactorial depending on a child’s previous trauma, social and emotional support and genetic predisposition. The prolonged kind of activation of the stress response systems can disrupt the development of brain architecture and other organ systems and cognitive impairment well into the adult years. Some traumatic sources of toxic stress may not be readily apparent to the clinician or therapists later in life.
Some factors that have a role in the development of PTSD or other mental health disorders are the level of exposure and duration of trauma, pre-existing psychopathology prior to trauma exposure, impact of trauma on a child’s social structure, biological factors contributing to a child’s predisposition to trauma resilience and subjective experience of potential harm (more than actual events).
It’s important to know that when it comes to trauma, it doesn’t necessarily have to be something like sexual, physical or emotional abuse. Neglect also can cause higher stress levels in a child. Also the “lack of” can have a negative impact on a child and having what is perceived as an unsafe environment or chaotic environment.
I’ve had to try to understand that for myself to have been traumatized as a child, it was the “lack of” having my emotional needs met as a child. Even in the mothers womb can affect a babies brain if the mother is constantly stressed because the stress hormone cortisol can also flood the babies brain which can shrink the hippocampus. Deficiencies of the hippocampus may reduce the memory resources available to help a body formulate appropriate reactions to stress. This is what can lead to anxiety and depression. Having a supportive and healthy attachment relationships with parents or family can make a difference in the resiliency of stress or other negative life experiences into adulthood.
That’s kind of the rundown of how early stress on a child may or may not affect him as an adult. I don’t believe that you necessarily have to have a mental illness diagnosis previous to PTSD but it is hard to diagnose because of symptoms such as anxiety and depression show up and is easily diagnosed as that. I might be off about this but the anxiety and depression part is the symptoms of PTSD which is the core issue that needs to be treated by therapy to relieve the symptoms. Of course they can exist on their own and may need medication to help with the anxiety and depression while working with the trauma that caused the PTSD. I’m just throwing ideas out there about some possibilities you want to research or talk to a professional about. Because everyone is different and we all react differently to life experiences.
I was born with an extremely sensitive temperament. I was already predisposed to being easily traumatized whereas my siblings wasn’t so much even though we grew up in the same household. I didn’t have a safe and secure environment growing up and my parents wasn’t emotionally available for me at all. I suffered from really bad depression as a child but my parents were dysfunctional and pretty much shut me down if I showed any emotions. I developed an eating disorder as a child and that was ignored by them also. There were many things that traumatized me growing up but I just tucked any painful experiences out of consciousness. Well, it was my defense mechanism that stored painful memories out of my conscience mind so I could “function” in the world. I didn’t get any help for my depression because I thought it was my fault and that I was weak for having it so I tried to hide it from everyone and tried to keep running from myself which obviously doesn’t work. By the time I got help I was diagnosed with depression then later on I was diagnosed with Bipolar. I had the bipolar diagnosis for many years but more diagnosis’s continued to pile on before I was diagnosed with Complex PTSD. I think that many people are diagnosed with other things before a therapist or psychiatrist realizes you have PTSD. Also, I could definitely be wrong on that but that’s my experience. It’s definitely a struggle but was also a relief to finally get to the core reasons for my symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia, OCD, ADHD, bipolar and now Complex PTSD.
I hope I helped somewhat to at least give you some ideas as to what to look for or research into some of these things. I’ve had to do a lot of research for myself to figure what was going on with me. You are a wonderful person to want to help your SO. Have a good day today and if you have any more questions I can do my best to answer them.
