Intergenerational Trauma

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Trauma is known as a chemical brain response to an adverse event. In whatever environmental context, it can either be beneficial or detrimental. It coincides with adverse experiences, producing a mental illness that disrupts the activities of daily life. Even with this, we must understand the circumstances of mental illness. “PTSD is not ‘unnatural’ but rather a cost of evolutionarily prioritizing survival,” according to the study “Predator Induced Fear.”. That is the basis of therapeutic help (Zannette et al.). Today, people who experience PTSD or other mental illnesses have the luxury of receiving help, but what if it’s left untreated? Intergenerational trauma is the transmission of a parental mental illness to the offspring. It can originate …show more content…
This is problematic as adult refugees that settle into countries like America have “were ten times more likely to present with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when compared with the general population,” according to ThRIVE Department of Psychology specialists (Flanagan et al.). Immigration and refugee populations make up America when their mental health is at stake, and so are several generations to come. Intercultural therapy has resistance in many communities. Many populations have been exposed to traumatic experiences for so long that it has become unhealthily normalized and not seen as something to fix. For instance, Black communities have been targeted for generations through historical racism turned into systematic. “When a Black woman enters the counseling room after witnessing the shooting death of a family member, she may not only be carrying the present trauma but also the trauma of racism experienced by her great-grandmother,” according to Professor Aisha Lee and Phillipa Chin, who both hold doctorates in counselor education. That is why it is essential for psychologists to understand cultural family dynamics (Lee et …show more content…
Intergenerational trauma is a constant in the lives of its victims. It is hidden and shamed upon creating unhealthy family dynamics that not only affect family health but eventually pass on to the next generation. Unresolved trauma from an adverse event is the leading cause of the transmission of mental illness. If the negative connotation is removed from mental health help by using therapeutic options, millions of children won’t have to suffer the aftermath of what the generations before had. Treating mental illness like a disease won’t help, but treating it through a healing cultural lens allows families to reconnect and continue their relationships instead of enabling isolation. And with atrocious historical events caused by governments, there should be more funding allocated towards family health, allowing accessibility for all. These centers would be placed in Native American reservations and areas where there is a high concentration of minority
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