In my practice, I encounter a lot of childhood-related traumas. Recovery involves tracing the psychological and emotional roots of the childhood trauma, along with physiological or brain conditions.

According to psychiatrist/author Dr. Bessel van dear Kolk, traumatic childhood events can lead to mental health and behavioral problems later in life.
He says that children’s brains are literally shaped by traumatic experiences, which can lead to problems with anger, addiction, and even criminal activity in adulthood.

This shows to us that psychologically traumatic events such as during childhood can change the physical structure of the brain. Trauma can change the connections and activations in the brain. They shape the brain. The human brain is a social organ that is shaped by experience, including traumatic life events.

So if there’s unresolved childhood trauma, the brain then can get very confused. And that leads to problems with excessive anger, excessive shutting down, and doing things like taking drugs to make yourself feel better. These things are almost always the result of having a brain that is set to feel in danger and fear.