The Link Between Chronic Pain and Childhood Trauma

Carrying pain and hurt from the past is heavy.

It may not be a tangible heavy, but your body can feel it even when you can’t.

When it builds up over time, it can begin to manifest itself as physical, chronic pain in several ways. To understand how and why this happens, we must dig a bit deeper.

How Chronic Pain Links To Childhood Trauma

If you have experienced trauma in your childhood and you are seeking healing, there is a good chance that you have tried to do some research to find something – anything - that will help. In doing so, you may have come face-to-face with the many studies that link chronic pain to childhood trauma.

Personally, I did not know the connection until I discovered these studies. And I have witnessed it first hand, it all began to make sense. See, I am a survivor of childhood trauma. I felt the impact of abuse when it happened and felt the pain well into adulthood. It never seemed to go away.

The studies I have read show that the greater frequencies of traumatic events in a child’s upbringing, the greater the chance they would suffer from serious physiological disorders as an adult.

For me, the trauma started at age five when I was horrifically tied to rafters, gagged, raped, and heartlessly left in a burning garage. At age 14, a high school custodial manager sexually abused me, leaving me to be further impacted by a series of furious threats and mental torture by his wife and members of the community.

Unfortunately, these were not the only times I experienced trauma in childhood. Well into adulthood, however, the result of the trauma from my past left me with anger, fear, unmanageable emotions, a lack of confidence, difficulty with intimacy, and so much more.

Why Does Childhood Trauma Impact Our Physical Wellbeing?

Take a moment to consider your own traumatic past.  Or, if you don’t want to, take one of my examples above. When we are in that traumatic moment, you feel threatened and will find yourself bombarded with immense toxic feelings of stress, don’t you? Even now, thinking back to the trauma, you may feel these feelings.

This is known as the fight or flight response.  And, it encompasses all the physiological feelings that come from these rough situations. Your brain and nervous system work together to release norepinephrine as a result – and prepare your body for battle.  

As I grew older and I began trying to engage in relationships with others, when intimacy came into the picture, I’d found myself in a fight or flight moment. The mere thought of getting close stirred up so many unhealthy emotions.

Unfortunately, when these feelings are not addressed (and healed), you may be feeling this level of stress throughout your youth and into your adulthood. Over a period of time, it can damage the nervous system, namely our neural connections. Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child states: the impact of such incidents ‘persist far into adulthood, and lead to lifelong impairments in both physical and mental health’.

What Can We Do To Stop Chronic Pain From Childhood Trauma?

So much research is being done by paediatric health care providers and industry educators to help us better understand the impact of childhood trauma on our physiological wellbeing. This will allow us to identify vulnerable children sooner and help those later in life who suffer in silence.

Could you imagine how life would be different if the results of childhood trauma didn’t follow you into adulthood?

Do You Suffer From Pain From Childhood Trauma?

If so, it is time to let it go, don’t you think?  I have been there. My childhood is so full of traumatic moments that it took me until I was 50 years old to make that transformation and let that pain go.

So, I have been where you are. And, I have pulled through. You can too! It all starts with a free Healing Discovery Call and After the call, you’ll discover more about your road to healing and overcoming trauma. I’d love to help you, so Healing Discovery Call.

© 2019 Janine Naus