Healing Intergenerational Trauma

One subset of complex trauma is called intergenerational trauma, which is also sometimes referred to as transgenerational or multigenerational trauma. This type of trauma is passed down through generations, from those who first experience a trauma to their descendants. In one disturbing example, scientists studied the descendants of those who lived through what is known as the Holodomor, which was a humanmade famine in Ukraine in the 1930s that resulted in the death of millions of people. The results of the study, which collected data from 44 people from 15 different Ukrainian families, showed that the coping mechanisms that the survivors adopted in the 1930s were clearly passed down through two and even three generations.

Metabolizing Stress

Chances are that you or someone you know has a blood sugar problem. The statistics are shocking. Over 120 million Americans have prediabetes or diabetes, and nine of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States are caused or worsened by metabolic dysfunction. These days, stressful events like family losses or trouble at work are well known to be risk factors for triggering the onset of diabetes. In addition, studies have shown that traumatic experiences, family chaos and behavioral problems during childhood are also linked to diabetes. So what explains this connection? It turns out that the main stress hormone, cortisol, causes blood sugar levels to go up. If you’ve got a blood sugar issue, I’m sure that your gut-feeling connection is playing an important role in your imbalance, and that healing will require an approach that tackles both the physical causes of blood sugar imbalances—such as gut microbiome imbalances and excess sugar intake—and the emotional ones, such as chronic stress or the effects of trauma.

Many of the participants had difficulty trusting people, anxiety about food scarcity, hoarding tendencies, low self-worth, social hostility, and risky health behaviors.

Some other research being conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai shows that the descendants of survivors of the Holocaust have distinctive stress hormone profiles. The data showed that those with intergenerational trauma have altered levels of circulating stress hormones. More specifically, they have lower levels of cortisol, a hormone that helps the nervous system and inflammation to calm down after a traumatic incident. This may predispose them to anxiety disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder. The good news? If trauma can be inherited, then healing can be, too. Healing yourself is healing your children’s children and generations that you will never see.

Excerpted from Gut Feelings. Copyright © 2023 by Will Cole. Published by goop press/Rodale Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.