Science

A series of posts shared on X in mid-February 2025 outline the core findings of Dr. Gabor Maté’s research into childhood trauma, and how it may be responsible for a huge amount of humanity’s physical suffering. Throw a rock in a crowded room of people aged fifty and younger, and you’ve an almost a hundred percent chance of hitting someone with childhood trauma (unresolved or otherwise). Understanding how childhood events shape our mindset is a relatively well-documented field of science. Your parents are emotionally unavailable alcoholics? You’re probably going to be just like them, or you’re going to work your butt off to get the heck away from them as soon as you can. Survived a car crash as a 10-year-old? Perhaps you get nervous with certain types of drivers. It is laughably obvious that childhood events, particularly the big, bad, scary ones, shape our behaviors in adulthood. But what if these events do much, much more than dictate our emotional and practical response? What is trauma and why is it so dangerous? Trauma isn’t just defined as things like surviving war. Examples of potentially health-impacting trauma include things like emotional neglect, being subjected to constant criticism, or even just growing up with emotionally unavailable parents, according to posts from therapist Brian Maierhofer, Maté’s research. All of these things can leave a “lasting imprint” on your body, particularly the nervous system, which ultimately shapes health. This type of trauma, especially when repeated to the point of borderline normalization, often leaves us feeling numb — or “disconnected” from ourselves. You cannot heal when you don’t know yourself, what you truly want, and exist with “chronic self doubt.” 2: Trauma makes you disconnect—from yourself, others, and your body. Survivors of trauma often experience: • Feeling emotionally numb • Not knowing what they truly want • Chronic self-doubt Healing means reconnecting with your body, emotions, and true self. pic.twitter.com/56WRXO1895 — Brian Maierhofer (@IamProHuman) February 11, 2025 Adapting to Survive Here’s where Maté’s research gets really crazy. Meinhofer’s analysis reveals that childhood coping mechanisms eventually turn into adult symptoms of unresolved trauma. If you’re a people-pleaser, your inner child is still searching for love and approval. Do you numb your emotions? You may be avoiding pain. Overachievers are terrified of still not being good enough. The patterns of abuse — intended or otherwise — ” don’t disappear—they turn into chronic stress, burnout, and addiction.” 3: Your childhood coping mechanisms become your adult symptoms. As a child, you needed to adapt to survive. • People-pleasing? Came from needing love & approval. • Numbing emotions? Came from avoiding pain. • Overachieving? Came from fear of not being good enough. These… pic.twitter.com/KgbKEQISKY — Brian Maierhofer (@IamProHuman) February 11, 2025 Let’s get physical … Unfortunately, you can’t “think” your way out of your trauma. It is stored inside of your body. Childhood trauma is physical. If you don’t work through these internal crises, you risk damaging your brain and body. This trauma is powerful enough to pass through generations, and will continue if you let it. Pastor Mark Driscoll gave a beautiful sermon on this exact issue in which he described how letting the unhealthiest member of your family dictate your lives, you will ensure that person sets the tone and control for your familial misery (we’re paraphrasing here). In layman’s terms: if grandma is a crazy mean old lady, maybe don’t drag your spouse and kids to her house whenever she demands? You’ll just make your spouse and kids resent you for not protecting them from your grandma’s unhealed issues. Maté takes this a step further, showing how trauma like this passes down physical issues to your kin. (POPULAR ARTICLE: ‘Separation Of Church And State Is So Stupid’: National Radio Host Joe Pags Goes Off) Right now, as you’re reading this, your unhealed childhood trauma is impacting your children. It will impact your grandchildren. This cycle will continue until someone powerful enough in your lineage stands up and says “no more.” Ending the cycle of self-sabotage As Maierhofer described: “If your nervous system is wired for stress, peace will feel unfamiliar. You might: Chase toxic relationships Overwork to feel “enough” Procrastinate out of fear These aren’t character flaws—they’re trauma imprints.” There is no excuse for inaction You can rewrite the impacts of childhood trauma on your nervous system at any age, Maierhofer argued. There is no excuse to let the cycle of misery continue if you don’t want it to; healing trauma starts with teaching your body how to be safe again. It isn’t easy, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. There is only one guarantee: you won’t heal unless you try, and you’re hurting the people you love if you don’t.