How we can break the cycle of intergenerational trauma

Woven throughout most of this newsletter is the understanding that our past informs our present. Intergenerational trauma happens when our parents’ or ancestors’ “raw or unprocessed experiences” are passed down from generation to generation, Atlas told me. “The things that happen in large communities — the disruption to family cohesion and the cultural traditions that keep people well — may also affect how individuals within families cope,” Beltran said. With that said, here are some common manifestations of intergenerational trauma, according to our experts and a large body of research: Higher rates of poor physical health, substance use, somatic symptoms like migraines and back pain, and mental health challenges including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder Poverty Internalized oppression, which is experienced when people from oppressed groups believe the myths and misinformation that society communicates to them about their group which is experienced when people from oppressed groups believe the myths and misinformation that society communicates to them about their group Feeling short-fused, impatient or irritable with the people closest to us, especially children Frequent fear and distrust, like you’re always on high alert Suppressing your own needs and desires, particularly for people socialized as girls Challenges with communicating difficult emotions to others in a way that’s constructive Beltran, who is a multiracial Chicana of Indigenous Mexican descent, knew that her parents and grandparents had experienced displacement multiple times, but those experiences weren’t directly expressed to her in words. “It was this persistent feeling of being an outsider — that there was something wrong with us, with me.” She’s made it her life’s work to unearth and elucidate the impacts of trauma.