10 ms·

Developmental timing of trauma associated with depressive symptoms in adulthood

75 points by rendx 3y ago

mjevans 3y ago
Skimming, this seems like validation of common sense. I would not be surprised if it also applies to victims of frequent bullying.
- throwaway290 3y ago
  As paper says in the abstract it is generally understood but this is about specific periods not just "early trauma means issues later".
  - em-bee 3y ago
    well, the knowledge that the first 5 or 6 years of the development of a child are the most important and affect everything that comes after is not new either.
nyanpasu64 3y ago
> However, a more novel observation from this study was that there appeared to be two developmental stages when trauma exposure was associated with elevated levels of subsequent psychopathology. First, participants exposed to child maltreatment during early childhood (ages 0–5) had both depression and PTSD symptoms that were up to twice as high as those exposed during later developmental stages. These effects were detected even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, exposure to other types of traumas, and the number of occurrences of child maltreatment (i.e., the frequency of exposure). Such findings are consistent with several prospective 15–17 and retrospective studies 18,31 also showing an elevated risk for subsequent depression, in particular, among those first exposed in the first five years of life. Although the mechanisms linking early trauma exposure to subsequent psychopathology risk are not well known 56, early trauma exposure may be more damaging than later trauma exposure because it compromises a child’s ability to successfully master stage-salient developmental tasks (e.g., self-regulation, secure attachments) 57 and damages the foundation of brain architecture and neurobiological systems involved in regulating arousal, emotion, stress responses, and reward processing 58–61, which are all implicated in the onset and persistence of stress-related disorders like depression and PTSD. > Second, we also found that participants first exposed during middle childhood (ages 6–10) to other types of interpersonal violence, including witnessing a friend or family member being murdered or being attacked with or without a weapon, had depressive symptoms scores that were about twice as high as those first exposed during adulthood. Similar results were also detected for PTSD, but were not statistically significant after adjusting the frequency or number of occurrences of child exposure. These results are consistent with at least some prior studies suggesting that trauma during middle childhood, including severe illness 41, or natural disasters 34–36 is associated with an elevated risk for PTSD relative to exposure in other periods. Although the mechanisms driving this association are unclear, exposure to interpersonal violence events during middle childhood may be more harmful than exposure in adulthood for a number of reasons: school-age children may be in a unique developmental stages where they do not benefit as much from parental buffering 62, when demands from the social environment increase (i.e., relating to peers, participating in school activities) 63, and when adaptive coping capacities are still developing 64. Guess I'll die...
- nullhole 3y ago
  The striking thing to me is how complete the fear is. The childhood imagination becomes a detriment because of its ability to imagine and believe inutterable terror. With that early fear, it's harder, later on in life, to believe in limits to how bad things can become.
  - JoshGG 3y ago
    [flagged]
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    - theshackleford 3y ago
      It’s not a competition.
    - epylar 3y ago
      As this is psychology, the goal is not always to believe the exact truth, or to dwell on things that have lower probability of happening, as it does not give the individual in question any advantage, it just causes them to become overly afraid and unable to protect themselves.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
- deleted 3y ago
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- username135 3y ago
bowsamic 3y ago
This coincides nicely with the thoughts of my psychoanalyst. I think our first exposures to the world shape our whole experience of reality. My parents got divorced and my mum left when I was 2 and now I’m 29 and my entire life so far has had the underlying deep fear of being abandoned and not being good enough. Last year that came to a head and I had a year long depressive breakdown. I think I’m ready to start working again but I’m sure I’ll be dealing with the outcomes of my parents divorce for my whole life simply because it happened so early. When I was a kid I was glad it happened when I was young as teenagers around me were going through it and experiencing great pain, but now I realise they were very lucky!
- dorkwood 3y ago
  I had a similar thing happen to me. My parents split when I was at two. At five, my brother was sent to live with my father. A year later, I was sent to live there, too. I can still remember lying awake at my father's house, crying out "I want my mummy", and my father coming in to tell me to be quiet. Growing up, I didn't understand why everyone else found it so easy to get a girlfriend. Any time I got close, I'd suddenly get the urge to run away -- and I would. Now, in my thirties, I have a better understanding of where that fear comes from, but the wires in my head are still tangled, and I don't know if I'll be able to get them untangled in time.
  - bowsamic 3y ago
    Yes, sounds very similar. For me, my earliest two memories are the following: a dream-like memory of my mum leaving and me being distraught and confused, and then the oft-told "funny" story of my dad hiding away in my bathroom while I was screaming sticking my fingers under the door. For a long time I thought I had no trauma, because I was not abused and suffered no violence, but now I realise that's a very naive view. After a few years I visited my mum every other weekend, which was confusing and stressful for me, since I loved being there so much, but it created a kind of tension between my "real life" with my dad, and this dream place I would go to every other weekend. When I was a teenager the symptoms of the trauma started appearing. I was very jealous and depressed. Even today, even though I am happily married, I feel somehow hurt and confused if I think about other people having sex. I'm quite lucky I managed to get with my now-wife at 18, because she "straightened me out" in many ways. And regarding my wife (then girlfriend), I would so often get really worried she was going to leave or that I'd upset her. I would ask constantly "are you okay?" or "have I upset you?", she was very frustrated by it. But of course, it makes perfect sense, my fundamental worldview is that the people you deeply love go away, and of course I blamed myself. So I now find it difficult to get close to people, because I'm scared of getting hurt like that original pain. And I'm convinced everything is my fault, and every failure reminds me of that initial "failure" where, in my own subjective thinking, I was bad enough that I pushed her love away. Therefore, if I feel a sense of struggle, it literally feels like the world is ending, since that is the original fear. This all came to a head in 2022 and 2023 when I moved to Germany and started having issues with my Physics postdoc work, and was not receiving any help from my boss. I really spiralled down into a deep sense of hopelessness, and just kind of accepted that my world had ended. I stopped going into work because as an academic no one cares if you're there anyway, and eventually I had to take extended sick leave. I'm now finally climbing out again, and I have hope again, but it has taken hundreds of hours of work with my therapist, and we've now upgraded to three sessions a week, which are definitely worth it. I'm very glad to have moved from the UK to Germany, there is absolutely zero chance I would have gotten this support in the UK, and I get my therapy totally for free too. I think she thinks I'm a reasonably worthy case for it though... The fact I can type any of the stuff I just did is entirely a result of the therapy. At the beginning I was just purely confused. I had no idea what was wrong.
mmvasq 3y ago
Just the opener is giving me the feels for kids surviving in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel….so many places right now, long roads to recovery need mental health support and science to continue.

75 points by rendx 3y ago

Skimming, this seems like validation of common sense. I would not be surprised if it also applies to victims of frequent bullying.

throwaway290 3y ago
As paper says in the abstract it is generally understood but this is about specific periods not just "early trauma means issues later".
- em-bee 3y ago
  well, the knowledge that the first 5 or 6 years of the development of a child are the most important and affect everything that comes after is not new either.

nyanpasu64 3y ago

> However, a more novel observation from this study was that there appeared to be two developmental stages when trauma exposure was associated with elevated levels of subsequent psychopathology. First, participants exposed to child maltreatment during early childhood (ages 0–5) had both depression and PTSD symptoms that were up to twice as high as those exposed during later developmental stages. These effects were detected even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics, exposure to other types of traumas, and the number of occurrences of child maltreatment (i.e., the frequency of exposure). Such findings are consistent with several prospective 15–17 and retrospective studies 18,31 also showing an elevated risk for subsequent depression, in particular, among those first exposed in the first five years of life. Although the mechanisms linking early trauma exposure to subsequent psychopathology risk are not well known 56, early trauma exposure may be more damaging than later trauma exposure because it compromises a child’s ability to successfully master stage-salient developmental tasks (e.g., self-regulation, secure attachments) 57 and damages the foundation of brain architecture and neurobiological systems involved in regulating arousal, emotion, stress responses, and reward processing 58–61, which are all implicated in the onset and persistence of stress-related disorders like depression and PTSD. > Second, we also found that participants first exposed during middle childhood (ages 6–10) to other types of interpersonal violence, including witnessing a friend or family member being murdered or being attacked with or without a weapon, had depressive symptoms scores that were about twice as high as those first exposed during adulthood. Similar results were also detected for PTSD, but were not statistically significant after adjusting the frequency or number of occurrences of child exposure. These results are consistent with at least some prior studies suggesting that trauma during middle childhood, including severe illness 41, or natural disasters 34–36 is associated with an elevated risk for PTSD relative to exposure in other periods. Although the mechanisms driving this association are unclear, exposure to interpersonal violence events during middle childhood may be more harmful than exposure in adulthood for a number of reasons: school-age children may be in a unique developmental stages where they do not benefit as much from parental buffering 62, when demands from the social environment increase (i.e., relating to peers, participating in school activities) 63, and when adaptive coping capacities are still developing 64. Guess I'll die...

nullhole 3y ago
The striking thing to me is how complete the fear is. The childhood imagination becomes a detriment because of its ability to imagine and believe inutterable terror. With that early fear, it's harder, later on in life, to believe in limits to how bad things can become.
- JoshGG 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - theshackleford 3y ago
    It’s not a competition.
  - epylar 3y ago
    As this is psychology, the goal is not always to believe the exact truth, or to dwell on things that have lower probability of happening, as it does not give the individual in question any advantage, it just causes them to become overly afraid and unable to protect themselves.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
username135 3y ago

bowsamic 3y ago

This coincides nicely with the thoughts of my psychoanalyst. I think our first exposures to the world shape our whole experience of reality. My parents got divorced and my mum left when I was 2 and now I’m 29 and my entire life so far has had the underlying deep fear of being abandoned and not being good enough. Last year that came to a head and I had a year long depressive breakdown. I think I’m ready to start working again but I’m sure I’ll be dealing with the outcomes of my parents divorce for my whole life simply because it happened so early. When I was a kid I was glad it happened when I was young as teenagers around me were going through it and experiencing great pain, but now I realise they were very lucky!

dorkwood 3y ago
I had a similar thing happen to me. My parents split when I was at two. At five, my brother was sent to live with my father. A year later, I was sent to live there, too. I can still remember lying awake at my father's house, crying out "I want my mummy", and my father coming in to tell me to be quiet. Growing up, I didn't understand why everyone else found it so easy to get a girlfriend. Any time I got close, I'd suddenly get the urge to run away -- and I would. Now, in my thirties, I have a better understanding of where that fear comes from, but the wires in my head are still tangled, and I don't know if I'll be able to get them untangled in time.
- bowsamic 3y ago
  Yes, sounds very similar. For me, my earliest two memories are the following: a dream-like memory of my mum leaving and me being distraught and confused, and then the oft-told "funny" story of my dad hiding away in my bathroom while I was screaming sticking my fingers under the door. For a long time I thought I had no trauma, because I was not abused and suffered no violence, but now I realise that's a very naive view. After a few years I visited my mum every other weekend, which was confusing and stressful for me, since I loved being there so much, but it created a kind of tension between my "real life" with my dad, and this dream place I would go to every other weekend. When I was a teenager the symptoms of the trauma started appearing. I was very jealous and depressed. Even today, even though I am happily married, I feel somehow hurt and confused if I think about other people having sex. I'm quite lucky I managed to get with my now-wife at 18, because she "straightened me out" in many ways. And regarding my wife (then girlfriend), I would so often get really worried she was going to leave or that I'd upset her. I would ask constantly "are you okay?" or "have I upset you?", she was very frustrated by it. But of course, it makes perfect sense, my fundamental worldview is that the people you deeply love go away, and of course I blamed myself. So I now find it difficult to get close to people, because I'm scared of getting hurt like that original pain. And I'm convinced everything is my fault, and every failure reminds me of that initial "failure" where, in my own subjective thinking, I was bad enough that I pushed her love away. Therefore, if I feel a sense of struggle, it literally feels like the world is ending, since that is the original fear. This all came to a head in 2022 and 2023 when I moved to Germany and started having issues with my Physics postdoc work, and was not receiving any help from my boss. I really spiralled down into a deep sense of hopelessness, and just kind of accepted that my world had ended. I stopped going into work because as an academic no one cares if you're there anyway, and eventually I had to take extended sick leave. I'm now finally climbing out again, and I have hope again, but it has taken hundreds of hours of work with my therapist, and we've now upgraded to three sessions a week, which are definitely worth it. I'm very glad to have moved from the UK to Germany, there is absolutely zero chance I would have gotten this support in the UK, and I get my therapy totally for free too. I think she thinks I'm a reasonably worthy case for it though... The fact I can type any of the stuff I just did is entirely a result of the therapy. At the beginning I was just purely confused. I had no idea what was wrong.

mmvasq 3y ago

Just the opener is giving me the feels for kids surviving in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel….so many places right now, long roads to recovery need mental health support and science to continue.