The experiences of our ancestors shape us. Reactions such as inappropriate anger, constant fear, or sadness may indicate inherited trauma. Also some diseases.
More and more people are becoming aware that we are influenced by what our ancestors experienced – and how they dealt with it. Sabine Bode’s books about the long-term effects of the Second World War on generations of children and grandchildren have long been bestsellers. What is kept secret and suppressed can be a great burden, which shows up in various symptoms.
Feelings that indicate inherited trauma
If your feelings or reactions don’t match the current life situation, it’s a sign that you’re feeling some inherited trauma:
- If you cannot find any experiences in your own biography that explain your behavior.
- When, in some situations, you are suddenly overwhelmed by a huge amount of anger that is inappropriate for the occasion.
- Do you have a sadness inside you without a trigger?
- Are you constantly afraid and worried, although you are actually fine, you have a secure job, a home, a family?
- An indefinite longing often shows that there is more affecting you than you yourself know. When you’re always looking without knowing what for.
- Or if you can’t settle down in your job, in your partnership, in yourself – no matter how many coaching or talk therapies you have already done.
Possible physical symptoms
Physical symptoms can also be caused by inherited trauma, but do not have to be. Possible diseases include:
- migraine
- chronic back pain
- memory difficulties
- skin diseases
- depressions
- anxiety disorders
- Cancer
The reasons for illnesses or mental stress are diverse and complex, a conventional medical clarification is always necessary. However, it is sometimes worth opening the focus further and considering that inherited trauma may be affecting you.
Experiences are inherited
What sounds esoteric has long been a recognized object of research. For a long time it was thought that only genes determine what we pass on to our children. But in recent years, science has discovered the topic of transgenerational inheritance, epigenetics. Epigenetic factors help determine which genes are turned on or off. They are changed by environmental influences and experiences such as famine, war or severe stress. And can be inherited over several generations. For example, it affects how we deal with stress.
studies from the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg showed that there is a connection between the food supply of grandfathers and an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in their grandchildren.
The neuroscientist Isabelle Mansuy, who conducts research in Zurich, demonstrated in experiments with mice that childhood trauma can be passed on to the fifth generation.
Unlived feelings stay in the family
But our emotional world is also influenced by our ancestors. The grief counselor and author Christine Kempkes talks in her podcast “Lovely Mourning” about how life-changing it was for her to realize that she had felt her mother’s unlived grief for the stillborn first child for years. The mother came to the hospital with a big belly and returned without a child. That’s how it is, if people had reacted back then, you’re still young. Complete. The unlived feeling was felt in the family.
Until Kempkes went to her dead sister’s 60th birthday with her mother where her grave had been, laid flowers and made room for this loss. Only then did the heaviness and the vague longing that Kempkes had always carried around with him give way. Today she sees her sister as a source of strength.
Kempke’s family biographical work was very helpful, that is, dealing with what her ancestors experienced and what similarities there are to her own life issues. It’s called genogram work. Helpful can also be family constellations. All topics that burden one’s own life, including physical symptoms, can be set up and viewed.
Some become more resilient
The good news: Even if the ancestors experienced bad things – and that is very likely in view of the Second World War alone – it does not automatically mean that the descendants will suffer. Epigenetic processes can be influenced by external circumstances such as one’s own behavior, diet, exercise and new experiences.
In addition, some show investigationsthat the following generations can become even more resilient. An Anglo-German team of scientists demonstrated a positive effect on the health of the grandchildren of people who starved in the German swede winter of 1916/17. They are said to have fewer mental illnesses.
Sources used: nzz.ch, deutschesgesundheitsportal.de, mpg.de, sciencedirect.com