we can't change the past, but the past can change us for
generations to realize the capability of humanity to
turn into the most vicious creatures on this earth we
have that built in to us. Bill cu gelman is 98 years
old, but he vividly remembers life as a teenager in
Poland when Nazis tore him from his home and condemned
him to the concentration camps, smoking dried leaves to
tame, ravaging hunger and growing numb from the
beatings and the fear Gugelmin believed he'd never se
freedom again, did not react two things anymore, but
it's just like you beat the dead horse, That was it,
Gugelmin says even 80 years later, he can't bring
himself to give a full description of life and death i
the concentration camps and to those closest to that
kind of pain. It's their history too, even if they
didn't live it. Children of Trauma survivors have an
experiential knowledge of their parents, trauma of
experiences that they never actually lived through. Dr
Irit Felsen, a psychologist who specializes in
holocaust related trauma knows this subject on a deeper
level. Both her parents were survivors, making her a
two G or second generation survivor. She says C
of survivors can react to their parents, anxiety and
depression, being hyper vigilan about all kinds of
things all the time. A little suspicious, mistrustfu
nous anxiety, a tendency to sort of depressive
experiences. This is called intergenerational trauma
which means a survivor was impacted so greatly their
descendants also. Grapple with the effect of a
traumatizing event according to the american
psychological association, Peop who experience it.
Intergenerational trauma may show emotional or
behavioral patterns similar to the survivor like shame,
increased anxiety and guilt, low self esteem,
depression, even substance abuse and difficulty
creating relationships with oth and so much more
intergenerational trauma was first identified among
Children of holocaust survivors It isn't specific to
one culture. Take brought plenty. An indigenous woman
who says she remembers the moments federal US official
forcibly took her from her grandparents and sent her to
a boarding school designed to erase her language
culture and beliefs. She just grabbed my hair on one
side of my braids and just cut it off and threw it
right at me and then went to the other side and cut it
off. She was just 6.5 years old and never saw her
grandparents again. Now at age 70 brought plenty
recalls how she was forced to forget her name, bathed
in soap that smelled like lie and suffered physical
abuse at the hands of other students and staff. She
says her daughter Nilla now bears consequences of that
trauma. I can honestly say with my older Children, I
never hugged, I never kissed them, you know, um, I
never told him I was proud of them, psychologist
Fabiana franco is among a chorus of researchers who say
difficulty expressing love or emotions can affect a
child's sense of worth, which they then pass on to
their own Children later in life Neil is trauma
manifests as guilt as she helps her mother find missing
Children who never came home from boarding school. I
have a breakdown at least once a month because you know,
I'm reading all of these testimonies and then I feel
bad because I'm like well I should be able to read this
if other people live through it. But at the same time
it's like, you know, you can't carry Hundreds of people.
Researchers have widely documented the effects of
intergenerational trauma. There no conclusive finding
about how it's passed. Researcher Janel Daniel
believes survivors may struggle to form healthy bonds
and emotional attachments to their Children, which can
create a cycle of avoidance and distrustful
relationships. But one study by Dr Rachel Yehuda at
Mount Sinai Hospital found genetic changes to holocaust
survivors descendants. Specific focused on the gene
associated with stress hormones This theory is known
as epigenetic inheritance. The thought that
environmental factors like stre or diet can affect
your descendants. Gene expressi In the 2008 lecture
Dr Joy D group called this effect in the black
community. Post traumatic slave syndrome Hundreds of
years of trauma. No treatment, freed more trauma, n
treatment. What do you do The math Do you think there
may be residual impacts of that trauma Of course there
is. It didn't end friends and it hasn't ended yet. Grew
says black americans still feel the impact of slavery
through elevated stress levels affecting their body's
immune system. She says there is also a sense of a
foreshortened future internalized racism, difficulty
sleeping and angry outbursts grew, argues the trauma
responses are so prevalent. Others wrongly believe it's
inherently part of the black experience, that's their
culture, that's just the way they that's their culture.
So there's poison in the cookies, Right But how are you
going to tease out that poison To cut the
intergenerational chain of trauma, therapists recommend
being open about the extent of past issues and
discussing the impact with loved ones. There are also
different areas of professional help. Narrative
exposure therapy helps patients reframe traumatic to
relinquish the control it plays in their lives and the
intergenerational trauma treatm model focuses on
healing unresolved childhood trauma through different
cognitive behavioral techniques for Neela and brought
plenty I know for myself that I have to step back in a
way as painful as it seems to me. They're building
trust and closeness through bringing justice to the
indigenous Children who never m it home. I want my
daughter to live a good life, Breaking the cycle to
heal the future Alex miller Newsy