The paper adopts an Indigenous Standpoints approach meaning that Indigenous research and voices are privileged within the report. A comprehensive review of electronic databases was conducted to identify relevant literature. This paper aims to define the link between intergenerational trauma and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ mental health and to identify current best-practice policies and programs to address this issue. This prolonged and continuing exposure to trauma and risk factors places Indigenous Australians at a heightened risk of mental ill-health. The colonisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the oppressive practices that followed has resulted in a legacy of unaddressed intergenerational trauma. Where trauma is unacknowledged, it can result in the re-traumatisation of later generations. The link between exposure to trauma and increased risk of poor mental health is well established. If you do have coping mechanisms for poor mental health, but they are destructive, this may be another symptom of intergenerational trauma.Social & emotional wellbeing Mental health Suicide prevention Family & community Culture, Country & spirituality Service provision Abstract You self-harm or have destructive coping mechanisms "If your family never had a mechanism for managing low moods, for example, reaching out and speaking to people, it can quickly turn into extended periods of depression," he said. Although you might be genetically predisposed to experiencing issues such as addiction, the mental health issues themselves aren't the intergenerational trauma, Hammond said, but the response to them. You may not have the tools to deal with low moods and mental health issuesĮxperiencing trauma can result in low moods and mental health problems. "Often people aren't aware of why they are responding in a certain way, but if you were to trace it back to their childhood and what's going on with their parents, you might see that people who have gone through really challenging trauma learn how to manage in particular ways, such as having difficulties expressing their emotions, which then gets modeled to their children," he said. Hammond said that responding to events in a way that may not be deemed appropriate, such as feeling numb when others experience emotions or behaving in an over-the-top way can also be a symptom of intergenerational trauma. "As we were forming as humans, our brains were thinking: 'How do we stay safe? How do we feed ourselves? How do we just survive?' We're still primed in that way, so if some people have had trauma in their family history, they might always be looking around to check if they have enough people around them to help them survive," he said. You need to be around people all the timeĬonversely, the need to be around people all the time could be an inherited need to feel safe in a group, Hammond said. This can manifest as trust issues in romantic relationships if you've learned from your family to be suspicious of those looking after you, because romantic feelings are similar to those that babies have in relation to their carers, Hammond said. Since then, the term has been used to describe inherited trauma from enslaved people, including African Americans, as well as wars and natural disasters. The concept of intergenerational trauma was first described in the context of the children of Holocaust victims after Canadian psychiatrists noticed they were overrepresented in referrals to psychiatry clinics in the mid-sixties, two decades after the end of World War II. Intergenerational trauma is also thought to have what is known as an epigenetic component, where past generations' experiences affect how certain genes are expressed in their children and grandchildren, with more research needed to confirm this. A person's environment or circumstance may lead them to behave in a certain way, which their child may mirror, with the cycle continuing for generations, he said. Intergenerational trauma, also known as multigenerational, transgenerational, or historical trauma, is where the effects of events experienced by a person's parents, grandparents, and ancestors are passed down through the repetition of behaviors and relationship dynamics, Hendrix Hammond, a psychotherapist based in London, told Business Insider. You're probably aware that your parents help shape who you are, but that effect runs deeper for those experiencing what is known as intergenerational trauma. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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