Sounds like your family has taken on a heavy load in service to your country 🧡.
How much do you feel intergenerational PTSD and the genetic damage caused by PTSD is passed on to children? So not just the parent is damaged but the children are also already damaged and facing an unstable parent and or family?
These are interesting questions. There is some research, but not definitive answer as far as I can tell. It has been suggested that it is likely PTSD is transferred genetically rather than it being solely a learned or psychological response to severe life-endangering experiences. One study that looked at Australian Vietnam veteran children supported the idea of genetic intergenerational transmission of PTSD, hypothesising that if PTSD is heritable, then PTSD and PTSD-type symptoms might be multi-generationally transmitted. But these are hypotheses rather than definitive answers, as the mechanisms by which trauma and trauma symptoms are transmitted aren’t yet fully understood.
One thing that is well documented is that families of veterans with PTSD generally have poorer family functioning than families of veterans without. PTSD leads to lower frustration threshold and lower self-control, which can lead to the use of verbal and physical violence as a means of solving problems.
A recent Australian study showed that 45% of transitioned veteran families experience family violence. We know that people who experience family violence have an increased risk of developing PTSD.
But the other, less explosive aspects of PTSD such as numbness, dissociation and avoidance can also have significant consequences on parent-child relationships, such as impaired attachment to children, less interest in children’s activities and the parent not talking or listening or being affectionate toward kids.
Back to the genetic transfer of PTSD question, though there isn’t really any significant research on this, I am interested in the prevalence of neurodivergence in military families and how this relates to generational trauma. Does your family have any neurodivergence? (I mean, PTSD and c-PTSD are actually considered neurodivergences, so, if you have PTSD, you already have a neurodivergence, but I am wondering if anyone in your family also has ADHD or autism?)
I have been diagnosed with ADHD and both my kids are neurodivergent. I know we are now diagnosing these conditions more than we did in the past, but I had no idea about them really until I had to go through the process of getting my son diagnosed. Before his diagnosis I looked at his symptoms and they looked like trauma to me. I kept thinking to myself “How have I traumatised him?”
Again, the research isn’t definitive, but there is evidence that people with ADHD and autism have differences in our fear circuitry that are similar to those seen in PTSD. We know anxiety plays a huge role in PTSD, ADHD and autism. Studies also show brain differences in the amygdala in all of these conditions (the part of the brain that scans for danger and reacts to threats) as well as the pre-frontal cortex (the area responsible for decision-making and higher level thinking, planning etc.). Our neurotransmitters are also impacted, meaning we often have higher levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, and because our threat detection system is more sensitive, tiny things can set us all off.
Neurodivergence might not be a thing in your family, but I think neurodivergence in military families, and the changes that happen in neurodivergent brains related to generational trauma is an area that definitely warrants further research.
I hope that in some way answered your question!
