Personality Connect

Greyson was a bubbly, outgoing seven-year-old child. He would often create songs and try to play his mother’s piano at home. Although shorter than most children his age, his confidence level did not suffer; in second grade he started to get teased for his size and wanting to be a performer. The children in his classroom yelled and threw things at him in the hallway and during lunchtime because he would sing and play around. When he tried to join chorus the teacher told him he sounded like a crying hyena. Greyson didn’t know what a hyena meant and asked his mother that evening. His mother told him not everyone is a star and to pick something easier.

Vicky was a quiet yet extremely precocious child at the tender age of four. She was the second to youngest child in a family of five siblings. When her mother lost her job she moved in with her brother. Vicky’s uncle started sexually abusing her and she became even more withdrawn. She was afraid to say anything because her uncle threatened to throw them out on the streets and they wouldn’t have anywhere to live. When Vicky’s mother abandoned them a couple of years later the abuse was worse. Her uncle constantly reminded her that he was all she had left and she had no choice if she wanted to stay there.

Zhari was a vibrant eleven-year-old when her town was attacked and the bombs started raining down. She didn’t know if they would be alive from one day to the next. They were trying to escape but it was very dangerous to even step foot outside. Her family did not have food or water and they almost starved to death. By the time Zhari left the country, she and an older brother were the only survivors. The rest of her family died during the war. When she arrived to safety in a completely different continent they wanted to tear her apart from the last surviving member because he was an adult; they wanted to send him to a different country for refugee status.

These stories are examples of the heartbreaking, unacceptable abuse that many children suffer on a daily basis. Most people have experienced a certain level of trauma in their childhood, which has an effect on personality as an adult. Many mood and personality disorders stem from early childhood abuse. Bullying, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse has long lasting effects that often are overlooked. If someone does not receive counseling early-on or seek counseling as an early adult it becomes worse as we get older.

Atrocities such as the slave trade, the holocaust, the many civil wars and genocide that continue to plague this world leave people with excruciating amounts of post traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, and other mood disturbing behaviors. New studies are being conducted to see how Epigenetics are affecting people and generations to come.

Childhood trauma is extremely difficult to overcome. The next time you ponder your personality type ask yourself this question, “Who do you think you would be if you didn’t experience the pain and stress growing up as a child”?

To read more on Greyson, click here: The Effects of Childhood Trauma: A Case Study

To read more on Vicky, click here: The Effects of Childhood Trauma: A Case Study

To read more on Zhari, click here: The Effects of Childhood Trauma: A Case Study