How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across a Lifetime: Understanding Chronic Pain and Illness

When people hear the word “trauma,” they often think of major events: violence, accidents, or abuse. But trauma isn’t always about what happened to you. Sometimes it’s about what didn’t happen: not being comforted when you cried, not feeling safe to express anger, or growing up in a household where emotions were shut down.

Trauma, in the simplest terms, is anything that was too much, too soon, for your nervous system to process.

This is why trauma isn’t just a “mental” issue. Trauma is stored in the body. You may have even read the book "The Body Keeps the Score." And when the nervous system doesn’t learn how to regulate itself, the effects ripple out into adulthood, shaping your health, your relationships, and even your body image.

What Childhood Trauma Really Is

Trauma is less about the event and more about the body’s response. When children can’t safely escape danger or process what’s happening, their nervous system goes into the survival modes: fight, flight, freeze, or appease.

• A child who runs away in an effort to escape punishment is showing a flight pattern.

• A child who yells, protests, and rebels is in a fight pattern.

• A child who hides and stays small is in patterns of freeze and shame.

• A child who fawns (“Mom, you’re the best mom in the world” even when they’re in trouble) learns appeasement as survival.

These survival strategies can be life-saving in childhood, but they ca turn into chronic patterns of stress, pain, and self-criticism in adulthood.

How Childhood Trauma Shows Up in Health

Decades later, the nervous system still reacts as if danger is present, even when you’re safe. This can lead to:

• Chronic pain and fatigue – The body stays tense and stressed, blood flow shifts, and pain signals amplify.

• Autoimmune conditions – A dysregulated nervous system impacts immunity. Immunity rises under chronic stress, just in case you are injured as you try to fight or escape. But when you're under chronic stress and the immune cells don't have an outside invader to attack, it can begin to attack the tissues within the body.

• Emotional eating and weight struggles – Anger and shame turned inward often show up as self-criticism and food as comfort.

• Low body image and self-worth – When boundaries weren’t respected in childhood, anger often gets redirected toward the body.

• Difficulty resting or relaxing – If you grew up in a household where being still was “lazy,” your nervous system may never feel safe to calm down.

This is why health across a lifetime is deeply linked to childhood trauma. It's not because your body or nervous system is broken, but because it adapted to keep you safe.

Everyday Examples You Might Recognize

• You blame yourself at work when something goes wrong, even if it wasn’t your fault.

• You feel guilty asking for help at home, even when you’re exhausted.

• You can’t sit still or rest without feeling like you’re “doing something wrong.”

• You wake up already anxious, replaying yesterday’s mistakes or anticipating today’s stress.

These are nervous system patterns, not personality flaws.

The Link Between Trauma, Pain, and Body Image

Research in pain science and mind-body medicine shows that unresolved trauma often manifests as physical symptoms. Dr. John Sarno, a pioneer in the field, described how repressed rage can lead to back pain and other chronic symptoms. Today’s science builds on this: unprocessed stress responses keep the body in survival mode, which over time impacts hormones, immunity, and even posture.

And when it comes to body image, unresolved shame and anger often get turned inward. Instead of expressing rage outward (which felt unsafe as a child), the body becomes the target. “I hate my stomach” or “I need to punish myself with exercise” are ways that unprocessed emotions play out physically.

Can You Heal If You Don’t Remember Childhood Events?

Yes. Most trauma is stored as implicit memory, which is held as body sensations, emotions, or tension. It is not explicit storylines or pictures. That’s why you might ask: “Is not remembering your childhood a sign of trauma?” The answer is often yes, but the good news is that you don’t need to remember every detail to heal. Somatic practices allow the body to release stuck patterns without re-living old experiences.

In somatic practices, you also don't need to retell the story. You can be guided to release held trauma without sharing what happened or repeating stories over and over again.

How to Start Healing

Healing begins with learning emotional regulation and teaching your nervous system that it’s safe now. This might look likeL

• Somatic experiencing or trauma-informed therapy

• Gentle mindfulness or somatic tracking practices

• Progressive muscle relaxation before workouts

• Journaling (try a “feelings journal” or a “healing journal” for daily check-ins)

• Allowing yourself to rest without guilt

The key is not forcing your body into change, but creating conditions for your nervous system to naturally reset.

Resources if You’re Exploring Childhood Trauma

• Books about childhood trauma can provide validation and guidance, but the real work is experiential. Your body needs to feel safe, not just think differently.

• Working with a mind-body practitioner can help you move from thought loops into body-based healing.

Final Thoughts

Childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime by changing the patterns of the nervous system. Your body adapted brilliantly to protect you, but once you are safe there are ways to rewire these patterns to reduce pain, improve body image, and feel more joy. If you see yourself in patterns of pain, fatigue, shame, or body image struggles, healing is possible. Your nervous system holds the wisdom to come back into balance, and with compassion, patience, and the right tools, you can reclaim both your health and your peace.