Epigenetics and Trauma | Part One
A Brief Introduction
I stumbled across generational trauma and epigenetics while writing recent posts about the formation of identity and individuation.
Amazed by the information, I wanted to dig deeper.
Many years ago, my grandma and great-aunts claimed that an unborn baby could feel whatever the mother was feeling. If she were happy during pregnancy, she would have a happy baby. But if the mom was suffering in some way, the baby would, too.
These women, born in the early 1900s with little education, were (apparently) ahead of their time.
As an evolving field of research, epigenetics studies how trauma can impact the genes of future generations (among other things.)
It studies how cells control gene activity without changing the DNA sequence.1
Yikes! Here comes Biology, which is often intimidating for the nonscientists among us.
Hopefully, this short TED-Ed video explains it in an easier-to-understand way:
NEXT WEEK: I’ll cover more background info on this fascinating concept and how family history could impact our lives today (much more than previously thought!)
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I aspirin to write short and sweet... failing, so far. :)
In the meanwhile I was adopted and often wonder if my biological mother was in distress during her pregnancy. Ive had anxiety all my life, and "nurture" hasn't been the cause... so maybe nature. I love the epigenetics topic.
Thanks for sharing. So interesting as usual. 🤩