Childhood trauma is an unfortunate reality that around 63.9% of children experience, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

     Adolescence is an essential part of development, and so when trauma impacts the child’ s mind, the damage is much more likely to have a long-term effect.

According to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, children who experience trauma from their childhood from their primary caregivers, there is a strong correlation with the loss of self worth. This can affect the child into adulthood, making relationships difficult. Trauma experienced during adolescence shapes children immensely, permanently leaving an effect on how they function in society and develop in adulthood.

     For Freshman Ziphoria Baron, his trauma roots from his experience living with his mother.

     “She would hit me and she would emotionally abuse me. She would call the police and tell them that I hit her, when she was hitting me. She would manipulate everyone around her,” he said.

     Baron’s abuse started from the age of only six. At the time, his parents had already been divorced, and co-parented every other week.

     “I didn’t really know what to do, that was just my life, it was normal to me.”

     Having grown up in that environment, Baron explained he didn’t understand that it was abuse. Speaking up about abuse can be difficult, and for Baron, he was only able to tell his father later on what had been happening.

     Baron described one of the most memorable interactions while staying at his mother’s house.

     “She was having this week where she was really off… I was supposed to go back to my dad’s house at the end of the week, but I didn’t. She kept me an extra week. I remember that she just kept watching me, she ended up putting a camera in my room,” Baron said.

     His mother has schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which he explained prompted most of her episodes. 

     “Later, at the end of the week, my dad showed up. All I remember is a lot of police, detectives, and DHS on the property.”

     This incident led to Baron being put with his father permanently at the age of nine. On top of the abuse, he underwent an unstable education, with schools being changed often, and even homeschooling. Not only affecting his domestic relationships, but also his social.

     “I didn’t really have friends, I just kept to myself.”

     Recovering from abuse can be difficult, leaving traces of the past deep in the mind.

     “I developed PTSD from it, it’s just hard for me to be around people sometimes. If I hear about my mom it’s hard for me,” he said.

     Despite the negative effects the trauma has caused Baron, he has also gained a lot of awareness from the experience.

     “I’ve really grown as a person. I feel like it has definitely made me more aware of people’s situations. If something is going on with someone else I can tell.”

     Another student, who asked The Whirlwind not to use her name to protect her and her family’s identity, underwent a trauma-inducing relationship with her father.

     Her father, an addict and a marijuana dealer, emotionally antagonized her family.

     “He yelled at us a lot when he was high on weed, and then when I would be with my friends he would take pictures of us without us knowing,” she said. ”He would also take pictures of me sleeping, so now I have problems with closing my eyes around people.”

     She explained that it was not just affecting her, but everyone in her family.

     “He yelled at my mom a lot and treated her as a slave. When my brother was playing [his sport] and he wasn’t making points, he’d get really mad at my brother for that.”

     Her father growing marijuana led to several moments when she was confronted with it in her home, also due the amount of weed he was smoking on a regular basis. When she was only twelve.

      “He said that if I wanted, as a career, I could work for him packaging the “stuff” he makes.”

     Luckily, in 2023, she and her family stopped seeing him after the divorce. Yet the effects still take a toll on her mentally.

     “It makes me feel like I’m not good enough. Since going to middle school, my teachers have told me I should go into advanced classes, but I felt like if I got in those I would have to do perfect or else he would get mad. I chose the safer route, which I regret now,” she said.

     This especially is an issue when it comes to sport events.

     “Post-divorce, my parents can’t be in a room together, so that makes things stressful for my brother’s [sport] and for mine. Only one of them can come. My mom just can’t see my dad anymore without freaking out.”

     Not being able to have a supportive father during her childhood had a negative impact on her self worth.

     “It applies to [sport] too, because I stopped because of COVID, and then I tried joining back, but I wasn’t as good. I felt like that would disappoint my dad. So it took me several years to get back into that,” she said.

     She suspects that the main reason for this trauma was due to his parents treating him the same way, which goes to show that trauma can be carried from childhood to adulthood. Looking into her future, she says she plans to have children, hoping to treat them better than she was.

    “I want to do better than my father. I also really like seeing kids achieve milestones.”