Do you think childhood trauma can cause schizophrenia?

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Is there a link between childhood trauma and schizophrenia?

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Yes, trauma can turn on the sz gene. Environmental factors that induce stress can turn on the sz gene.

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There is trauma induced sz that’s what my pdoc told me about mine

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Does the trauma have to be huge or can it be something small?

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Never really thought of it like that trauma is just trauma. Everyone reacts differently to different situations I suppose

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I believe trauma is one of the triggers for schizophrenia. Calling it a direct cause might be stretching it a bit. I believe that you have to already be susceptible to developing sz in order for trauma to play a role.

That being said, NO ONE knows the cause of sz for sure. I think that most people believe there are genetic AND environmental factors at play that lead to sz. This is what I believe as well. (In most cases anyway.)

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My larger struggle was to keep my schizophrenia from causing childhood trauma.

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Every study I’ve read on sz points to the two factor theory: genes and environmental stressors, such as childhood trauma. But the most widely accepted theory is you have to be genetically predisposed in the first place.

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“The mental trauma” in the context of potential causes of schizophrenia can be something pathetically small and insignificant. Personally, I didn’t recognize what my traumas were only a few years after my psychosis finished and after I distilled the content of my delusions.

Harm is unavoidable. It is more important to prepare a child to incoming difficulties and ugliness. One can never anticipate the intricacies of an individual’s mind, and detect triggers to avoid beforehand.

This is why cognitive behavioral therapy is important, even before any kind of mental issues manifest. CBT is effective because it ignores the unmanageable component of mental illness and focuses on what can be done practically now.

So yes, even the smallest problem in childhood can crush an individual’s mind. Most of the common patters are already documented: absent father, abuse, inadequate sexual education.

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