Olivia’s Reviews > It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle > Status Update

Treatment for traumatic reenactment
Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy can help people work through the trauma and stop the reenactments
Breaking the reenactment involves:
Avoiding blame
Owning your actions and feelings
Holding yourself and others accountable
Accepting responsibility for creating positive change

Causes of traumatic reenactment
Painful experiences in early life, such as physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
An inability to resolve or integrate the past trauma
Trying to normalize a traumatic past
Psychological vulnerabilities relating to the trauma

Cont:

Examples of traumatic reenactment
Reenacting relationships: Choosing partners who have similar traits to caregivers
Repeating behaviors: Reliving the same traumatic feelings
Replicating traumatic events: Repeating abusive situations
Self-sabotaging actions: Continuing to engage in negative self-attitudes
Returning to dangerous locations: Going back to places where assaults occurred

Traumatic reenactment, also known as repetition compulsion, is when someone unconsciously repeats behaviors or situations that recreate a traumatic experience. It can be a way for people to try to meet unmet needs or rewrite history.

An epigenetic change is a modification to DNA that alters how genes are expressed without changing the DNA sequence. Epigenetic changes are reversible and can be passed from parent to child