How Does Trauma Affect Personality? Understanding the Impact

Trauma affects personality profoundly, as it is one of the most impactful factors that shape an individual’s sense of self, perception of life and the world, behavioral and emotional patterns, and even physical health.

Understanding how trauma affects personality demands a multifaceted approach, and the Enneagram test and framework can be very useful in that sense.

In this article, we’ll explore all the major influences of trauma on personality and analyze how the Enneagram framework can help in understanding the impact of trauma.

What is Trauma?

Trauma is a psychological wound that happens as a result of one or more stressful events or as a result of chronic stress. Any event that exceeds an individual’s capacity to cope is considered traumatic.

What sets a traumatic event apart from ordinary stress is that it puts a person's life and physical or psychological integrity in danger and overwhelms their emotional capacity.

As a result of trauma, people experience profound changes in the way they function, and these changes range from specific mental and emotional patterns to physical symptoms. Trauma becomes part of their identity, shaping the way they perceive other people and the world.

For example, a person might have severe trust issues due to trauma or may feel chronic sadness and anger without any immediate, obvious reasons. Moreover, it has been established that certain autoimmune diseases are strongly associated with certain types of trauma. That being said, let’s explore how trauma affects personality and explain the types of trauma.

Types of Trauma

Different types of trauma give us an idea of how trauma affects personality.

Here, we’ll explain the most common ones:

• Acute trauma. Results from an unprecedented, sudden event that triggers a strong emotional reaction and involves some kind of accident or loss.
• Complex trauma. Involves exposure to multiple, interconnected traumatic events during a prolonged period of time.
• Medical trauma. Caused by medical illness, intervention, hospitalization, or maltreatment by medical staff.
• Chronic trauma. Involves exposure to repeated distressing circumstances such as family violence, abuse, or neglect.
• Developmental or childhood trauma. Refers to childhood neglect and abuse and can also be considered a chronic trauma.
• Secondary trauma. This type of trauma is experienced by those who provide support to trauma survivors, like therapists, medical staff, journalists, and similar.
• Sexual trauma. Involves any kind of sexual abuse during any stage of life.

Examples of Trauma

It is not difficult to identify acute trauma, such as the unexpected death of a loved one, a serious car accident, or a natural disaster, and most people have no trouble comprehending the gravity of such experiences.

However, recognizing developmental trauma is not always simple, and even those who have experienced it take time to realize the effects of their experiences.

That’s because developmental trauma comes in the form of subtle yet consistent neglect, leaving a person emotionally deprived. Children of narcissistic parents, for instance, may experience chronic depression as a result of their parents' complete disregard for their emotional needs.

Secondary trauma may go unnoticed, though it can also be very severe. For example, journalists reporting from the war-affected areas who witness combat and acts of violence often experience secondary trauma.

In general, regardless of the type, trauma’s impact on personality is profound and multifaceted, and it demands appropriate attention along with a special approach to recovery.

How Does Trauma Affect Personality?

To understand how trauma affects personality, let’s go over the most common psychological effects of trauma on behavior and personality in general.

Trauma’s Effect on Self-Perception

Trauma can have a devastating effect on an individual’s self-perception, severely damaging their self-esteem and self-respect.

It is very common for survivors of trauma to feel guilty for what they endured and to blame themselves for the trauma. These feelings are the key to understanding how trauma affects self-identity, making the person question their own worth.

On the one hand, taking responsibility gives victims some sense of control over the events, but on the other, blaming themselves leads to feelings of shame and worthlessness. As a result, their self-perception becomes completely distorted and may lead to depression and similar states.

Some people react to trauma by dissociating themselves, which leads to fragmented identity and confusion about who they are, what they feel, and what they need.

In general, trauma survivors typically suffer from intense feelings of shame, self-hatred, and worthlessness, and these feelings, unless adequately addressed and processed, lead to a diminished sense of self-worth.

Trauma and Attachment Issues

All kinds of trauma can lead to attachment issues, but developmental trauma is the most associated with disrupted attachment styles. Moreover, modern psychology has recognized that insecure attachment styles, including avoidant, anxious, and disorganized attachment, are usually the result of developmental trauma.

Earlier, only disorganized attachment was associated with trauma as a consequence of abuse and severe neglect in childhood. However, thanks to new insights, it is now acknowledged that other insecure attachment styles also correlate highly with traumatic experiences.

So, here’s how insecure attachment styles and trauma are connected:

• Avoidant attachment. Results from emotional deprivation and lack of emotional attunement between the parent and the child. As a result, these people don’t develop emotional regulation skills and tend to avoid closeness and vulnerability.
• Anxious attachment. When care and affection are inconsistent, the child feels anxious, confused, and afraid of abandonment and develops ambivalent feelings toward their caretaker. This chronic confusion and lack of attunement put the child in a state of chronic stress. In other words, the child experiences developmental trauma.

In addition, adults can also experience attachment issues as a result of a traumatic experience. For instance, if a person is betrayed by their partner, they might develop trust issues as a response to betrayal trauma.

Other kinds of personal losses, such as the sudden death of a close family member, can also be traumatizing and cause a person to avoid attachment as a way to defend themselves from potential loss in the future.

Impact of Trauma on Emotional Regulation

There are a number of ways in which trauma and emotional regulation are interconnected. The most common impacts include emotional numbing, alexithymia, and heightened sensitivity.

Let’s break these down:

• Emotional numbing is a trauma response that survivors develop to avoid experiencing pain associated with their memory of the trauma. However, since they can’t numb feelings selectively, they become dissociated and often experience apathy as a result.
• Alexithymia, or emotional blindness, can also be a maladaptive defense mechanism, where the survivor struggles to identify and articulate their feelings, which leads to emotional chaos.
• Heightened sensitivity happens because trauma often leaves the nervous system in a chronic state of fight or flight, and the survivors are left hyperreactive to potential threats in an attempt to protect themselves from repeating the traumatic experience.

5 Common Long-Term Effects of Trauma on Personality Traits

Trauma changes a person and leaves a lasting imprint on personality, pushing a person to develop skills that they need to survive and eventually heal.

Here’s an overview of how trauma affects personality in the long term regarding an individual’s personality traits:

• Pessimistic outlook. Trauma survivors struggle to feel safe in the world, which affects their beliefs and attitude toward life. They may find it hard to believe that they will ever feel better.
• Social withdrawal. All kinds of avoidant behaviors are often the consequence of traumatic experiences. Survivors may feel distrustful toward others and fear their traumatic experience may be exposed in some way in public, so they choose to withdraw to feel safe.
• Impulsivity. All types of trauma, but especially long-term ones, affect emotional regulation capacity and often cause sudden, irrational outbursts of anger, sadness, and other intense feelings.
• Anxiety. Survivors usually suffer from increased anxiety, which may manifest as insomnia, panic attacks, and nervousness without any particular reason.
• Addictive tendencies. Some trauma survivors may be particularly prone to developing all kinds of addictions, from binge eating to substance abuse, as a way to regulate their intense feelings.

Trauma in the Context of Enneagram Types

Trauma in the context of Enneagram personality types allows us to understand each type’s defense mechanism and can be helpful in mapping the road to healing from trauma and recovery.

So, here are the types of trauma in the context of childhood wounds each type is most likely to experience:

• Enneagram 1: Ones are often parentified children, forced to act like adults before they are developmentally ready. As a result, they develop perfectionistic tendencies and project high expectations on themselves.
• Enneagram 2: Twos typically experience emotional abandonment trauma as they grow up in families with parents who are overwhelmed with their own emotions and incapable of providing adequate care to the Type Two child.
• Enneagram 3: Often raised by narcissistic parents, Threes suffer from emotional neglect and, therefore, have trouble connecting with their feelings and authentic needs.
• Enneagram 4: Four’s childhood often involves some kind of loss trauma, which leaves them feeling devastated, confused, and convinced that they are somehow inherently flawed.
• Enneagram 5: Fives lacked emotional attunement and affection while growing up, which caused them to become fiercely independent but emotionally withdrawn.
• Enneagram 6: Unpredictability in emotional or material or both contexts shaped Six’s childhood and caused them to be hypervigilant and anxious about the future.
• Enneagram 7: Sevens often grew up in loving homes with parents who overprotected them, so they failed to develop skills for dealing with frustration and unpleasant emotional experiences.
• Enneagram 8: Power struggles and control are the main topics of Type Eight’s childhood. They usually have to learn very early to protect themselves from aggressive older siblings or controlling parents, which makes them resolute not to let anyone control or manipulate them later in life.
• Enneagram 9: Nine’s childhood often involved some kind of abandonment trauma. They typically felt emotionally neglected and alone, so they directed their energy to meet others’ needs to protect themselves from perceived abandonment.

In addition, bear in mind that if you have a strong Enneagram wing, you may feel your wing’s type trauma better describes your childhood experience than your core type.

Can Trauma Be Healed: 3 Transformative Ways Explained

Trauma can be healed through psychotherapy, support groups, and many other tried-and-true methods. Supported by insights from neuroscience and modern psychotherapy, many effective trauma-informed therapeutic approaches have been designed and are successfully used to help survivors thrive.

Here are some of the most widely recognized and used approaches to healing trauma:

#1. Psychotherapy

The primary purpose of psychotherapy in the context of trauma is to help individuals integrate their painful experiences into their identity and narrative, reprogram their belief systems, reframe negative thoughts, and regulate their emotions.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), cognitive processing therapy, integrative psychotherapy, dialectical behavior therapy, and somatic psychotherapeutic approaches have been proven to be very effective in treating trauma.

In addition, some experimental approaches, like using MDMA in the treatment of severe PTSD, are being researched and have so far shown very promising results.

In general, any trauma-informed psychotherapeutic approach can be effective. For any of these treatments to be successful, though, a person must be dedicated to their own recovery.

#2. Mind-Body Techniques

A large part of recovery from trauma includes addressing the impact trauma has on the person’s nervous system and body. It is crucial to incorporate body work into any trauma treatment strategy because trauma survivors frequently find it difficult to reestablish a connection with their bodies.

Therefore, including any physical activity that makes an individual relax and connect with their body is of great help in treating trauma. From yoga to boxing and everything in between, physical activity helps relieve anxiety, reduce symptoms of dissociation, and raise self-awareness.

#3. Support Groups

Feelings of isolation due to internalized guilt and shame are common among trauma survivors and are a key reason why they find it hard to ask for help. Connecting with people who have had similar experiences provides much-needed relief for trauma survivors and helps them find a voice to articulate their emotions.

Creating a support system is a crucial aspect of trauma recovery and allows survivors to foster a sense of belonging and counteract the isolation they feel. Support from people who understand them in a safe place encourages survivors to continue seeking support from other people outside their support group, paving the way to resilience and healing.

What’s the Key to Your Resilience?

Ready to explore your capacities for dealing with life’s trials and tribulations? Take our free Enneagram test and learn how you can leverage your strengths to overcome any issue with confidence and thrive in the face of challenges.

Final Thoughts

We hope this article has provided a comprehensive answer to the question, ‘How does trauma affect personality? and that it has encouraged you to explore your capacities for dealing with complex experiences.

Since almost all of us have gone through some kind of traumatic experience in life, it is important to understand the mechanism of trauma and the impact it has on our overall identity and life choices.

In addition, understanding how trauma affects personality deepens our understanding of other people’s behavior and reactions, allowing us to connect with others in more meaningful ways.

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