The Echoes of Inter-generational Trauma
The generational effects of ethnic cleansing
We are more connected as fellow human beings than we realize, as the invasion of Ukraine by Russia reminds me. I am only three generations removed from Russia. While I am not Russian, I am part Volga German. My German great-grandparents, emigrated from the Volga region of Russia. I might have distant relatives still in Russia.
What is happening in Ukraine reminds me of a story my great-grandmother’s sister told me. When she was a little girl the Tsar’s troops would ride into their Volga German village and kill people. She remembered hiding in fear with her family. Fast forward over 100 years, and Ukrainian families are hiding in fear as the Russian military attacks their cities.
Inter-generational trauma, the trauma that echoes through the generations, affects people whether than know it or not. What is happening in Ukraine will affect the great-grandchildren of the Ukrainians hiding in fear. In my family, there is a legacy of mental health issues.
“Massive traumas like these affect people and societies in multidimensional ways,” says Yael Danieli, Ph.D., co-founder and director of the Group Project for Holocaust Survivors and Their Children in New York.
The pall of genocide
Some people are afraid Ukraine will face genocide. I am a descendant of both Armenian genocide survivors and victims, just like everyone else with Armenian ancestry. The psychological effects of genocide echo down through the generations and leave a legacy of mental health issues.
“The events of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, during which more than 1.5 million Armenians were massacred by the Ottoman Turkish Empire, has left a deep, painful scar on this small but prominent culture,” according to Selina Mangassarian’s study on inter-generational trauma among Armenian-Americans.
Scratch the surface of many ethnic communities, such as Volga Germans and Armenians, and you find stories of pogroms and ethnic cleansing. Those stories, woven into the fabric of those cultures, affect people. The inter-generational trauma passed down to me, which includes genocide, combined with my childhood trauma, affected my mental health. I believe it exacerbated the depression and anxiety I have experienced. It also makes me much more sensitive to world events such as the invasion of Ukraine.
Stopping the echoes of inter-generational trauma
Are we stuck living with the effects of trans-generational trauma? Am I? My answer is a resounding no. Enter tapping, or emotional freedom technique, which I mention much in my articles. There is a good reason why. Simply put, it heals the brain and spirit.
When we decide to practice tapping daily, we decide to leave behind the effects of trauma, both what was done to us and our ancestors. We decide that we will live free of all that holds us back from being who God created us to be.
I am not stuck living with the effects of inter-generational trauma and neither are you. As Louie Giglio, an Atlanta-based pastor, proclaimed in his book, Goliath Must Fall, “You are not stuck with the advanced path of your DNA origin.”
We are created in God’s image and given the power of choice. Let us daily choose the freedom of recovery from trauma. We can stop the echoes of inter-generational trauma.
