Head to any park, preschool, or playground and you will witness the very demonstration of social cognition in development. Young children are learning how to interact with one another, what rules apply to social situations, how to recognize feelings in other, developing a sense of empathy, deciding how to respond to others, and much more. Watch children fight over a toy, play together cooperatively, practice pretend, use their imagination, and respond to their peers’ varying emotional responses. As children grow, their responses become fluid. In the beginning, you might see a child take pause, observe and analyze a situation, then take some time to contemplate their response. Inside a child’s mind is a wealth of wisdom, yet a vacuum of modern, adult terminology and understanding. Children aren’t yet well-versed in emotions, behaviors, choices, and much more. Growing up, children learn how to respond and interact with everyone else in the world, as well as themselves.
How Childhood Trauma Interrupts Social Cognition
Trauma changes everything about the way we see our world. The glistening, glittering possibilities of childlike wonder is suddenly dampened, darkened, and destroyed. Our ability to trust our knowledge, our learning, and our skills is gone because everything we have previously believed has been turned upside-down by a traumatic event. Brain wiring is impaired. Nervous system wiring is impaired. The very chemical makeup which helps operate our mind and body is changed. As a result, the way our brain, and every single operation in our brain, functions, is changed- including the ability to relate to others, as well as the world around us.
Childhood Trauma, Social Cognition, And Psychiatric Disorders
The development of psychiatric disorders in young adulthood or adulthood is not uncommon for children who have experienced one more more traumatic event in their younger years. Trauma, as well as PTSD, can result in minor mood disorders, major mood disorders, and psychiatric illnesses. Mental illnesses can severely impair social cognition by interrupting normal functioning patterns. European Psychiatry recently published a study which found that adults with schizophrenia, biolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, major depressive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder have a greater severity in these illnesses and a greater difficult with their social cognition.
Treatment can help resolve the trauma and effects of trauma in adults with even major psychiatric disorders. By approaching trauma therapeutically, the origin point of pain and dysfunction is targeted, healed, and changed.
Stop the cycle of merry-go-round treatment and find the solution you’re looking for in trauma treatment. Through effective residential treatment, Khiron House helps you find the path you need toward health and wellness in recovery. For information, call us today. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours). USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).
