An Informal Repressed Trauma Test

Uncover Hidden Struggles: An Informal Repressed Trauma Test by Purpose Healing

Childhood Trauma Test: Repressed Memories and Childhood Trauma

Do you have the physical and mental health symptoms that often come from repressed memories? This childhood trauma quiz is not a diagnostic tool or a professional diagnosis. However, it is a powerful self-assessment tool for exploring your trauma symptoms. Be sure to share the results with your mental health professional.

Taking our childhood trauma quiz (which you may hear some professionals call the ACE test) helps you look at the possibility of adverse childhood experiences that influence your life today. This increased self-awareness might give you the gentle nudge you need to seek help from a professional treatment center.

You’ll circle T (true) or F (false) as you read each statement on this childhood trauma test, indicating whether the symptoms or situation described applies to you. Here are the ten true or false statements you’ll find on our trauma quiz:

1. I have emotional outbursts, but I don’t know why.
2. I have memory gaps and can’t recall some details of my life.
3. Sometimes, I overreact to sounds, smells, or sights
4. Nightmares often interrupt my sleep and cause distress.
5. I feel detached from myself and my loved ones.
6. I avoid some places/activities without knowing why.
7. My doctor can’t diagnose frequent headaches, stomachaches, etc.
8. I want better relationships but can’t trust others.
9. I feel volumes of stress, sometimes without a good reason.
10. I’m emotionally flat or unable to experience emotions fully.

This brief childhood trauma test should give you an idea of whether it’s time to receive professional treatment. When you meet with a counselor, they will use a more extensive diagnostic tool in their assessment.

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Memory Gaps and Dissociative Amnesia

Some people respond to traumatic experiences by blocking out blocks of time around the traumatic event. The child’s developing brain also sometimes blocks out events such as sexual abuse, especially in children, to protect them.

This defense mechanism can lead to an increased risk for other issues in the future. The repressed memories are still there, but they eventually require trauma-informed care to process them.

Nightmares and Flashbacks

Without trauma treatment, traumatic childhood memories can lead to struggles with nightmares and flashbacks to the event. These occur when the brain as the brain tries to make sense of and process the trauma. These intrusive experiences repeatedly trigger memories as reminders you need help with your emotional well-being.

Emotionally Numb and or a Feeling of Detachment

Do you ever feel detached, as if you’re watching your life unfold as an interesting story? This is a brain coping mechanism that helps to put distance between the trauma victim and the event.

The person needs to seek professional help to connect with others and have good interpersonal relationships.

Physical Health Symptoms from Carrying Toxic Stress

Carrying childhood trauma can lead to chronic stress. It leads to heart disease, frequent physical illness, and difficulty concentrating. In daily life, toxic stress may present as that person who often mentions physical ailments. It may also be the person who has difficulty concentrating and can’t complete tasks because of physical discomfort.

Specific Situations Trigger Traumatic Memories:

Do certain aromas, sounds, or sights trigger your negative beliefs or self-destructive thoughts? These triggers can be very distressing and signify that you should get help to fully uncover them and deal with them once and for all.

It’s important to seek trauma-informed care from a mental health professional, where you can start processing the trauma in a structured setting.

What Events Lead to Trauma-related Mental Disorders?

Trauma can be a single, stressful incident but may also come from sustained actions over months or years. Here are some of the frequent inciting events that can lead to adverse childhood experiences:

• Physical abuse
• Growing up with parents or caretakers who struggled with mental illness
• Sexual assault (single incident or long-term sexual abuse)
• Emotional abuse (includes verbal abuse leading to low self-worth)
• Family members who contributed to ongoing household dysfunction and lacked healthy relationships
• Domestic violence
• Impoverished conditions

These childhood circumstances can cause severe mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood.

Trauma Recovery Requires a Mental Health Professional

Purpose Healing Center takes a whole-person approach to helping you resolve your trauma. After diagnosing you using an ACE test and other tools, we will provide you with evidence-based treatment throughout the healing process, including:

• Somatic therapy
• Individual, family, and group therapy
• Medical detox, if needed
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ( CBT replaces negative thoughts/emotions with positive emotions)
• Medication management
• Coping skills training
• Case management
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

We can minimize the impact of adverse childhood experiences and help to give you the skills and coping mechanisms to end your struggles with toxic stress and distressing thoughts.