Reflection on “The Genetic Basis of Neurodevelopmental Disorders”

By CHAN Wan Sin Reesa, Law Ting Pong Secondary School

Since I first listen to Dr. Daniel discuss about trauma, I've been fascinated by the connections between our DNA and our parent’s trauma. For instance, if my parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents experienced trauma, my DNA would be altered. Epigenetics explains it. Today, I'll delve more into epigenetics; how the trauma experienced by our parents can change our genes.

Based on the website Science.org, "suffering causes changes in gene expression that last for generations. In animals’ exposure to stress, cold, or high-fat diets has been shown to trigger metabolic changes in later generations. Let me use a scientific example to illustrate: if mother mice are separated from their offspring and suffer from trauma as a result of the separation. When the mother and offspring are together, the mother frequently ignores the puppies. Then, three-month-old male offspring mated with untraumatized females. As a result of the six generations of breeding and lack of trauma, the children exhibit epigenetic and behavioral alterations.

Additionally, small studies on people who had traumatic experiences point to mild biochemical and physiological alterations in their offspring. This demonstrates the influence of the effects and suggests that we should clear our mental mess before having children if our experiences can have an impact on them or their offspring. If we don't, we'll start passing along that trauma to the next generation. When I first heard this, I was startled and terrified as well because I don’t want my trauma to leave a chemical imprint on my children's genes that could be passed on to future generations if I didn't get my trauma/mental mess healed. Although this changes how the gene is expressed, it does not result in a genetic mutation. This alteration is not genetic, but epigenetic. The biologist at Washington State University in Pullman also seems to agree "This is really scary stuff. If what your grandmother and grandfather were exposed to is going to change your disease risk, the things we're doing today that we thought were erased are affecting our great-great-grandchildren,"

I hope this sets as a reminder for you to heal your trauma so you won’t pass it on to the future generations. In addition, I also hope that you discover how trauma is linked to genes. Positively, "epigenetic inheritance" is becoming more widely acknowledged as a true phenomenon. It was more debatable than fifty years ago, but there are more experiments since it is shown to be true.