The most powerful ties are the ones to the people who gave us birth... it hardly seems to matter how many years have passed, have many betrayals there may have been, how much misery in the family: We remain connected, even against our wills.
The ancient poet Virgil declared, “Love conquers all.” If only our love is great enough, our relationship, no matter how difficult, will surely succeed.
According to Rachel Yehuda, epigenetic changes biologically prepare us to cope with the traumas that our parents experienced. In preparation for similar stressors, we're born with a specific set of tools to help us survive.
The history you share with your family begins before you are even conceived. This means that before your mother was even born, your mother, your grandmother, and the earliest traces of you were all in the same body- three generations sharing the same biological environment.
It's human nature: when pain is too great, people tend to avoid it. Yet when we block the feelings, we unknowingly stunt the necessary healing process that can lead us to a natural release.
Paternal PTSD, she discovered, increases the likelihood that the child will feel “dissociated from [his or] her memories,” whereas maternal PTSD increases the likelihood that a child will have difficulty “calming down.”