Traumatic Outcomes: Are You Passing It on to Your Kids?

And how is it related to the story about a kitten with a broken tail?

In my first session with my therapist, he told me about this simple story that shows that we could pass on anything to kids, and it could go on throughout the generations.

Whether that’s about something positive like being so good in math, art, or science, or something negative like diabetes, heart disease, hemorrhoids, or mental health problems caused by past traumas, your children could inherit them.

How?

The kitten with a broken tail

While talking in my therapist’s, his cats were everywhere. They all hang out in the living room, where we were.

He answered me calmly, question after question. I was learning about his method of therapy, and I was curious. He then pointed at one of the kittens in his living room.

This particular kitten had a broken tail. The tip was bent upward. I assumed that someone probably stepped on his poor tail and broke it, but what the therapist said was something that I wasn’t expecting.

He said that the kitten was born with a broken tail.

What? How did that even happen?

Then he pointed at the big female cat in the room, explaining that this was the mom. He showed me her tail; surprisingly, she also had a broken tail! And it was also at the exact same site, the tip bent upward.

He went on and said that she had an accident that broke her tail. Surprisingly, even though she was the one who had an accident, she somehow passed it on to one of her kittens.

And that’s the reason why the poor kitten had a broken tail.

This made me realize how important it is to address my current issues or traumas. It’s not just for me. I don’t want to pass it on throughout the generations.

Your neighbor,

Wam