ABSTRACT
A person's emotions and behaviors can be significantly altered by exposure to repeated trauma. Emotions happen as a result of a person's thinking, and they often initiate specific behaviors. Changes in how emotions are processed and stored occur as communication laterally and vertically happens in response to the toxic stress. The integration of language to emotions is disrupted, and children are unable to develop an adequate emotional vocabulary. Emotions help children learn to navigate their world. The feelings prepare children for potential events. As the brain develops cognitive skills, as known as thinking skills, children's emotional awareness and regulation increase. The thinking skills and emotional processes work in concert to help children begin to understand behavior and internal states. Complex developmental trauma and the ensuing toxic stress disrupt this entire development. In children impacted by complex developmental trauma and toxic stress, behavior often starts as adaptive and understandable based on the specific traumatic environment of the child.
