75 Childhood Trauma Quotes to Get Past Your Trauma

For many people, their childhood memories are filled with visits to Grandparents, letters to Santa, and their favorite toys. They can probably describe the smell of Mom’s baking. And pinpoint when the snow fell heavy, blanketing the streets like a magical wonderland.

But for others, the darkness of childhood trauma overshadows these beautiful memories. And they carry the pain long into adulthood.

The distress may have come from an isolated incident, such as the sudden loss of a loved one. Or perhaps, it was long-standing, from neglect, psychological or even physical abuse.

Sadly, there is no limit to what can cause childhood trauma. But if you have suffered, that doesn’t mean it should define you. And with the right support and time, you can get past it and find happiness in yourself.

Why is Childhood Trauma So Hard to Let Go Of?

Whilst trauma at any age is damaging, childhood trauma can be especially hard to move on from. As young people, we are not emotionally equipt to deal with the pain caused.

Many of us can recall memories from as young as 3-years old. And at that age, it’s impossible to process the reality of what’s happening.

Perhaps your parents were constantly arguing, or the fights came from school with bullying. Undoubtedly you would have felt scared and can, even now, feel your heart race as you think back to those moments.

Children who suffer traumatic experiences often become anxious and fearful. They may grow up feeling guilt and shame that they were in some way to blame for their past. And this misplaced responsibility continues long after the traumatic experience ends.

But you don’t have to live in a never-ending cycle of triggers and pain. You don’t have to live your life under the shadows of your childhood.

Although trust may be hard, especially if your trauma was caused by someone close, reaching out and talking is an important step to finding peace. Whether you open up to your partner, a friend, or a professional, sharing your story will help heal the wounds left behind.

These childhood trauma quotes will help you to see that you are not alone; that your emotions are valid. And that this is just the beginning of your road to recovery.

75 Childhood Trauma Quotes to Get Past Your Trauma

1. “The mind replays what the heart can’t delete.” – Unknown

2. “After all, who isn’t a survivor from the wreck of childhood?” – Nicole Krauss

3. “No matter how much it hurts you, someday you will look back and realized your struggles changed you for the better.” – Unknown

4. “It isn’t about what’s wrong with you, it’s about what happened to you.” – Unknown

5. “Some people think to be strong is to never feel pain. In reality, the strongest people are the ones who feel it, understand it and accept it.” – Unknown

6. “Bad things do happen how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.” – Walter Anderson

7. “Wounds won’t heal the way you want them to, they heal the way they need to.” – Dele Olanubi

8. “There is no one way to recover and heal from any trauma. Each survivor chooses their path or stumbles across it.” – Laurie Matthew

9. “Trauma is personal. It does not disappear if it is not validated. When it is ignored or invalidated the silent screams continue internally heard only by the one held captive. When someone enters the pain and hears the screams healing can begin.” – Danielle Bernock

10. “Childhood trauma doesn’t come in one single package.” – Dr. Asa Don Brown

11. “Smile and let everyone know that today, you’re a lot stronger than yesterday.” – Unknown

12. “Students with childhood trauma don’t have faulty brains. They have minds designed in threatening environments to help them survive.” – Inspired by Peggy Leigh

13. “The past is not today. The past cannot be changed, forgotten, or removed. It can only be accepted. We all have mistakes, struggles and even regret about things. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here now with more POWER shape your day and your future.” – Unknown

14. “Abuse is never contained to a present moment, it lingers across a person’s lifetime and has pervasive long-term ramifications.” – Lorraine Nilon

15. “Adulthood is an attempt to become the antithesis of the wounded child within us.” – Stewart Stafford

16. “Abuse is never deserved, it is an exploitation of innocence and physical disadvantage, which is perceived as an opportunity by the abuser.” – Lorraine Nilon

17. “There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” – Laurell K. Hamilton

18. “A lot of people who have experienced trauma at the hands of people they’ve trusted take responsibility, and that is what’s toxic.” – Hannah Gadsby

19. “Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.” – Fred Rogers

20. “If you continue to carry bricks from your past, you will end up building the same house.” – Unknown

21. “Always remember, if you have been diagnosed with PTSD, it is not a sign of weakness; rather, it is proof of your strength, because you have survived!” – Michel Templet

22. “An unacknowledged trauma is like a wound that never heals over and may start to bleed again at any time.” – Alice Miller

23. “Trauma is a fact of life. It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” – Peter A. Levine

24. “Sometimes, the hardest part of the journey is simply believing you’re worthy of the trip.” – Unknown

25. “People raised on love see things differently than those raised on survival.” – Joy Marino

26. “The greater a child’s terror, and the earlier it is experienced, the harder it becomes to develop a strong and healthy sense of self.”- Nathaniel Branden

27. “You survived the abuse. Now, you’ll survive the recovery.” – Unknown

28. “What we change inwardly will change outer reality.” – Plutarch

29. “Trauma happens to us. When it does, our authentic self and power is taken from us.” – Kenny Weiss

30. “When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” – Fred Rogers

31. “Just like there's always time for pain, there's always time for healing.” – Jennifer Brown

32. “People think healing looks like having huge visible breakthroughs when really, it’s just a series of small decisions that reprogram your subconscious mind. One healthy activity at a time is a great starting point.” – Unknown

33. “Our brains are wired for connection, but trauma rewires them for protection. That’s why healthy relationships are difficult for wounded people.” – Ryan North

34. “Triggers are like little psychic explosions that crash through avoidance and bring the dissociated, avoided trauma suddenly, unexpectedly, back into consciousness.” – Carolyn Spring

35. “My trauma isn’t me. My trauma does not define me. I am more than my trauma. It isn’t my personality, hobbies, or interests. It is what happened to me.” – Unknown

36. “Unaddressed trauma survives in a vacuum, fueling our thoughts and behaviors, so we inadvertently re-create the same feelings we had when we first experienced the trauma. We call this the Worst Day Cycle.” – Kenny Weiss

37. “I survived because the fire that burned inside of me burned brighter than the fire around me.” – Unknown

38. “Your trauma is not your fault, but healing is your responsibility.” – Unknown

39. “Sometimes the strength within you is not a big fiery flame for all to see. It can be a tiny spark that whispers ever so softly, ‘You got this. Keep going’.” – Unknown

40. “We deny, suppress, repress, and minimize our trauma to preserve our self-concept. By doing so, we set ourselves up for repeating the cycle again.” – Kenny Weiss

We deny, suppress, repress, and minimize our trauma to preserve our self-concept. By doing so, we set ourselves up for repeating the cycle again.” – Kenny Weiss

41. “Trauma comes back as a reaction, not a memory.” – Bessel Van Der Kolk

42. “People are afraid to heal because their entire identity is centered around the trauma they’ve experienced. They have no idea who they are outside of trauma and that unknown is terrifying.” – Ebonee Davis

43. “We forget in order to survive our childhoods, when we are totally dependent on our parents’ goodwill; but to recover from such childhoods, we must begin by remembering-the bad and the good.” – Victoria Secunda

44. “Perhaps the butterfly is proof that you can go through a great deal of darkness yet become something beautiful.” – Unknown

45. “What we don’t need in the midst of struggle is shame for being human.” – Brené Brown

46. “You wake up every morning to fight the same demons that left you so tired the night before, and that, my love, is bravery.” – Unknown

47. “When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” – Alexander Den Heijer

48. “Grief is like the ocean, it comes in waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim.” – Vicki Harrison

49. “As traumatized children, we always dreamed that someone would come and save us. We never dreamed that it would, in fact, be ourselves as adults.” – Alice Little

50. “The paradox of trauma is that it has both the power to destroy and the power to transform and resurrect.” – Peter Levine

51. “When we become an expert in our trauma history and know how we self-victimize and drop into denial, we have an opportunity to create a new reality with a new neural pathway in our brain.” – Kenny Weiss

52. “You are stronger than you think. You have gotten through every bad day in your life, and you are undefeated.” – Unknown

53. “Forgiveness is created by the restitution of the abuser; of the wrongdoer. It is not something to be squeeeeeezed out of the victim in a further act of conscience-corrupting abuse.” – Stefan Molyneux

54. “There is no timestamp on trauma. There isn’t a formula that you can insert yourself into to get from horror to healed. Be patient. Take up space. Let your journey be the balm.” – Dawn Serra

55. “When you can tell your story, and it doesn't make you cry, you know you have healed.” – Karen Salmansohn

56. “When it feels disheartening to learn that trauma changes the brain, remember that healing changes the brain, too.” – How Humans Heal

57. “I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” – Carl Jung

58. “Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our lives.” – Akshay Dubey

59. “Hold yourself back, or heal yourself back together. You decide.” – Brittany Burgunder

60. “Healing from trauma can also mean strength and joy. The goal of healing is not a papering-over of changes in an effort to preserve or present things as normal. It is to acknowledge and wear your new life – warts wisdom, and all – with courage.” – Catherine Woodiwiss

61. “Instead of saying, ‘I’m damaged, I’m broken, I have trust issues.’ I say ‘I’m healing, I’m rediscovering myself, I’m starting over’.” – Horacio Jones

62. “Trauma is a result of an overwhelming sense of danger, powerlessness, and fear. Healing is a result of feeling safe, empowered, and supported.” – Unknown

63. “Healing happens when you’re triggered and you’re able to move through the pain, the pattern, the story and walk your way to a different ending.” – Vienna Pharaon

64. “Even if you’ve accumulated a house full of nice things and the picture of your life fits inside a beautiful frame, if you have experienced trauma but haven’t excavated it, the wounded parts of you will affect everything you’ve managed to build.” – Oprah Winfrey

65. “Healing means releasing yourself from the version of you that you created for survival.” – Unknown

66. “One day you will tell your story of how you overcame what you went through and it will be someone else’s survival guide.” – Unknown

67. “Healing comes in waves. On some days, you will drown. On other days, you will float. On some days, you will feel broken. And on other days, you will feel renewed. This is a reminder to be patient with yourself.” – Unknown

68. “So often survivors have had their experiences denied, trivialized, or distorted. Writing is an important avenue for healing because it gives you the opportunity to define your own reality.” – Ellen Bass

69. “There’s a saying that goes, “Hurt people will hurt people.” But I rarely hear the opposite, “Healed people heal people.” Get healed. Then, go heal.” – Unknown

70. “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.” – Unknown

71. “Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.” – Michelle Rosenthal

72. “I have a gaping, painful hole in my soul… where good, loving parents and a normal, safe childhood, should have been.” – Lilly Hope Lucario

73. “Although humans rarely die from trauma, if we do not resolve it, our lives can be severely diminished by its effects. Some people have even described this situation as a “living death.”- Peter A. Levine

74. “You don't have to preserve your pain in order to prove that it was real.” – Brittany Burgunder

75. “We repeat what we don’t repair.” – Christine Langley-Obaugh

Final Thoughts Getting Past Your Childhood Trauma

Although many of us would like to, we can’t turn back the clocks and do things differently. We can’t go back and tell our younger selves that something is wrong. And we can’t pretend these experiences didn’t happen.

But we can move on from them. And we can choose a better life; one that is free from pain, knowing that it’s over. Take a look at these 65 trust the process quotes to inspire your life journey. Allow yourself time to process, to grieve, to cry. And remember you don’t have to do this alone

And if you want more encouraging quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:

• 45 Toxic Family Quotes to Heal & Let Go of Your Pain
• 63 Brené Brown Quotes on Vulnerability and Daring Greatly
• 61 Resilience Quotes to Overcome Any Adversity

Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then check out and recite these 57 affirmations for success.