Key points

Trauma effects can pass to children even when the original traumatic events are never repeated again.

Your brain's stress response system can be permanently altered by your parents' unprocessed trauma.

Both complete silence and constant discussion about family trauma can harm the next generation.

My-Linh Le grew up watching her parents explode over tiny mistakes . When she forgot her backpack in first grade, her mother kicked it across the room so hard it hit the wall. When her sister messed up dinner, her father threw dishes. The house stayed filled with unpredictable rage that left Le awake at night, worried about what she might do wrong the next day.

As a child, Le thought all Vietnamese families acted this way. But years later, during a phone call with her boyfriend,

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