Anyone who’s both a parent and has worked in early childhood education will tell you that some children get traumatized much more readily than others, and that this is on display from a young age. What might only be upsetting for some kids may be downright traumatic for others, and it’s important for people to remember this about kids and respect it. Especially with the bigger understanding that sometimes people can have mental health disorders that are worsened because of experiences in their childhood. This is why it’s legit to ask can childhood trauma cause OCD.  

Not long ago there was a story of a young girl who had a twin brother. Once they reached the age of 5 their mother wanted them to be better at cleaning their rooms, and so she decided she would incentivize them with daily candy and soda pop. The child that cleaned their room more to the Mom’s liking would get bag of candy and a can of Coke. So it was for a long, long time in that household. But the issue was that EVERY single day it was the girl’s twin brother who got the candy and the Coke. Right, you’re wondering how this relates to does childhood trauma cause OCD. Bear with me.  

So it was every day that the girl would be sitting there stewing as her brother ate candy after candy, and washed them down with cola. Sometimes he would offer to share one candy with her, but only after he’d licked it first. This was so traumatic for the young girl, and now all these years later she has obsessive compulsive disorder for cleaning and she’s auto-programmed in the worst way to clean the rooms of her home. Even though they’re spotless. Her brother’s a diabetic, but she has severe OCD. This suggests there’s some truth to can childhood trauma cause OCD.  

Subconsciously she’s thinking one day she will get the candy and Coke, and for this woman her OCD can be debilitating. 

Trigger, Not Cause  

Psychology research suggests that traumatic experiences in childhood may trigger OCD, even much later on in a person’s life. And especially in instances of repeated stimuli. Which – in the case of the poor young, traumatized girl we told you about – was very much the scenario with the fact that she never got the candy and the soda pop. Sure, she could have cleaned her room with more effort but that’s nothing in comparison to the simple fact that her brother ALWAYS got them. But it isn’t an example of can childhood trauma cause OCD, and instead it’s more of an example of the traumatic experiences triggering OCD. She likely would have had some manifestation of obsessive compulsive disorder anyways.  

The fact that it become centered around obsessive cleaning is because of the nature of the traumatic experience she had, and from OCD can worsen with age. OCD from childhood trauma is also known to be worse if it involves emotional neglect, sexual abuse, physical or emotional abuse, or being forced to do wild things. This is important to remember with can childhood trauma cause OCD too, but fortunately there are medication like Adderall that work well for OCD treatment.