In the case of psychiatric disorders, many counselors often attribute the patient’s (visitor’s) problems to childhood trauma, and the parent who is responsible for the upbringing is not to blame. Addressing childhood trauma has been the foundation of psychotherapy for more than a century, but it can easily lead to unjustified parenting and can accidentally damage the patient’s family relationships. Moreover, a growing body of research evidence shows that childhood trauma does not necessarily cause serious psychiatric disorders. Medical experts point out that the factors of these disorders are complex and diverse, including biological, psychological and social factors, and treatment often requires the integration of medication, psychotherapy and other technical means to achieve the best results. Etiology: Infections and genetics can trigger psychiatric disorders Some studies have found that psychiatric disorders may be related to infections with bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. For example, exposure to cat feces and other infections such as Toxoplasma gondii has been reported to induce schizophrenia, etc. It also appears to affect personality, such as making men more reckless and women more slutty; some studies have found that severe obsessive-compulsive disorder in some children may be related to streptococcal infections. In addition, the living environment contains high levels of lead, various neurotoxins, and pathogens that can affect the mental state of the fetus in the womb, the developing child, and even the adult. There are many types of psychosomatic disorders, many of which have unclear etiologies, and different etiological hypotheses exist, but are mainly based on biological, psychological, and social factors and their interactions. Biological factors include genetic, neuroendocrine, and neuroimmune. For example, schizophrenia is a disorder with a high degree of heredity and is now mostly thought to be related to polygenic inheritance; bipolar disorder has a heritability of 80% to 90%; in addition, some psychiatric disorders such as autism and ADHD may also be related to environmental factors in the mother’s perinatal period, such as infections and birth injuries, which may affect the neurological development of the child’s brain. Childhood trauma is often a high risk factor for anxiety disorders and depression. Lynn O’Connor, a clinical psychologist at Wright College in the United States, said that there is a risk of childhood trauma. Professor O’Connor explains that there are many serious mental illnesses that are partially hereditary, and that some parents and children have similar genes and may both be susceptible to certain mental illnesses. This is not absolute. Even identical twins, with the same genetic heritage and raised in the same family, can be one with a serious mental illness and the other healthy, because subtle differences in the environment can change the expression of genes. Analysis: Childhood trauma has an impact, but not all of it. The “childhood trauma theory” is deeply rooted, and parents are often considered to be the “culprits” of their children’s psychiatric problems, especially mothers. For example, many people believe that schizophrenia is caused by a schizophrenic mother, and autism is thought to be caused by the cold treatment of the mother as a child (the so-called “refrigerator mother”), which affects development. However, scientific studies have found that this is not the case. The brain is very plastic, and an unfortunate childhood may bring adverse changes to the brain. Childhood trauma, such as child abuse, is a stress response, and both brain imaging and animal studies have shown that stress can lead to physiological and psychological changes, including endocrine and structural and functional brain changes, and chronic stress can also lead to personality changes. Therefore, childhood trauma is often one of the high-risk factors for psychiatric disorders, but it is not the only factor. Whether or not the disorder develops is also related to the genetic quality of the individual and the type and degree of trauma suffered, for example, some people are more resilient after suffering childhood ordeals. In different types of mental illnesses, various factors contribute to the pathogenic effect in different proportions, and it is not scientific to emphasize one factor as the causative factor for a particular illness. O’Connor points out that parental behavior and family environment are not necessarily related to serious mental illness. Many people grow up without serious mental illness despite having a bad family. The “childhood trauma theory” is not valid and can cause harm to parents and families. When “experts” say you are “traumatized,” you are likely to believe them and start looking for trauma and the people who hurt you, sometimes faking memories and finding real and fake “traumas. It can create a rift in family relationships. People with serious mental illness often rely on family and relatives to care for them, and research confirms that strong support from family can be very helpful. Children love their parents, and most parents want to raise their children well, but mistakes are inevitable in the process of raising children. Many counselors who believe in the “childhood trauma theory” believe that the problem will be healed naturally if the trauma complex is resolved. This view is not scientific, it ignores the role of biological factors. Many people who have received the qualification of counselor after a few months of training can only solve healthy people with general psychological problems, serious psychological problems or neurotic psychological problems, but they do not have the ability to receive patients with mental illnesses and need to refer them to the psychiatric department in time. There are three main means of scientific treatment for psychosomatic disorders, which are pharmacotherapy (e.g., chlorpromazine), psychotherapy (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy), and physical therapy (e.g., twitch-free electroconvulsive therapy). Organic combination of the three and systematic interventions for patients can greatly improve the efficacy of treatment.