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Epigenetic's is the study of heritable changes in gene function that do NOT involve changes to the structure of the DNA. The changes can affect how genes are "turned on and off" in different cells and as well as at different times in that organism's life.

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Your behavior and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. This is the process of epigenetic.

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This field of research studies the relationship between adverse life experiences and how that changes our genes. Researcher have alarmed that stress presented early in life can have long-lasting effects on health and development. In the same article by Ressler, she states the duality of the two, "...childhood adversity has been strongly implicated in the development of many psychiatric disorders, and individuals who experience these early life adversities are at greater risk for PTSD in adulthood. The psychological collateral of trauma-related distress can percolate through the family unit, potentially exacerbating risk factors that may lead to the development of future psychological distress or disorder. " (Article: A Review of Epigenetic Contributions to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder )

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Trauma and epigenetic go hand and hand. The importance is to understand the "cause and effect" of trauma and how epigenetic's correlates. We will be talking about PTSD as an example for trauma. Within an online article, " A Review of Epigenetics Contributions to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" by Kerry J. Ressler, she says something very intriguing "Indeed, it is known that parental post-traumatic stress can cause negative psychological outcomes and potential biological alterations in their offspring, with several studies indicating that severity of a parent’s PTSD symptoms may contribute to a child’s psychological difficulties—namely anxiety, depression, and behavior problems." By know the cause of the trauma regardless if it is first hand or second, it can benefit us, by understanding the cause to then prevent.

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Epigenetics effects us in different factors of our mind, genes are influenced by experiences and environment. Based on those two aspects, is how an individual is effected. How we make a decision, how we look at a situation, how we express ourselves, how we communicate and talk, how we act physically, how we process information, how we behave, how cognitive we are, how are personality is, and the status of our mental health is all based on the experiences and environment we were put in. Changes in the way genes are expressed, such as trauma, effect the development of neural pathways and increase the risk for cognitive and mental health problems.

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In the same article, A Review of Epigenetics Contributions to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it gives us information on how trauma effects twins, "Twin studies serve as an invaluable tool to parse out genetic and environmental factors and contribute in concert with newer molecular and genetic methods to help piece together a complete picture. In one twin study, heritable influences accounted for 46% of the variance in PTSD, and for 71% of variance in females. Another study suggested that exposure to assaultive trauma (robbery, sexual assault, and other life-threatening events) may not be entirely random and is influenced by individual and familiar risk factors... The psychological collateral of trauma-related distress can percolate through the family unit, potentially exacerbating risk factors that may lead to the development of future psychological distress or disorder. " This type of studies is fairly new, but what this could mean for the future is ultimately creating a successful way to cleanse trauma from individuals to prevent mental health problems and physical health problems.

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Not only does trauma occur because of experiences but as well as it being generational. Epigenentics comes into play because it is the study of gene function. And as we know genes are effected when trauma is presented. Childhood trauma such as neglect or abuse, can result in change to the epigenome. This substantially increases the risk of mental health problems even physical health problems.

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Personally I find this fascinating that not only can we gain trauma from personal experience but we can also pass it down or be passed down it. I did read that there is a way to "reverse" the trauma even if it is genetic. In a study done on mice it was proven that been exposed to "positive experiences" can alter your behavior, ultimately (in theory) our "fate" as well.

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A review of epigenetic contributions to post-traumatic stress
disorder

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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a syndrome which serves as a classic example
of psychiatric disorders that result from the intersection of nature and nurture, or
gene and environment. By definition, PTSD requires the experience of a traumatic
exposure,…