As part of my career I have attended many trauma based courses. One thing I thought was very interesting is how the juvenile brain is essentially damaged by not only physical trauma but also emotional and psychological trauma. When a young brain is growing the frontal cotext is the last part to fully develop. So when a child is repeatedly exposed to trauma that 'fight or flight's trigger is basically stuck. It stops developing. Thats one reason children who have been exposed to long term trauma will often have poor impulse control, extreme responses and find it difficult to reason through problems. I have to wonder if adults who have endured trauma as children essentially have a form of brain damage. Perhaps portions of the brain have remained underdeveloped.
This is just a theory.