I was born with a highly sensitive nervous system. I inherited from my parents epigenetically modified DNA in genes that predisposed me to be maximally tuned in to trauma. I am also highly empathic, another inherited trait. As a result, I felt all my parents’ trauma as if it were my own. The toxic environment my intergenerationally traumatized parents created in their household was therefore naturally traumatizing to me as a baby and in childhood. The damage done to my developing nervous system and to my soul couldn’t possibly have been more impactful. My inherited traits combined with my parents’ unhealed trauma to create a perfect storm in which I have drowned repeatedly throughout my life.