Sometimes it’s important to connect the dots in a very public way between cause and effect, as with the “adverse events” in childhood that can cause lifelong trauma. In an excellent essay on Huff Post, Lloyd Sederer, a prominent N.Y. psychiatrist whose articles I follow closely, honors the American Pediatric Association for its leadership on raising awareness around the lifelong damage caused by childhood trauma.
It seems that those who have experienced trauma as children also need to be reminded that these events can be devastating in order to allow themselves to seek help for the PTSD or whatever effects may be present in their adult lives. To help, Dr. Sederer also notes interventions and treatments for child and family trauma that have been shown to be effective.
As noted by the APA and Dr. Sederer, here are the primary “Adverse Childhood Events”, or ACEs that do the most damage to children — and the adults they become:
1. Direct psychological abuse
2. Direct sexual abuse
3. Direct physical abuse
4. Substance abuse in household
5. Mental illness in household
6. Mother treated violently
7. Criminal behavior in household
The greater the number of ACEs, the greater the risk of developing a chronic disease,or multiple chronic diseases. From post traumatic disorder research we know the greater theseverity and frequency of the trauma the more like it will burn itself into the brains neural circuitry.
via Lloyd I. Sederer, MD: Trauma and Adversity in Childhood: History Need Not Be Destiny.
multiple mental disorders, including my son Alex’s diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia, his younger brother’s depression and anxiety disorder and my own lifelong untreated depression. Happy to say we’ve all reached recovery, one reason why I’m sharing our experiences.
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