Blue Mountain Eagle
02350 - ParentPage - Page 1 - Composite
Wednesday, September 2, 2015
B3
SEPTEMBER 2015
ADVERSE CHILDHOOD
ADVERSE
CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES
EXPERIENCES
It’s an unavoidable part of life.
While some stress can be
beneficial to our development
and learning, most people think
of stress in a negative sense.
Do you feel like screaming or
pulling your hair out when you
see or hear the word? Our
bodies were designed to cope
with short term stress by
increasing adrenaline in what is
known as the fight or flight
syndrome. However when
children are repeatedly
exposed to stress for long
periods of time- weeks, months
or even years- the stress
becomes toxic & their fight or
flight stress response can get
so overwhelmed it can cause
permanent changes in the
development of their brain.
John Medina, author of Brain
Rules, asserts “Out-of-control stress is bad news
for the brains of most people”. In this article I
want to address the consequences of long term
stress also known as chronic or toxic stress.
Kristin Schubert from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation states:
Every day, there are young children who are
abused. Who witness violence in their homes or
neighborhoods. Who are malnourished. Or
who have parents who struggle with drug or
alcohol use. We now know that those adverse
experiences change the way their young brains
develop and affect their mental and physical
well-being later in life. These children are more
likely to have heart disease, cancer and
hypertension as adults. They are more likely to
use drugs, suffer from depression and commit
suicide. They are more likely to drop out of
school, spend time in prison, and be homeless.
Writing about the effects of childhood stress,
Jennifer Middlebrooks & Natalie Audage, state:
Intensive and prolonged stress can lead to a
variety of short and long term negative health
effects. It can disrupt early brain development
and compromise functioning of the nervous and
immune systems. In addition, childhood stress
can lead to health problems later in life
including alcoholism, depression, eating
disorders, heart disease, cancer, and other
chronic diseases.
The stressors described by Schubert and the
negative consequences described by
Middlebrooks and Audage are the result of a
significant research study on Adverse Childhood
Experiences, now identified as ACES, which was
first conducted in the 1990’s and over 17,000
adults participated in the study. The purpose of
the study was to find out how many of the
participants, as children, had experienced:
1. emotional, physical or sexual abuse
2. emotional or physical neglect
researchers in the initial ACE study, claims
“Adverse childhood experiences are the most
basic and long-lasting cause of health risk
behaviors, mental illness, social malfunction,
disease, disability, death and healthcare costs”.
If you haven’t heard of the ACE study before
you’re likely not alone because it’s been said
that the ACE study is probably the most
important public health study you never heard
of. This study is important because children
who grow up with high ACE scores become
teens with high ACE scores who are likely to
struggle in school and possibly drop out, abuse
drugs and alcohol, experience depression or
other risk factors. Of course teens with high
ACE scores become adults with high ACE
scores who experience mental health issues,
violent relationship issues as well as health
issues that lead to early death.
If you’re a parent, grandparent, guardian, or
foster parent who is interested in the health and
wellbeing of your children or teens what can
you do to help? You find out more about ACES
by checking out websites acestoohigh.com and
cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/
index.htm. You can also strive to change any
stressful situations at home. John Medina
claims “one of the greatest predictors of
performance in school turns out to be the
emotional stability of the home”. Research
shows that providing stable, responsive,
nurturing relationships as early in life as possible
can prevent or even reverse the damaging
effects of childhood adversity with lifelong
benefits for learning, behavior and health. You
and your children can also utilize counseling to
process the adverse childhood experiences of
the past in order to have a hopeful, productive
life in the future. For more information about
counseling services contact Community
Counseling Solutions at 541-575-1466.
3. witnessing mother being treated violently
4. substance abuse in the home
5. a household member having a mental
illness
6. parents separating or getting divorced
7. someone in the home being incarcerated.
A “yes” response to any of the ten topics equals
one point. The higher the number of points
increases the likelihood of negative health
problems such as:
Felitti, V. J. (2012). National Council Webinar. 8/27/12, USA.
Medina, J. (2014). Brain Rules. Pear Press, Seattle, WA.
USA.
Middlebrooks, J.S. & Audage, N.C. (2007). The Effects of
Childhood Stress on Health Across the Lifespan. Atlanta
(GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National
Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Schubert, K. (2013). Shielding Young Brains from the Effects
of Toxic Stress. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
• Alcohol abuse & alcoholism
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
(COPD)
• Depression
• Fetal death
• Illicit drug use
• Ischemic heart disease
• Liver disease
• Risk for intimate partner violence
• Multiple sexual partners
• Sexually transmitted diseases
• Smoking
• Suicide attempts
• Unintended pregnancies
Vincent J. Felitti, MD, one of the original
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