Childhood trauma has far-reaching consequences

CatholicAnchor.org

Safe Environment

Editor’s note: As the Archdiocese of Anchorage recognizes Child Abuse Awareness Month in April, the Archdiocesan Office of Safe Environment invited a guest writer Marg Volz to show the connection between negative childhood experiences and consequences to emotional and physical health. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops encourages all dioceses to focus on this designation to learn how child abuse goes against the basic premise of Catholic teaching on the dignity human persons.

Certainly the health of any community (whether a neighborhood, church, city or state) depends on the healthy development of the next generation. Most parents I’ve encountered over the past 30-plus years as a pediatric nurse really do want what’s best for their children and want to be “good” parents. So why do we struggle with such high rates of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, drug and alcohol abuse and suicide among our young people? I believe a closer (more scientific) look at these childhood stresses may contribute to our understanding of the problem and also what might enable our children to respond to adversity and thrive.

In the early 1990’s, Dr. Vince Felitti, an Internal Medicine physician in California, started noticing the connection between chronic health issues of his patients and their reporting of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). He along with Dr. Rob Anda from the Center for Disease Control spent the next decade looking at this connection which led to one of the most profound public health discoveries of our generation. They surveyed more than 17,000 employed adults. These people were asked about situations they may have experienced as children including child physical and sexual abuse and neglect, witnessing domestic violence, having a family member who was incarcerated or someone with a substance abuse problem. Each of these experiences were given a score of one regardless of severity. So if you grew up with a parent who was an alcoholic and you witnessed your mother being hit and your parents divorced, your ACE score would be 3. They found that ACE are common (over 60 percent had at least one), they are often interrelated (26 percent had three or more ACE) and they are powerful. People who report higher ACE scores are more likely to have health and social problems and more likely to transmit higher ACE scores to their children.

This discovery demonstrated that stressful and traumatic childhood experiences lead to social and emotional difficulties that then lead to unhealthy behaviors and early disease, disability and even early death. The ACE study shows a strong influence on adolescent health, workplace performance, smoking, drug abuse, stability in relationships and increases the risk of heart and lung disease, suicide, liver disease and injuries. These findings hold true in Alaska.

One way to explain how traumatic events affect us physically as well as mentally is the feeling and sensation of a near-miss in our vehicles on icy dark roads here in Alaska. What happens immediately or shortly after that experience? Does your heart “race,” hands shake, maybe start to sweat, all of those physical sensations are caused by the pouring out of stress hormones into your system — the “fight or flight response” as it is called.   Now imagine you are a young child growing up in a household witnessing your mother getting punched, or someone with a drinking or drug problem or mental illness or experiencing physical or sexual abuse or neglect. Imagine experiencing that “fight or flight” response over and over and over again on an almost daily or weekly basis. When stress hormones, like cortisol, are at high levels in the body for long periods of time they can be toxic to the development of brain cells.

When you understand the brain it starts to make sense how adverse childhood experiences are stored in our bodies as well as our brains. The higher the ACE Score the more likely that people have experienced adult homelessness, unemployment, poverty, disability, learning problems, incarceration and more. Whether you work in health care, education, ministry, business or service industry, understanding this concept leads to becoming more “trauma informed” and changes the question from, “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”

Alaskans care very much about the health and wellbeing of their children and we are taking steps to understand the effects of ACE and how to help prevent them.

According to the State of Alaska Health & Social Services website, communities statewide are already using ACE research in public safety, public health and in corporate Alaska. For more information about ACE and ways to prevent them, go online to dhss.alaska.gov/abada/ace-ak/Documents/ACEsReportAlaska.pdf.

Marg Volz is a pediatric nurse practitioner with Alaska CARES, a Children’s Advocacy Center in Anchorage part of the Children’s Hospital at Providence. Volz also serves on Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz’s Advisory Review Board addressing safe environment policies.