Stress imprints on the brain. It’s not just a mental thing: stress influences the release of brain chemicals, hormones, and inflammatory proteins. When a young, developing brain is flooded with trauma and stress, the brain changes. This sets the stage for later health problems.
A large study by the Centers for Disease Control found a disturbing relationship between childhood trauma and adult problems: things like alcohol and drug abuse, suicide risk, depression, as well as increased risk of heart disease and lung and liver disease.
Dr. Vincent Felitti, the keynote speaker at Thursday’s Invest in Children event, lead the study.
FELITTI: The destructiveness of it was unexpected. The power of these early experiences in the developmental years and how they play out a half century later, in terms of emotional well-being, in terms of disease states, in terms of early death.
Felitti says this research shows how crucial it is to intervene early with kids experiencing trauma, and for adults to be screened for high stress damage they may have suffered long ago.