Life experiences in childhood that are lost in time and then further protected by shame and by secrecy and by social taboos against inquiry into certain realms into human experience… those life experiences, play out powerfully and proportionately a half-century later in terms of emotional state, in terms of biomedical disease and life expectancy.

Dr. Vincent Felitti, Kaiser Permanente

The recent headline of the article posted in The Guardian stated: “How childhood stress can knock 20 years off your life.” 

Anyone who has experienced childhood abuse and neglect might want to know how it can affect them later on in life. The CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study² is one of the largest examinations on child abuse and neglect. It was a study on 17,500 middle-class adults.

The study focused on the long-term effects of child abuse and neglect on a person’s health and well-being when they are adults. The long-term effects of childhood trauma are now starting to get some headway.

Even Oprah is talking about how important it is. Oprah has now written a book with Dr. Bruce Perry – What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing.

Many infographics have been created to share information about what adverse childhood experiences are, how prevalent they are and their impact.

My Courage to Tell was written to highlight how bullying, childhood neglect and mental health of a parent can effect a child.

The question is: NOT what is wrong with you. The question is, “What happened to you?”

The @7030Campaign have been tremendously supportive in my journey.

When we see the long-term effects of childhood trauma, we start to understand why we experience what we do. Some possible risk outcomes are:

Behaviour: Lack of physical exercise; smoking; drug use; alcoholism; and missed work.

Physical and Mental Health: Severe Obesity; Eating Disorders; Diabetes; Depression; Suicide Attempts; STDs; Heart Disease; Cancer; Stroke; COPD; and broken bones.

Complex Trauma, learning difficulties, self-harm and anxiety can also be added to the list.

Below is a 7-minute video by Big Think. PLEASE WATCH IT!

Let’s start educating ourselves. Let’s start to make changes. It’s important for ourselves. It’s important for our children.

Laura Corbeth

At the end of the day, I believe that human nature is kind and loving. We are all born innocent. But “generational trauma” has taken that away.

Did you know that childhood trauma can make you sick?

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