CHILDREN: TRAUMA, DISORDERS & RESOURCES
Adverse Childhood Experiences impact on health
Adverse Childhood Experiences definition and description
Attachment Disorders info for Families
Attachment, Trauma and the Brain
Attachment, Trauma and the Developing Brain
Karyn Purvis Institute on Facebook
[The original post can be found here: Developmental Trauma]
Trauma has become a household word used in everyday vocabulary. The real deal is anything but an everyday experience, however. The word trauma usually evokes images of threatening or devastating events such as near-death accidents, assaults, wars, or natural disasters. More common, and sometimes overlooked, are the experiences that involve persistent doses of fear and helplessness within the daily relationships or environments of a person’s life. Especially when these experiences occur early on in life (childhood or adolescence), there can be unique ways a growing young person is impacted. Two factors that become interwoven are:
· The direct hit of an experience of helplessness and terror due to a real or perceived threat to one’s well-being. This may be a single event or an ongoing accumulation of many experiences.
· The inherent vulnerability of the still-developing physical, intellectual, emotional, and social capacities of a young person. These capacities predict a person’s ability to cope and are continually shaped by their environment, so they are partially formed by the trauma.
This is often called developmental trauma.
Because the young person’s life is still woven around relationships they are dependent on to meet needs, the very concept of any relationship often becomes a scary and threatening experience. This can be carried into adulthood if there is not adequate support to heal and support the capacity to enter, keep and grow healthy relationships.
The capacity to heal and change is always a possibility throughout life. If you are a helper or someone supporting a loved one who carries such impact, there are several ways you can really focus your efforts to become a secure relationship foundation.
· Building the ability to trust means taking risks. If you want to invite someone to take risks on trusting you, make sure your words and body language match. Think about what message you want to send, and consider how you can convey that. For example respecting needs for personal space yet staying open with your body language, inviting with eye contact (not too much!) and gentle with your tone of voice all send a message of “You can talk to me or be near me and I’ll respect you.” In contrast, a harsh tone of voice, folded up arms and legs or avoiding or over-doing eye contact can send a message of “I’m watching you, or I don’t know if I want you near me”. No matter what your actual words are, non-verbal communication always speaks louder!
· Be clear that there aren’t conditions attached to connecting with you and that they aren’t responsible for taking care of you. Often a person who has survived developmental trauma has learned that they need to take care of other people to ensure their own survival. Encouraging a person to contribute to the relationship without it feeling like an obligation often takes practice. They also may need practice at trusting they can accept support and care from you without any cost.
· Be clear and honest about your availability. It is important you say only what you can do and not make promises you can’t keep. Having a firm and clear limits that you can explain is actually relieving to someone especially when you follow through on upholding your boundaries.
· Set and keep boundaries. Be willing to acknowledge and work to repair any relationship ruptures. For example, having to cancel an outing because you get sick may trigger a reaction of abandonment from the other person. Be clear about what you need to do to tend to your own needs while showing empathy for the fear and vulnerability this may stir up for the other person.
· Think about what you truly and sincerely appreciate about this person. Communicate this honestly. A person who has been hurt in relationships before will often have a super-sensitive radar for dishonesty. Be gentle and frank.
· It can be easy to see only the struggle or the damage in someone who has been hurt repeatedly. Remember they have also survived! There is so much more to a person than their scars. Get curious about all the hidden or subtle strengths that ensured they are here today.
· Share your joys. One of the saddest legacies of any traumatic impact is that it can shrink a person’s capacity to enter into and experience joy. Sharing opportunities to laugh, be creative and encourage playfulness and levity is one of the most healing ways a secure relationship can build health.
· Notice the small and subtle changes in the person you are supporting. As a person experiences a more full relationship, they are able to know themselves more and grow from the traumatic experiences they survived. Having someone reflect these changes back helps deepen this knowing and self-compassion.
The healing journey from developmental trauma is often long and winding. A person can untangle the impact from the rest of who they are, especially if surrounded by secure, caring, and solid relationships.
Vicki Enns, MMFT
Trainer, Crisis and Trauma Resource InstituteTo receive notification of a new blog posting, follow us on Facebook, Google + and Linked In.© CTRI Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute Inc. (www.ctrinstitute.com)
Content of this blog may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute Inc.
Studies on children's brains reveal the real impact a mother's love or lack of love has on the developing child. The article below was written by Jill Reilly
Horrifying scans that show the real impact of love: Brain of a neglected child is much smaller than that of a normal three-year-old
According to neurologists the sizeable difference between these two brains has one primary cause - the way they were treated by their mothers
Both of these images are brain scans of two three-year-old children,
The brain on the left is considerably larger, has fewer spots and less dark areas, compared to the one on the right
You comfort them over a skinned knee in the playground, and coax them to sleep with a soothing lullaby.
But being a nurturing mother is not just about emotional care - it pays dividends by determining the size of your child's brain, scientists say.
Both of these images are brain scans of two three-year-old children, but the brain on the left is considerably larger, has fewer spots and less dark areas, compared to the one on the right.
According to neurologists, this sizeable difference has one primary cause - the way each child was treated by their mothers.
What is shocking: According to neurologists the sizeable difference between these two brains has one primary cause - the way they were treated by their mothers
The child with the larger and more fully developed brain was looked after by its mother - she was constantly responsive to her baby, reported The Sunday Telegraph. But the child with the shrunken brain was the victim of severe neglect and abuse. According to research reported by the newspaper, the brain on the right worryingly lacks some of the most fundamental areas present in the image on the left.
The consequences of these deficits are pronounced - the child on the left with the larger brain will be more intelligent and more likely to develop the social ability to empathise with others.
But in contrast, the child with the shrunken brain will be more likely to become addicted to drugs and involved in violent crimes, much more likely to be unemployed and to be dependent on state benefits.
The child is also more likely to develop mental and other serious health problems.
Professor Allan Schore, of UCLA, told The Sunday Telegraph that if a baby is not treated properly in the first two years of life, it can have a fundamental impact on development.
He pointed out that the genes for several aspects of brain function, including intelligence, cannot function. And sadly there is a chance they may never develop and come into existence.
These have concerning implications for neglected children that are taken into care past the age of two. It also seems that the more severe the mother's neglect, the more pronounced the damage can be.
The images also have worrying consequences for the childhood neglect cycle - often parents who, because their parents neglected them, do not have fully developed brains, neglect their own children in a similar way.
But research in the U.S. has shown the cycle can be successfully broken if early intervention is staged and families are supported. The study correlates with research released earlier this year that found that children who are given love and affection from their mothers early in life are smarter with a better ability to learn.
The study by child psychiatrists and neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, found school-aged children whose mothers nurtured them early in life have brains with a larger hippocampus, a key structure important to learning, memory and response to stress.
The research was the first to show that changes in this critical region of children’s brain anatomy are linked to a mother’s nurturing, Neurosciencenews.com reports.
The research is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
Lead author Joan L. Luby, MD, professor of child psychiatry, said the study reinforces how important nurturing parents are to a child's development.
This article was originally published: 13:16 EDT, 28 October 2012 |
[This article was originally published on March 21, 2017 by Terry Levy, Ph.D., B.C.F.E. and can be found on LinkedIn]
In utero and early attachment experiences significantly affect the wiring of the brain, because the young child’s brain grows more than at any other time in life, and relationships shape the developing brain. Compromised attachment and traumatic stress trigger an alarm reaction, altering the neurobiology of the brain and central nervous system. Traumatized children and adults often have impaired wiring in the brain’s limbic system and altered levels of stress hormones, resulting in anxiety, depression, and self-regulation problems. Effective treatment and therapeutic parenting can rewire the limbic system and reduce the biochemistry of stress.
The infant’s brain, especially the limbic region, is an “open loop system,” because it relies on attuned and nurturing input from attachment figures for healthy growth and development. Relationship experiences in the early stages of life are most important in shaping the development of brain and behavior.
Brain development in infancy is “experience dependent;" the baby’s brain, specifically the limbic system, relies on sensitive and attuned care from attachment figures for healthy growth and functioning. Early attachment experiences play an essential role in shaping the architecture of the brain and building connections between parts of the brain. Chronic stress associated with lack of safe and secure attachment can impair the formation of brain circuits and alter levels of stress hormones, resulting in emotional and biological dysregulation, anxiety and depression.
Brain development begins two weeks after conception and continues most rapidly during the first three years of life. Our brains are basically social in nature. Prenatal stress produces increased norepinephrine (arousal and agitation) and decreased levels of dopamine and serotonin (depression, anxiety, emotional dysregulation). Brain circuits are being created rapidly in the first year of life, and are largely determined by the quality of the infant–caregiver relationship and the level of stress. Babies are right-hemisphere dominant, responding primarily to preverbal and nonverbal emotional communication—facial expressions, eye contact, touch, tone of voice, and feelings of love, security and safety. The infant’s right brain and the attachment figure’s right brain are attuned during moments of connection. This is called “limbic resonance," and is the fundamental building block of secure attachment. This also leads to the child’s ability to self-regulate and to the formation of the child’s core beliefs ("internal working model"). The sensitive and loving parent and caregiver calms and soothes the baby’s emotions and stress response, and over time the child learns self-regulation. Early experiences of secure or insecure attachment are encoded into the implicit (preverbal and unconscious) memory systems in the limbic brain, and become mindsets and expectations that guide subsequent behavior (e.g., attachment figures are safe or unsafe, accepting or rejecting). Studies have found that infant attachment security predicts self-control when children begin their school years.
Chronic and toxic stress can impair the proper development of brain circuitry, resulting in anxiety and self-control problems. Several brain regions are involved in the ability to learn self-control skills. The prefrontal cortex, located behind the forehead, is involved in attention and organizational skills, including following rules, suppressing impulses, reasoning, and decision making. The orbitofrontal cortex, located behind the eyes, is involved in decision making and reward, especially when the decision involves delay of gratification (google the “marshmallow test”). The anterior cingulate receives messages from various brain regions and regulates cognitive and emotional responses. It is involved in controlling behavior in challenging situations and adjusting behavior when a strategy is not working. These brain regions develop normally under conditions of safety and low to moderate stress, but development is impaired when there are high levels of stress and interpersonal trauma (attachment disorder).
Research and clinical experience have shown that an effective way to activate the neurobiology of attachment in the limbic systems of traumatized children and adults is to utilize the "Limbic Activation Process." This is basically the same strategy that humans have been using for millennium, and is biologically programed into us for the purpose of creating attachment. This is a therapeutic experience that provides the social, emotional, mental and physical milieu for the release of neurochemicals of attachment (dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin). It increases feelings of safety, calmness and security. Our brains are programmed for attachment and love, and this therapeutic experience awakens these feelings between parents and children and adults couples. Research has shown that physical closeness and affection, such as safe and loving touch and hugs, reduce blood pressure, lower stress hormones, increase oxytocin, and promote calmness, trust and secure attachment.
Dr. Levy is the a licensed clinical psychologist and the director at Evergreen Psychotherapy Center/ Licensed Clinical Psychologist.
Adopted at the age of six months, Joseph was a fussy and sometimes hard to soothe infant. Feeling as though this was just normal infant difficulties with the adjustment of adoption, Pat and Robert paid it little attention. When Joseph reached the age of two and began to bite the other children in daycare, they chalked it up to the dreaded two-year old stage of which everyone assumes to be okay. Though the biting never quite ceased that year, with a few modifications, Joseph made it through the year. The teachers raved about how smart he was. By the time he was six, the increasing duration of the school day seemed almost more than he could bear. Sometimes screaming for hours at a time, Joseph would do no work and then would spend the remainder of the day in isolation. Prone to striking out when others attempted to soothe him, Joseph had now grown accustomed to attempting to runaway from the school personnel when his behavior would escalate. On many occasions this would lead to Joseph being restrained by the security guards, principal, or coaches. Eventually Joseph began to stack up a list of schools attended and suspended from. By the time Joseph had hit the 5th grade, his increasingly violent outburst coined with outward defiance had gained him two different stays at local residential treatment centers. Not knowing where else to turn or what else to do, and after failed attempts at therapy, and more than eight psychiatric medications had proved of little benefit other than causing Joseph to appear “zombie-like,” Pat and Robert felt their only other option was to send Joseph to a boys boarding school.
[This article was written by Bryan Post of the Post Institute, November 6, 2016]
Unfortunately, the above story is not an uncommon plight that adoptive parents face. Though not always leading to a disruption or out-of-home placement, many adoptive families struggle for years to create the peaceful family of which they had dreamed. Regrettably, one of the main barriers preventing such family harmony is one of the least understood when it comes to understanding the plight of the adopted child. The barrier is trauma.
Whether adopted from birth or later in life, all adopted children have experienced some degree of trauma. Trauma is any stressful event which is prolonged, overwhelming, or unpredictable. Though we are familiar with events impacting children such as abuse, neglect, and domestic violence, until recently, the full impact of trauma on adopted children has not been understood.
Scientific research now reveals that as early as the second trimester, the human fetus is capable of auditory processing and in fact, is capable of processing rejection in utero. In addition to the rejection and abandonment felt by the newborn adoptee or any age adoptee for that matter, it must be recognized that the far greater trauma often times occurs in the way in which the mind and body system of the newborn is incapable of processing the loss of the biological figure. Far beyond any cognitive awareness, this experience is stored deep within the cells of the body, routinely leading to states of anxiety and depression for the adopted child later in life.
Because this initial experience has gone for so long without validation, it is now difficult for parents to understand. Truth be told, the medical community still discounts this early experience. Nevertheless, this early experience is generally the child’s original trauma. From that point forward many more traumas may occur in the child’s life. These include premature birth, inconsistent caretakers, abuse, neglect, chronic pain, long-term hospitalizations with separations from the mother, and parental depression. Such life events interrupt a child’s emotional development, sometimes even physical development, subsequently interrupting his ability to tolerate stress in meaningful relationships with parents and peers.
An important aspect of trauma is in recognizing that simply because a child has been removed from a traumatic environment, this does not merely remove the trauma from the child’s memory. In fact, stress is recognized to be the one primary key to unlocking traumatic memories. Unfortunately for both the adopted child and family, the experience of most traumas in the child’s life is that the traumatic experiences typically occur in the context of human relationships. From that point forward, stress in the midst of a relationship will create a traumatic re-experiencing for the child, leading the child to feel threatened, fearful, and overwhelmed in an environment which otherwise may not be threatening to other people.
Even for a child adopted from birth, their internal systems may already be more sensitive and fearful than that of a child remaining with his biological parents. You must also consider the first nine months in which the child developed. These early experiences as well could have major implications.
Be more sensitive and tuned in to the small signals given such as clinging, whining, not discriminating amongst strangers, etc. All are signs of insecurity which can be met by bringing the child in closer, holding, carrying, and communicating to the child that he is feeling scared, but you will keep him safe.
One of the single greatest understandings parents can have is a self-understanding. Research tells us that far more communication occurs non-verbally than verbally. Understanding the impact of past trauma in your own life will help you become more sensitive to when your reactions are coming from a place other than your existing parent/child experience. Re-experiencing past trauma is common when parents are placed in an ongoing stressful environment.
Decrease television, overwhelming environments, number of children playing together at one time, and large family gatherings. When necessary that these events take place, keep the child close, explain to him that he may become stressed and he can come to you when needed.
Rather than sending the stressed out and scared child to the corner to think about his behavior, bring him into to you and help him to feel safe and secure. Internally, this will then permit him the ability to think about his actions. Though time-in is not a time for lecturing, it will allow your child an opportunity to calm his stress and then think more clearly. Another effective key is to let the child decide how much time-in he needs.
Doing so will only identify you as a threat. The biblical verse spare the rod, spoil the child speaks to the raising of sheep. A rod is used to guide the sheep and the staff to pull him back into line when he strays. Hitting children, just like sheep, will cause them to become frightened of you and in many instances to runaway or hit back.
A very simple technique for time is the affection prescription 10-20-10. Give a child 10 minutes of quality time and attention first thing in the morning, 20 minutes in the afternoon, and 10 in the evening. Following this prescription of time has proven to have a great impact on the most negative behavior.
This may assist in addressing such vital areas as homework, playground, peer interaction, lunchtime, and physical education. All are common areas of reduced structure and increased stress.
Try not to scapegoat your child for their difficulties, but rather take responsibility for creating the environment necessary for healing his hurtful experiences. There are many resources available. A few of note are: www.postinstitute.com, www.bryanpost.com, www.childtraumaacademy.org (Dr. Bruce Perry’s organization), www.drdansiegel.com, www.mindsightinstitute.com (Dr. Daniel Siegel), www.oxytocincentral.com and www.child.tcu.edu (Dr. Karyn Purvis)
Parenting a child with trauma history can take its toll on the best of parent. Seek out a support system for occasional respite care, discussing of issues, and the sharing of a meal. Such small steps can go a long ways during particularly stressful times.
In closing, never forget that you are a great parent. During times of stress you won’t always feel like it, but both you and your child were meant to be together. Your child will teach you far more about yourself than you may have ever realized without him. Give yourself time to refuel, connect, and communicate. And finally, a secure parental relationship is the single greatest gift you can give your child. When the parental relationship is secure this will permit the child a foundation to grow from.
We tend to understand where our physical traits come from. We may have our mother’s eyes or our father’s chin. But when it comes to personality traits, we tend to think of them as our own. Psychologists go one step farther. They see things like anxiety or depression stemming from personal experiences which shaped us. Some studies however reach back even farther, are in fact passed down from parents or even grandparents.
[The original article is found on BigThink by Philip Perry]
Neurosis, anxiety, an adventuresome spirit, can these be inherited? That was the question on the minds of two researchers back in 1992. Then molecular biologist and geneticist Moshe Szyf and neurobiologist Michael Meaney, both of Montreal’s McGill University, met after a conference and had a few beers in a nearby bar. They started discussing inheritable traits, and Meaney theorized that certain emotional traits could be passed down through genes inside the brain. Szyf though skeptical was intrigued.
DNA inhabits the nuclei of cells. Since the 1970’s, scientists had wondered what tells each cell to transcribe certain genes and discard others. It was found that molecules in the methyl group earmarked certain genes, tagging them for transcription. Because of the discovery of these methyl groups and their position, each sitting beside a corresponding gene, the field of epigenetics was born. The Greek prefix epi meaning over from. At first, it was thought that epigenetic changes only occurred in the fetal stage of life. Over time, scientists discovered that changes in diet, exposure to certain elements in the environment, and other encounters also changed our DNA.
Artist’s rendition of DNA methylation. By Christoph Bock (Max Planck Institute for Informatics) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
What Prof. Meaney hypothesized was that a parent who experienced a trauma could have certain changes in their brain which might lead to epigenetic changes that were passed on, inhabiting the neurons of their children’s brains or even their grandchildren. That rumination bore an entirely new field, behavioral epigenetics. That means if you had a parent or grandparent who lived through a genocide, war, saw someone murdered, or who suffered a different trauma, say at the hands of an abusive or neglectful parent, you carry traits for the emotional impact in your genes.
A grandfather who was neglected as a child for instance, may have experienced depression, and so passed that predisposition onward. It works in the positive sense too. If your grandfather had loving, nurturing parents, you get a genetic boost in the psychological and behavioral sense. How far does this epigenetic influence go? It’s pretty hard to parse out, even for scientists.
Meaney was able to prove that certain emotional traits were passed down by studying female rats and their pups. He and colleagues gathered data reaching back to the 1950’s. Those baby rats handled by researchers, for as little as five minutes a day, during the first few weeks after birth, were calmer and less stressed than those who were never handled. Meaney and colleagues found this was not due to human handling.
Instead, mother rats were more likely to groom their pups after humans had touched them. They also tended to give them more room for suckling. This extra attention led to better adjusted pups. Meaney showed that the more attention an infant rat received, the lower their stress hormone level in adulthood was. He said, "What we had done up to that point in time was to identify maternal care and its influence on specific genes.” It was after this experiment that Meaney met Szyf.
The pair conducted an array of experiments. They began by selecting highly attentive mother rats and those who were neglectful. The offspring of neglectful mothers were more anxious and easily startled. Researchers took the offspring of these rats in adulthood and examined their brains, specifically the hippocampus. This is the area that has to do with stress, anxiety, and the formation of memories.
Those who had neglectful mothers had observable changes in the methylation of the genes there. These changes produced more glucocorticoid receptors, which interact with the stress hormone. More of them means a higher sensitivity to stress. Those with diligent mothers did not display such changes.
Next, Meaney and Szyf took a group of pups raised by neglectful mothers. They injected their brains with a drug called trichostatin A. This removes methyl groups. None of the skittishness seen in their mothers was found in this group. Their brains were once again examined, and no epigenetic changes were found. “It was like rebooting a computer,” Szyf said.
In a 2008 study, the pair found that neglectful mother rats had fewer estrogen receptors in their brain. When their female offspring matured, this resulted in fewer estrogen receptors in their brains, which led to neglect of their own young. Meaney and Szyf had discovered what is now called postnatal inheritance, or epigenetic changes from the environment that are written into our DNA, and then passed down to the next generation. These two scientists have published 24 papers on the subject since.
Next, the researchers moved on to human subjects. In a 2008 study, Meaney and Szyf examined the brains of those who committed suicide, and compared them with those who had died for other reasons. Among the suicidal, neural genes in the hippocampus showed excessive methylation. Since their brains were so methylated, researchers concluded that suicidal subjects must have been abused as children. This could be why someone who had neglectful or abusive parents must struggle to overcome the trauma they endured. Methyl groups in their neural genes bind them to feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, malaise, or worry. Of course, due to ethical concerns, examining the brains of living humans is out of the question. Professor Szyf however has located signs of epigenetic methylation in blood samples.
In one experiment, Szy and researchers from Yale recruited 14 Russian children brought up in an orphanage, and 14 others raised by their parents. Each gave a blood sample which was examined. Orphans had far more methylation than those who were raised by their parents. Areas of the brain important for communication and brain development were most affected.
The study concluded that separation from biological parents causes early stress that effects the person’s genome, long-term. This in turn could explain why adopted children may be more susceptible to damage from harsh parenting styles, on the part of adoptive parents. Study co-author, psychologist Elena Grigorenko wrote, “Parenting adopted children might require much more nurturing care to reverse these changes in genome regulation.”
The most exciting revelation was from a study last year out of New York’s Mount Sinai hospital. 32 holocaust survivors and their children had their genes analyzed. A methylation tag was found in a stress-related gene in parents and children alike. “The gene changes in the children could only be attributed to Holocaust exposure in the parents,” said Rachel Yehuda, lead researchers on the study.
More research must be done to understand the processes involved. How epigenetic changes are passed on from parent to offspring still remains Unknown. Though we may despair that our parents or grandparents trauma lives on in us, Prof. Yehuda says other, related methylation tags may make us more resilient, which could be passed down too.
Some researchers take it a step further. It could be that many or even most of our emotional and psychological tendencies, whether we are intellectual or tactile, communicative or quiet, emotional or stoic, forgetful or possess a perfect memory, might all arise from epigenetic changes passed down from our ancestors. What’s more, this breakthrough could lead to big changes in how we treat psychiatric conditions. Big Pharma and small biotech startups alike are already hunting for compounds, hoping to launch the next generation of drugs for psychiatric disorders, ones that are more effective, with very few, if any, side effects.
