By Elizabeth Dougherty — 2020
Flares and flashes. Outbursts and eruptions. The words used to describe anger tend to be volcanic. And science may explain why.
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CLEAR ALL
As California’s first surgeon general, Nadine Burke Harris, MPH ’02, is carrying out the visionary agenda she has brought to medical care: finding the roots of disease in childhood adversity and treating the long-term consequences.
Children who experience adversity tend to have health problems later in life. Dr. Nadine Burke Harris explains why—and how we can help heal those wounds.
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Dr Gabor Maté is a renowned expert in addiction, childhood trauma and mind-body health.
When Luke gets angry, he tries to remember to look at his bracelet. It reminds him of what he can do to calm himself: stop, take a deep breath, count to four, give yourself a hug and, if necessary, ask an adult for help.
Bad policy and paranoid parenting are making kids too safe to succeed.
Of course we want to keep children safe. But exposure to normal stresses and strains is vital for their future wellbeing.
ACEs stands for adverse childhood experiences. A person’s score is typically a tally of how many of 10 such traumas — specific kinds of abuse, neglect or household challenges — they suffered before the age of 18.
When describing their symptoms, medical history and health changes at a clinic or hospital, every patient is the storyteller of their own health. Good storytellers tend to get better health care, but a history of childhood trauma plays havoc with telling your own story.
If the threats we encounter are extreme, persistent, or frequent, we become too sensitized, overreacting to minor challenges and sometimes experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
Peggy Rowe Ward and Larry Ward on how to give yourself the love and compassion you deserve. And send some of that love to the wounded child inside you. They need it.