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The Long Term Effects Of Childhood Abuse

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Childhood experiences and attachments are crucial to our emotional development. Children around this country are abused and neglected every second. “Childhood maltreatment also represents a serious public health concern, with an estimated 3.3 million referrals to child protective agencies for suspected child maltreatment in 2005” (Bentley & Widom, 2009). Those children who are abused eventually become adults whom suffered from childhood trauma. Although a trauma may be considered to be in the past, for many the scars are ever so present when moving throughout life. Individuals who haven’t be exposed to high doses of stress and trauma are ready to go into fight or flight at any moment, but when this system is started over and over again, …show more content…

The study included 17,347 participants from ages 19 to 60 and up, all different educational levels, and economic backgrounds this was important so the study had different sampling groups. The study documents the conversion of traumatic emotional experiences in childhood into organic disease later in life (Vincent J. Felitti). Understanding how, “Chronic exposure to stress hormones, whether it occurs during the prenatal period, infancy, childhood, and adolescence has an impact on brain structures involved in cognition and mental health” (Lupien). Persistent and over abundance of these stress hormones can effect an individual in numerous ways such as focusing issues, social issues, depression, anxiety, and much more. The ACE study doesn’t tell an individual they will absolutely have these outcomes, however it is a reliable indicator of possibilities. Other research done with the ACE study has found “a strong graded relationship between the breadth of exposure to abuse or household dysfunction during childhood and multiple risk factors for several of the leading causes of death in adults”(Felliti). The ACE study, found that an individual with an ACE score of 4 or more was 460% more likely to be suffering from depression than an individual with an ACE score of 0; furthermore the study also found that there was a 1,220% increase in attempted suicide between the two groups

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