Childhood Trauma and Substance Abuse in Adulthood Essays

Childhood Trauma and Substance Abuse in Adulthood By: Lauren Gonder CA 401 Child Advocacy II: Responses, Dr. Quanda Stevenson Children are precious yet pliable beings. Children develop through their experiences both physically and psychologically . These experiences calibrate the brain and the body to prepare us for the different environments we face. If a child is brought up in a home where they are constantly being abused and/or neglected, they are programed into learning to take care of themselves. Emotional problems arise when a child is faced with abuse and/or neglect. As they grow older, they may be led to become a part of a bad crowd, to feel like they are a part of something , or to self-medicate to block unwanted feelings . There has been a resurgence in the understanding of what makes a person addicted. Early childhood trauma may be the link to substance abuse in adulthood because of neurological anomalies and emotional trauma. Brain plasticity is the brain 's ability to change at any age, whether it be for the best or the worst. How the brain develops and its physical structure can be affected by one's experiences, positive or negative. Positive experiences, like a nurturing upbringing, is where a child will thrive in most conditions. Negative experiences, like abuse and/or neglect, causes elevated levels of stress and can obstruct the brain's development. Not all stress is bad, though. Our brain works like a muscle and learning requires a small amount of stress. It's when the stress is too large, too often, or too erratic for one person to control. Chil d maltreatment effects the brain's normal structure that impact cognitive, behavioral , and social attributes . Studies have proven that children who are mistreated are the causes for the high levels of stress with in turn causes disruptions in the brain's normal structure. These disruptions have bee n studied in neurological scans proving victims of trauma are vulnerable to substance abuse. Emotional or psychological trauma is a form of damage to the mind that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event. Neglect, loss of a parent, witnessing domestic violence, and having a family member who suffers from a mental illness are just a few of the occurrences that promote emotional trauma. The study of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) was studied and proven that different stress-producing experiences that occur during childhood are the explanations of substance abuse and other forms of impulsive disorders. The study calculated the amount of ACE's a person endured, and depending on the quantity of experiences, the greater the probability of becoming an alcoholic or intravenous drug user. The experiences that are extremely traumatic for children are much less traumatic for adults. Children are limited in their ability to make contextual interpretations , lack a frame of reference, and have difficulties making sense of the se experiences. Significant occurrences have a lasting effect on children and are more likely to linger. Children are supposed to be able to rely on their loved ones for support, but when a child's loved ones are the center of the abuse, neglect, or other trauma, family support is not an option. When a person is faced with a difficult situation and has no one to turn to, they will use alcohol or drugs to lessen the effects of being victimized. Self-medication is also modeled from a potential family member' s substance abuse. Having a substance abuse problem on top of early traumatic events only makes recovery that much harder. Having a working knowledge of the events that lead up to substance abuse can better assist medical professionals in the recovery of these dual-disorders. In addition, knowing that early childhood traumatic experiences provoke substance abuse and other reckless addictions, the federal and state institutions, and society as a whole, can work towards preventing child maltreatment. Parents need to be aware of their stresses in knowing that they can be the defining factor in how their child's brain develops. Putting a stop to child maltreatment can reduce the amount of people who develop substance abuse disorders and in turn reduce other contributing factors that hinder society. Bibliography BIBLIOGRAPHY Felitti, V. J. (2004, February 16). The Origins of