By Beth Ann Mayer, Yahoo Lifestyle, January 16, 2020
Uchenna Umeh knew she needed to file for divorce in 2009. The relationship was not working, and she did not want her three children, then ages 9, 7, and 2, to grow up in that environment. As a pediatrician, she also knew divorce can cause childhood trauma, so she put all three in therapy. Two of her three boys struggled at first but overcame the trauma as they moved into adulthood. Her middle child didn't show outward signs of trauma until he turned 19 and began having outbursts.
"He just had a different way of processing it," says Dr. Umeh, author of A Teen's Life: Looking at Teens' Lives Through Their Daily Struggles.
Divorce is one of several Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), or potentially traumatic events that occur before a child is 17 years old. Bullying, witnessing or experiencing violence or abuse, the loss or incarceration of a parent, and car accidents are a few others. About 61 percent of adults surveyed across 25 states experienced at least one ACE, and 1 in 6 adults reported exposure to multiple, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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