There may be more to your illness than you think.
Can't figure out why you're always sick? Child abuse and neglect both contribute to childhood trauma, but what if the effects of these follow you to adulthood in the form of a physical illness?
There is a scientific link between illness and childhood abuse and neglect — whether it's physical, emotional, or sexual. The effects of victimization are far-reaching — especially when it begins before the age of seven.
Current science shows the emotional damage to a person who lived their childhood in fight, flight, or freeze mode and how the trauma of emotional neglect affects them right down to the physical body.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) is the largest public health study ever done at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, California. It has been ongoing since the mid-1990s. It has conclusively linked childhood abuse and family dysfunction with chronic illness, substance abuse, and suicidality later in life.
The top three diseases identified by the study are lung diseases, cancer, and auto-immune diseases.
At the bottom of difficult stories of abuse and neglect are the emotions that we feel as a result of these experiences. But what role do traumatized emotions play in illnesses?
[To read the rest of this article by Dr. Meg Haworth, click here.]
[Photo: Unsplash]
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