Research The Affect Of Neglect And Abuse On Children's Brains.......

[Queen Boudica]

If ever there is anything that visually shows the effect of abuse and neglect on children it's this comparison of the brain size of 3 year old children, one abused and one not.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/hea...-the-difference-between-these-two-brains.html

"This discovery has enormous implications for social policy. It explains two very persistent features of our society. One is the way that chronic disadvantage reproduces itself across generations of the same families. There is a cycle of deprivation – lack of educational attainment, persistent unemployment, poverty, addiction, crime – which, once a family is in it, has proved almost impossible to break"

 

[ms spock]

Thanks @Lizio. You find some really interesting articles.

Extraordinary stuff that they have know for quite a while. Now for the political will to implement early intervention. Imagine all the PTSD that could be prevented.

 

[Meadowsweet]

I'm torn in my response to this. I think it could be helpful for scientists to research the effect of childhood abuse on the development of the brain. The reason I think this is that currently in the field of mental health the very label "personality disorder" suggests that there is something 'wrong' with the person that the child has become, and for many, I think it would help for the abuse they've experienced to be recognised as a contributing factor in their development.

.However, I think the article makes some very dangerous generalisations in its lack of distinction between poverty, intelligence and types of abuse. I get the impression (although it lacks clarity) that they are talking about the overall neglect of a child's basic physical and emotional needs. They also highlight lack of potential 'intelligence' to be a major consequence of this. Again, what sort of intelligence isn't specified, I',m assuming they mean intellect.

But what of the child that has its physical needs met (ie fed and changed) but not its emotional needs (eye contact, cuddles, soothing rather than angry voices) or is deliberately and maliciously emotionally abused? Or what of the child that has it's basic needs met and on the surface, appears to have its emotional needs met - but is sexually abused? What happens to their brains?

But the distinction that worries me most is the focus on poverty, crime and lack of intelligence. These are the things that governments don't lie, because they cost money rather than make money. But the abuses that I've mentioned above are not related to poverty or to any particular social class, and it seems that this is of no concern to the study being discussed.

 

[Queen Boudica]

These abuses are certainly not limited to any social class. I think though, that once a child has suffered this type of abuse and that sort of brain damage is the consequence, then perhaps their chances in society are reduced so they are more likely to be finding themselves victims of poverty.

I think this sort of research is ground breaking in that we can now have a clear image of the effects of abuse. Mental illness, is something that is very often blamed on the sufferer but show brain scans then it is harder to excuse. Yes there needs to be a lot more research. What we understand is not enough. I think we have only begun to put together how abuse affects all areas, of development.

I sort of see my own story. I have tried to fight the result of my childhood abuse. I thought I had, I went to University I got a good well paid job. But now I am on welfare, and not working. If I had not had that abusive childhood, not been predisposed to accept years of abuse from an abusive husband. My children suffer from the consequences of my condition. I suspect their extreme allergies, ADHD and anxiety are very much to do with what has happened. These things, especially in this climate, weigh you down. Unless there are social policies to help. I may have tried to pull myself out of that poverty cycle, but in the end it gets you. Have to be really strong and need a lot of help, not to be pulled down. So it does become a matter of there needs to be social policy to help those sufferers of abuse. They may be from all social areas, but that abuse pulls you down.

 

[Eleanor]

Still getting past being just pissed off that people need an effing picture of brain to confirm what is RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE....

 

[Chava]

Thanks for sharing. Most of our brain and nervous system is developed in those first few years, and it all depends on our safe (or not safe) connection to the environment. I've even had to work on developmental movement patterns in relation to some of my pain (like it was never safe enough for me to move through these like babies naturally do). I'm smart enough, but struggled several years in school, but had help or found adaptations. I also have attentional issues and semi-dissociations which likely relate to very early patterns. I get confused when too much is going on, or miss out on information in my environment when I've cut out for whatever reason.

The left brain doesn't come online until about age 2 and the frontal cortex keeps on developing for a couple decades. While not clear, I'd assume the "cognitive" challenges related to early neglect and trauma stem from the attentional, relational, and sensorimotor challenges to learning. Not that these kids aren't "smart". There are blocks to learning and often early patterns need to be reworked with some extra help, if they are lucky enough to not just be tossed into some "not-so-bright" category.

I recently read "Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma" and the author detailed the many portions of the brain that were under-functioning in children or adults who had been neglected or abused in the early years. It was startling, but in light of brain development, it does make sense. There are even regions of the brain that allow us to sense ourselves, including internal feelings, which has been really offline for me and hard to "re-wire." Developing work through neurosciences will give us more hope in these areas, including our growing knowledge of neuroplasticity, and possible applications for neurofeedback, sensorimotor therapy, and other nervous-system-based approaches to early trauma.

 

[ms spock]

Indeed @Eleanor - I listened to the news yesterday and one of the findings of some Domestic Violence Taskforce or some such was that violence in early childhood was devastating - that Domestic Violence is devastating in its effects on children - and I am like "No Shit Sherlock!" I get your frustration.

Thanks @Chava for your detailed response I maybe moving in the direction that you are working through at this time. I am very, very frozen - it was early abuse according to my psychiatrist given the clusters of behaviours that I have - which lines up with knowledge of where I was living, who with, and the abuse that they dished out - though I don't remember very much at all - feelings of sheer terror, yes, details, no.

 

[Chava]

I hope a path works out well for you @Ms Spock ....no quick fix here but I'm gathering a lot of insight, which is helping me be more compassionate. And awareness, which helps me be more accepting. Recently I've been able to connect better with a couple people, so I believe change is possible, but if it be real...it be slowwwww

 

[ms spock]

I am veeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyy sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow @Chava. Terribly, terribly slow - but now I am so very grateful to be moving in a forwards or sideways direction - in a generally beneficial direction as another member is fond of quoting.

I have been here since 2009, and I haven't been slouching, it has just taken a terribly long time to get where I am today.

I have been seeing my current psychiatrist for about five years and after thirty odd years of chronic nightmares I am nightmare free. I am also not living in suicidal ideation to get through the day.

My poor, little body is so frozen and so stiff. I, too, am trying to be more compassionate towards myself.

 

[Anarchy]

I recently read "Neurofeedback in the Treatment of Developmental Trauma"

Likewise, I highly recommend it.

 

[Anarchy]

Thanks Lizio
Schore's work is good, it's confirming and giving a neuroscience basis for what Bowlby wrote about 50 years ago in his attachment theory. Poor Bowlby was raised by a nanny(who fortunately seems to have loved him) and sent to a brutalizing and soul destroying boarding school - in the tradition of the british upper and upper middle classes

but damn, the british media annoy the hell out of me and bring out the worst of my cynicism, sorry about the rant that follows;

wouldn't the politicians, that the torygraph article goes on to give column space to, just love to have even more funds to lavish on their cronies in the name of early intervention - while the kids and their poor mums continue to go unattended, unloved and un noticed.

In Britain, we've already had a state monopoly healthcare system with all of its interventions for 68 years, My mother used to teach childcare in the state monopoly education system - my development got all the good intentions and "scientific principles" of the day applied to it, she sought out the approval of those whom she considered authority figures, and half a century later, here I am, on this forum...

and there's the torygraph, still looking for bloody thieving, meddling, unproductive politicians to provide a one size fits all monopoly answer, of the sort that's been failing for 68 years already. </rant>

 

[rightkindofme]

Thanks for this. I've always wondered what I could have been if I had been loved.