Unhappy child, unhealthy adult.

Geoff Watts explores the consequences of an abusive childhood, and its effect once the child has reached adulthood. ‘Doris’, a student, is first to be interviewed on her experiences as an unhappy child; Doris’ parents ended their relationship when she was only 12 months old. Later Doris and her sister had to take care of their mother as she had various health issues such as depression and couldn’t properly raise her two daughters. The two girls had to care for her. Doris attempted to commit suicide. Although now an adult; Doris is still emotionally unstable about her poor upbringing. It’s understandable how Doris can feel emotional about her childhood, however it is not as obvious that these events can have an effect on our physical health. For example as an adult, these circumstances can alter things such as; the development of cancerous cells, cardiovascular disease and liver disease. A seemingly basic but effective way to fight these negative effects is by asking an affected person about their childhood. Graham Music, a child and adolescent psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic in London, takes an interest in the link between childhood experiences and their consequences. Music has over two decades of experience with traumatised children and has identified the link between a child who shows symptoms of trauma such as shaking, a tense body etc. He states these effects take a toll on the child all through adulthood. Various clinicians have noticed a link between mental health and physical health, one from The University of California has devised a system to predict a child’s health defects. This system works by having each traumatic experience they endured scoring one point; one astounding correlation was that if a child had six or more points they were 4600% more likely to become a drug addict compared to someone who had zero points. The pre-frontal cortex of the brain develops throughout childhood and adverse events can affect the way this part of the brain develops. If the pre-frontal cortex is under developed, a child can grow up to be impulsive and show bad decision making; these factors can be a main cause for mistreated children to take drugs in later life, which in turn affects a person’s health overall. Studies have also shown that a brain that is fit to cope with stress can deal with stressful events in later life, counteracting the negative effects of trauma, and instead using them to a person’s benefit.