How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime | Nadine Burke Harris

So how do we who are affected by early childhood sexual abuse survive ?

Never goona have kids

The fact that this isn’t a think that’s done to make people’s life easier. Dude. I could be happy now! And not a depressed mess! But the thing is I will work, I changed my university major to make sure other kids don’t feel what I felt as a kid!! Why won’t anyone else do that??? Why not? Why not make life easier for CHILDREN???? They’re children! They do not deserve pain! Me as a child went through it already so I’m good now. But no one should have to be okay with being severely traumatized!

It was eye-opening for me to see NCBI studies on ACEs Adverse Childhood Experiences and cancer.

Where's one near me? Phoenix Arizona please respond

I think judgement of others shields us from our own trauma.

I am not a perfect father by any means but I said to my wife from day 1 – her brain is literally being shaped by how we respond to her needs and how we treat her.

I'm my mind she is a work of art, nature personified and since I am partly responsible for crafting such a thing, i do it consciously. I'm not overly intelligent and I discovered the importance of this subject through my own trauma and healing.

We have debates about morality, acceptance of minorities, religion etc but this subject receives no attention.

Why teach a child from a broken home maths in the hope they will learn enough to make money and escape poverty, but not teach us how we are the living embodiment of everything that happens to us

As a current medical student, it saddens me how little we talk about public health in our preclinical years. Topics like this are often saved for events outside of the classroom. However, I think all medical students could learn from public health. There is so much more to a patient than the person sitting right there in front of you. Their lived experiences play a huge role in their health that it seems like many do not understand on a deeper level. Listening to talks like this one makes me more optimistic about the changes I can make in the healthcare field. While many people want to be part of the change, it can be hard to go against a system that so many others believe in. However, the healthcare system does have its many flaws that need fixing. I think the changes that Dr. Harris made in her clinic seem like a great first step in promoting preventative care.
I would love to know more about how the Center for Youth Wellness is structured and how they were able to make these changes to their clinic. Overall, the addition of the Adverse Childhood Experience Survey in patient intake forms seems like a very feasible first step towards these health issues of chronic stress. I loved the idea of using the ACEs survey to have a better idea of the patient in front of you and know what they have more risks for. One area of this I would specifically be more curious about is how she goes about having conversations with parents about the ACE survey. Especially when the actions of the parents could very well be the reason why the ACE score for a patient is high. How do we talk to these parents with constant positive regard and leave them feeling good about the conversation? This conversation could be difficult for parents who may feel as if they have let their child down. How can we make parents aware of the toll their actions have on their child's health without offending or upsetting them?
Overall, I really enjoyed this talk. It is conversations and presentations like this that make me excited about medicine. By taking these steps, Dr. Harris is acting as a great advocate for her patients. This type of work outside of the clinic shows me that the physician really wants to do good and promote health for their patients. In medical ethics, the concept of doing good is beneficence. When I see healthcare providers advocating for their patients outside of the clinic, it makes me feel as if they went into medicine to truly promote good for their patients in every aspect. To me, it seems like the ethical way to practice medicine is to promote good in every aspect of the patient's life as we possibly can.

i never thought about it but it makes sense that having a fight or flight response to trauma over and over again must do terrible things for your health

She's totally right…as someone who has experienced trauma and began healing and shifting from a fight/flight/freeze sympathetic nervous system response to a parasympathetic state…I think good mental health professionals are more needed than doctors and I want to become one.

I agree with a lot of what she's saying, but ADHD isn't a fake illness, it's very real, and in terms of childhood trauma and ADHD I very much think it's a chicken/egg situation; did childhood trauma cause ADHD symptoms, or were children with ADHD more likely to encounter trauma because they're treated differently for having ADHD symptoms? There's not currently enough research to answer that question. Also, the US response to HIV/AIDS was utterly terrible, and is a big part of the reason why the disease flourished for so long and destroyed and decimated several generations, particularly, for queer people, so I wouldn't count it as a successful public health intervention.

I thank God people like this speaker push through to help and not just put a bandaid on. This explains a lot about my family lines. I am still healing

Life is important my people, be nice to those you encounter..