Why Its So Difficult To Avoid Over-reacting

I came across this article this weekend, and it seemed perfectly timed to the issues I’m dealing with now…

“If you’ve ever wondered why you’ve been struggling a little too hard for a little too long with chronic emotional and physical health conditions that just won’t abate, feeling as if you’ve been swimming against some invisible current that never ceases, a new field of scientific research may offer you hope, answers, and healing insights.“

7 Ways Childhood Adversity Changes the Brain

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-last-best-cure/201508/7-ways-childhood-adversity-changes-the-brain

“In 1995, physicians Vincent Felitti, MD, and Robert Anda, MD, launched a large-scale epidemiological study that probed into the child and adolescent histories of 17,000 subjects, comparing their childhood experiences to their later adult health records. The results were shocking: nearly two-thirds of individuals had encountered one or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)—a term Felitti and Anda coined to encompass the chronic, unpredictable, and stress-inducing events that some children face. These included growing up with a depressed or alcoholic parent; losing a parent to divorce or other causes; enduring chronic humiliation; emotional neglect; or sexual or physical abuse. These forms of emotional trauma went beyond the typical, everyday challenges of growing up.

The number of Adverse Childhood Experiences an individual had had predicted the amount of medical care they’d require as an adult with surprising accuracy.

• Individuals who had faced 4 or more categories of ACEs were twice as likely as individuals who hadn’t experienced childhood adversity to be diagnosed with cancer.
• For each ACE Score a woman had, her risk of being hospitalized with an autoimmune disease rose by twenty percent.
• Someone with an ACE Score of 4 was 460 percent more likely than someone with an ACE Score of 0 to suffer from depression.
• An ACE Score greater than or equal to 6 shortened an individual’s lifespan by almost twenty years.”

They’ve discovered that trauma, especially repeated and chronic trauma during childhood and adolescence, creates problems in one’s genes, neural pathways, immune system, and basic set-points in brain and biological chemistry. In turn, each problem accelerates and exacerbates negative reactions to all future traumas, creating a brain/body system that is prone to looking for threats and responding to even fairly minor stressors as life or death, fight or flight type personal disasters. Knowing that one is over-reacting does nothing to prevent the automatic systems in the brain and body from going into “OH MY FUCKING GAWD!” overdrive.

The best part is that they’ve also been learning how to heal and re-set things back to a more functional level. I’ll post a link to Part 2 when it comes out. Much of this I’ve found out for myself in separate studies over the years and hence my search to find ways to heal my brain. The medication I took last week (and will take again a few times in the future) is one way to help with the worst of it. Having this last round of negative crazy-time has really brought home how much I need to address these things and heal them so I can go on to actually lead a functional life. That I so successfully did so well up until the last year using several techniques is one thing that kept me from being seriously suicidal on this last go-round. I know I can be better. I know that reality is looking pretty twisted right now due to my malfunctioning brain. So I know I can get better and be well and not keep suffering through this shit.

If you know anyone with similar issues, please feel free to pass them a link to this article in Psych Today. I think it will help them to know that their pain is not something they can help. They were hurt by circumstances or other people, its not their fault. But they can heal and live a better life. Let them know. And if you are one of those people–? Hey, I get it and I’m here and I’m seeing this through. Feel free to message me as well.