Fight or Flight

This seems to be the general consensus from several papers that I read on Childhood traumas, and how it affects us. The first thing that I’ve learned that I find very interesting severe psychological trauma, i.e. watching a young friend die of cancer or the sudden loss of both parents, will trigger the “Fight or Flight” function inside yourself. When the fight or flight instinct is triggered inside a child’s body it begins to produce high levels Cortisol. These levels of cortisol can do one of two things, it can either allow the child to take action and survive what has happened. Or, in “extreme levels” if too much cortisol is in the body of the child is can alter the brain development and actually destroy brain cells.

            This I find very interesting and it makes me wonder how do you know what the levels of cortisol a child has? I’m sure there’s ways to test for this, but are there ways to counter act these levels of cortisol? If there are why isn’t this something that is more widely known about, why when a child is going through something so emotionally traumatizing aren’t our pediatrician’s recommending that we look out for this and counter act it before it gets to the dangerous levels that the brain cells are being destroyed?

Works Cited

Barclay, Rachel. “Stress and Trauma in Childhood Affect Gene Expression for Life.” Healthline.com 2014. WEB. 12, March, 2016

Moroz, Kathleen J. “The Effects of Psychological Trauma on Children and Adolescents.” Report Prepared for the Vermont Agency of Human Services. June 30, 2005. Print.

What happens when you go through something traumatic as a child?

What makes us into the adults we are today? What if you had to endure a traumatic event at an early age? Everyone understands as a general rule that everything we go through makes us into the person we are today. What happens to them psychologically and emotionally to have to watch your best friend die of cancer at the young age of 8? Or to endure the loss of your parents suddenly when you’re a teenager? Does it affect us when you watch your parents go through an abusive relationship that ends in divorce? These are questions I wonder about, ironically after losing my own father to cancer at the age of 16 and how it affected me. To watching my daughter, Ashlie, and her best friend lose their best friend, Nora, to cancer a little over a year ago when she was 9 and they were only 8, I wonder if because they are young and lack empathy that it won't affect them as much later on in life. Or if the true effects of what happened won't appear for years to come? I question that if maybe you witness an abusive relationship as a child are you more of less likely to repeat the same destructive behavior over again like your parents themselves did? Or if losing both your parents suddenly, you guard yourself from love later on in life and become more career driven because of it as an adult?

My thoughts range from if you see the absolute negative in human behavior you yourself would strive to never be that way or to treat others that way, since you know how destructive it is. To thinking if you grow up with the sudden loss of your parents and their love and support, you’re always desperate for love and need to feel accepted since you lost that growing up. The true question however is the lasting effects of watching a close friend die from cancer at such a young age, because that is the one that hits close to home. That is the one I have absolutely no answer to, but the one that I’m hoping through research papers written by Child Psychologist’s, studies done in the mid 1990’s on (ACE) Adverse Childhood Experiences, and information both on the internet and in medical papers to find some solid answers to my questions, and to help others that may have the same questions and concerns.