In childhood, we often learn coping mechanisms that help us adapt to our environment. This is especially true in situation of early childhood trauma. These early efforts at adaptation which served us so well at one time, can become hinderances later on, manifesting in adulthood as addiction, attention deficit, tuning out, defiance… According to Dr. Gabor Matè, such neurodivergent traits that society labels as abnormal are not genetic flaws, they are a human process which results from growing up in an environment that did not meet our developmental needs.
Category: ACEs
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): It is not your fault.
The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study — the largest, most important public health study you never heard of — began in an obesity clinic.
What ACEs do you have?
Chronic Illness Trauma Studies: How Adversity Shapes Health & Why it’s Not in Your Head
Other resources:
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk; the 30k plus, 5 star reviews on Amazon say it all.
Dr. Gabor Maté is on the same wavelength as van der Kolk, brilliant, truthful, science-based, leading with heart. Maté approaches trauma, ADD, addiction, and disease with kindness and compassion, and aims to de-stigmatize mental issues. His new book is coming out in Oct 2022, called The Myth of Normal. His website is below.
No post on ACEs and trauma would be complete without mentioning researcher & storyteller, Brené Brown ; and California’s first ever Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke-Harris.
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, AWARENESS IS KEY, RESILIENCE IS POSSIBLE.
Libra Kaplan | where's your heart at? 