Childhood Disrupted - Read this book to begin your healing journey

Childhood Disrupted written by Donna Jackson Nakazawa talks about the psychological impact of the traumas that a person faced as a child. Traumas and bad memories in childhood are however an inevitable part of life. Every person in their childhood faces some traumas (such as death of a parent, pet or parent’s divorce) that become triggers for them later in life. The underlying problem to most of our big or small problems lies in our childhood.

The author explains in detail about ACEs or Adverse Childhood Experiences and these experiences shape one’s adulthood and the coping mechanisms provided in the book to overcome them are highly advantageous.

Stress is a physical experience

Before we move on to how our traumatic experiences result in chronic diseases, first it is important to understand stress and its impact on our physical health. Human beings react to stressful situations in two ways- getting ready for the stress and then relaxing after that stressful situation. Now let’s understand how these activities take place. Whenever there is a possibility of any danger or stress, our body switches into fight and flight mode. Within seconds of sensing stress, this mode activates and sends an alert signal to the hypothalamus in our brain which in turn signals the pituitary and adrenal glands.Observing all these activities, the immune system gets alarmed, muscles get tensed and the pulse rate increases.

And when the stressful situation is taken care of, the muscles, pulse rate, body and brain automatically relax thus completing the full circle that occurs in stressful situations. It is widely believed that an immense amount of stress is actually fatal for the body. On the other hand, mild stress is beneficial for the body as it improves the immune system and improves the body’s ability to cope with stressful situations.

Immense amount of stress during childhood is as fatal as no stress

Children are highly stress sensitive. The author Donna Jackson Nakazawa explains in Childhood Disrupted how these triggers or stressful situations (ACEs) haunt a child in their adulthood in the form of chronic diseases. The author explains this with the help of an example. Kat, a girl who was only five years old when she saw her mother’s dead body and found out that she was murdered by her father. This situation gave her ACEs and she later developed rashes in her body and chronic physical pain. Her joints were swollen and inflamed. Her blood test showed extreme low white blood cell count. The doctors later discovered the cause and it was revealed that her degrading health is due to ACEs.

But the researchers have found out that no stress is as fatal as high stress. Do you want to know why? Let’s understand. A child’s immune system and ability to cope with stress is not formed due to no production of stress hormones. Therefore, it becomes essential to experience stress in a mild amount in order to lead a healthy adult life. The parents must ensure a fine balance.

Read the book summaries and audiobook summaries if you want to learn more about the impact of ACEs on the brain's cognitive functioning.

Females get more affected by ACE’s than most men

In Childhood Disrupted short summary, the author explains how Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs reduce the brain’s ability to deal with stress. This in turn slows down the functioning of the brain and its development. Females are affected more because of the hormonal composition of their bodies. A female body produces more glucocorticoids and estrogen than their male counterparts which has its pros and cons. Estrogen pushes the immune system to produce antibodies. At the same time, it can also increase the production of autoantibodies. It poses a danger to the physical system. On the other hand Glucocorticoids (GCs) like cortisol control the inflammation caused by these autoantibodies.During ACE, the glucocorticoids (GC) count goes down because of which the body becomes prone to more inflammation. It is at this time when autoantibodies start attacking the body without any control and protection. This process in turn can cause various auto-immune conditions such as arthritis, lupus, rheumatoid, or thyroiditis.

If you want to research more about curing ACEs with meditation and forgiveness, then you can read the book summaries and audiobook summaries which are available on various book summaries websites.

Till now Childhood Disrupted summary has only focused on the conditions caused by stress and how it is harmful at any stage of life but most importantly on one’s childhood. But now we can learn how to cure it. Yes, it is impossible to cure ACEs. With correct meditation practices and forgiveness, a person can begin the healing journey by training the mind to let go of a traumatic past.