Making childhood adversity understandable
The US book “Childhood Disrupted” led the way in making childhood adversity understandable for all of us. Recent research challenges old myths. It’s wrong to think that: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
US author Donna Jackson Nakazawa wrote Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal. It is an overview of findings about Adverse Childhood Experiences.
The ACEs framework is a simple way to show the long-term impact of childhood trauma.
In an interview when the book came out in 2015, she said it’s a self-help book that explains the science of human development in clear language for everyone.
” How your biography becomes your biology “
She brings the ideas to life for her readers through the stories of trauma and healing of thirteen people she followed for a year.
The new evidence makes us take children’s emotional and family adversity more seriously. We may not see the damage, for example, of abuse and even of divorce and separation. But these can have lasting physical effects on the children.
The good news is that, by making childhood adversity understandable, we now know better how to provide better support, how to prevent the harm and how to help healing too.
Featured photo by Chinh Le Duc on Unsplash
