3- Understanding Trauma Part 2
As promised, I am going to continue the conversation about trauma. To catch new readers up to speed, here's a brief recap of part one. I previously talked about Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACES, which impact a persons lifelong health. The higher the ACE score, the higher the risk for serious health issues and early death. I also explained that in Minnesota, Black communities and Native American communities score significantly higher than whites for the average number of ACES. I highlighted the fact that ACES explain some of the health disparities we see. Lastly, I explained that through epigenetics and the studying of DNA, it has now been proven that trauma can be passed through our DNA to our children. All of this information is critical when looking at some of the issues we see in our communities today which is what I will explain further in the paragraphs to come.
Picking up where I left off... If we are seeing the health effects of ACEs occurring in Black and Native Communities at substantially higher rates, think about the effects on mental health and behavior. In order to understand how trauma presents itself and impacts our thoughts and behaviors over time we must first discuss early brain development and why it is critical to consider a person's experiences before passing judgment on the behaviors of others.
The foundations of our brains are built in early childhood. When children are exposed to multiple different traumatic events, whether it's community violence, domestic violence in the home, neglect, etc. the young undeveloped brain takes the information in and formulates a natural response to the situation. Our experiences in early childhood build the foundation of our brain by using the experiences as guidelines for the future. Our brain's amygdala utilizes these past experiences in determining any potential threats to safety in the future.
Essentially, when our brain senses danger, our bodies begin to prepare themselves for defense. Our stress levels rise and adrenaline increases so that the body is physically ready to react quickly. In the case that the body does need to react quickly, our reaction will be 1 out of 3 options; Fight, Flight or Freeze. This is our defense mechanism for our own protection where our autonomic nervous system takes over and tells our physical body to respond. Kind of like breathing or blinking- it's not something we think about we just, do.
The reason I share this is because I want to specifically reflect on the murders of black men and women by police and how our the lack of knowledge around natural reactions in fearful situations have contributed to the controversy of these murders.
I often hear people say "well why did he run?" or "he wouldn't be running if he was innocent" and I get so frustrated because it tells me that people in general are unable to see the truth of the matter because they are not aware of how much more is going on in the midst of those situations. When we understand how the brain works, we can clearly see that fleeing can be the bodies natural reaction in a threatening situation for some individuals, so an innocent person running really isn't an abnormal response, especially for those from Black and Brown communities where historically police have been used as a means for keeping Blacks and Browns under government control.
The fight, flight, or freeze response is by no means the only thing that contributes to negative and deadly encounters with police for Black men and women, it is just one small component that answers the question of why some people run. I will save the discussion on the larger issue for another day.
Another piece of ACEs and trauma I want to talk about is how trauma impacts thoughts and behaviors. As mentioned previously, our experiences in early childhood build the foundation of our brain for the future, So, what happens when a child grows up in an environment with compounding traumatic events...?
Well, when the foundation of a brain is built on trauma, we can expect there to be consequences.
In Trauma Part 1 I explained the behavioral impacts of ACES to be lack of physical activity, smoking, alcoholism, drug use, and missed work or school. Keeping in mind these were the behavioral impacts for a study made up of primarily white middle class participants. When I think about the expanded community violence ACE study from Philadelphia, I see the behaviors of young black youth acting out aggressively and violently as a means of coping with the trauma and out of survival.
It should also be mentioned that a brain built with compounding traumatic experiences tends to have higher levels of toxic stress or cortisol for long periods of time. With continuous elevated toxic cortisol levels, children can struggle with the inability to determine what is safe, to regulate stress, and to make decisions.
When we put this information in context with the youth who are in our systems in Minnesota currently, the behaviors described above is exactly what we are seeing. Foster care. Who do we see in our foster care or child protection systems? Black and Brown Youth. Who do we see "aging out" of foster care or being in multiple different homes ? Black and Brown Youth. Who do we see being suspended or kicked out of school? Black and Brown Youth. Who do we see in juvenile out of home placements and correctional institutions? Black and Brown Youth.
Why? ...Trauma.
The ACEs have allowed all of us to see the depths of harm that has been done to Black and Native American communities. Not that Black and Native communities weren't WELL aware of the trauma in their communities, but with research and evidence that back up significant disparities linking to trauma, it becomes much harder for people to deny their is a problem. We are taking traumatized children and putting them through traumatizing systems that validate their place and worth in society and then expect radical transformations in adulthood. This is urgent. When all of our children are not thriving, none of us are.
As stated in Trauma Part 1, trauma doesn't just disappear, it embeds itself in our DNA until it's dealt with appropriately. How much longer are we going to avoid doing anything about it?
FYI. Most of this information on trauma I credit to Sam Simmons, Behavioral Consultant. You can learn more about his work at his website here!
