A study presented at the Anxiety and Depression Association of American conference by Erika Kuzminskaite suggests a link between childhood trauma, greater bodily stress dysregulation, and anxiety and depressive disorders.
Healio has a good rundown.
Upshot: Adults who experienced childhood trauma displayed a number of worse outcomes, in both mental and physical health.
Mental, included depression and anxiety.
Physical, included more severe inflammation, as expressed by both cortisol levels and inflammatory cytokines.
Of course, although it’s difficult to show distinct causal relationships in these studies, it’s not a surprise that the mental and physical intersect, because increasingly, research is showing that there shouldn’t be such a distinction — that “mental” and “physical” represents an arbitrary line that is, nevertheless, useful for diagnostic purposes.
The point is — childhood trauma matters. Big-time.
The childhood trauma in this particular study included emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, and the worse the trauma, the worse the mental and physical effects in adulthood.
This is yet another reason why Christians absolutely must not stand in judgment of those who struggle with mental health.
We don’t know what a 40 year old experienced as a 6 year old.
Very often, I find that the most recalcitrant die-hards of “pray this thing away,” “just have more faith” had quite good childhoods. They came from stable families, were well-off, had loving families who supported them every step of the way.
But Christians tend to herd together. The nuclear families tend to coalesce and shut out the non-nuclear, the ones who might upset the safe bubble they’ve created, and so they grow disconnected with the reality of life. And so, trauma becomes a foreign word, and I’ve heard it used in a snickering way, in a “don’t be such a snowflake” condescension to numerous folks, including myself.
God forbid, absolutely God forbid, that we should, in any way, deploy the “pray it away,” “just get your theology right” message on adults who experienced trauma as children.
Instead, we must point them in the direction of the nearest therapist or psychiatrist for the medical help they so desperately need.
Show me a suffering adult, and I’ll show a child who suffered immensely, who’s yet to recover, even though they’ve grown, and yet are still as lost as when the bulb on the nightlight turned off, and everything was dark in the house at midnight.
Find a psychiatrist here.
Find a therapist here.
[Screenshot: You know the film, Godard.]
