Eating disorders, diabetes, addictions, hypertension… Many diseases could be directly triggered by traumatic events that occurred during childhood, according to several studies taken up by The Conversation.
In 1993, in San Diego, the head of the preventive medicine department at the Kaiser Permanente clinic, Vincent Felitti, for his part, realizes during a study, that among his patients with eating disorders, many have suffered traumatic childhood experiences. This observation gives rise to many other studies.
Including a broad analysis in the United States, taking up information from 17,000 people, between 1900 and 1978 on the American continent. The objective is to see if the “adverse childhood experiences” (ACE), traumatic and violent events in childhood can have a long-term impact on the physical and mental health of patients.
Among this violence, there are various categories: having a parent who has been in prison, having seen drugs used in the home, having an alcoholic parent, having suffered sexual abuse… Depending on the type of violence suffered, of the number too, the researchers established a score from 0 to 7, making it possible to emphasize that the more the subjects suffered from childhood disorders, the more they develop health problems in their adult life. These are depressions, smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction, obesity, STDs… A very broad spectrum.
Many studies around the world come to the same conclusion.
Other observations all over the world link other diseases: in Finland, the finger is pointed at diabetes and hypertension, in Canada is BMI and heart rhythm problems which are related to childhood worries.
To sum up, what all these studies say is that having problems (whether sexual, eating, psychological, etc.) never comes out of nowhere. And that early childhood is very often the cause. This synthesis of observations echoes the recent movements to speak out around incest and insists on the need to detect as early as possible the violence that children may face.
