Scared Sick The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Diseases

320 Pages·2012·1.18 MB·English

Psychology / Parenting
KARR-
MORSE $26.99 US / $31.50 CAN
ADvANcE PRAISE FOR
S C A R E D S I C K
Could common diseases be reduced by an
overlooked factor well within our control? Do
genetics and aging actually play a smaller role
than we think in triggering heart disease, diabetes, obesity,
“Karr-Morse and Wiley have done it again! Scared Sick raises many profound and urgent questions about how stress during depression, and addiction?
the earliest moments of our lives—in utero and out in the world—can create lasting negative impacts on the health of our
ROBIN KARR-MORSE is a family therapist in private In Scared Sick, childhood expert and therapist Robin
bodies and minds. While many of the exact details remain to be clarified with further research, this book’s summary of the
practice. She is the former Director of Parents Training for the Karr-Morse and lawyer and strategist Meredith Wiley propose
science of stress creates a call to action that is quite clear: We need to awaken ourselves to the importance of both preventing
Oregon Child Welfare System. She has served as a consultant that chronic fear experienced in infancy and early childhood
toxic stress early in life and helping the many who have been affected during these early years to have the healing support that
to Dr. T. Berry Brazelton’s Touchpoints Program. She lives in is available in the form of social connections and mindful reflective skills that can lead us in new and helpful directions in our lies at the root of numerous diseases as well as emotional and
Portland, Oregon. collective lives.” —DANIEL J. SIEgEL, M.D., Executive Director, Mindsight Institute, behavioral pathologies in adults. Although it’s commonly
Clinical Professor, UCLA School of Medicine, and author of Mindsight The ROLE of believed that by the time we become adults we forget the
trauma we experience as babies and toddlers, the authors
“Scared Sick is useful, highly readable, scientifically advanced, and relevant to all of us in better understanding our lives, CHILDHOOD TRAUMA
demonstrate that these first months may set the course of our
especially how our earliest life experiences can translate into health and disease over the decades. Another impressive book by
health for the rest of our lives.
Robin Karr-Morse with Meredith Wiley.” —vINcENT J. FELITTI, MD, Founder, in ADULT DISEASE 6-5/16 x 9-1/2”
The California Institutes of Preventive Medicine Scared Sick reveals how our innate fight-or-flight system, S: 1-1/8”
B: 7/8”
which evolved as a protective response to acute life-threatening
n Watt “Ghosts from the Nursery helped me decide—more than a decade ago—to retire to devote all my energies to ‘school readiness’ T events, can unexpectedly become an agent of chronic illness BASIC
©An issues. The thesis of Scared Sick energizes me further. Within is an abundance of information and wisdom—about fetuses who RA The and even mortality if overworked in the early stages of life. HC
U ROBIN
feel pain, prenatal depression, trauma and the Unabomber, the mixed blessings of child care, and much more. The book is a M RO
A L Provoked by conflict and trauma, the chemistry of fear quietly 4/COLOR
MEREDITH S. WILEy is the State Director of Fight splendid blend of sense and science.” —DAvID LAWRENcE, Jr., President of i E KARR-MORSE +PMS 871
n
Crime: Invest in Kids New york. She lives in Albany, New The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and former publisher of The Miami Herald A of takes its toll on our organs and regulatory systems throughout metallic
D C
U H with our development—only to strike when we are fully grown.
york. Karr-Morse and Wiley are coauthors of Ghosts from the L I FINISH:
T L
“A wake-up call? Absolutely.” —KiRKuS ReViewS D Grounded in cutting-edge science and over thirty- Gritty Matte
Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence. D H MEREDITH
ISE OO five years of clinical experience, Scared Sick offers a
A
$26.99 US / $31.50 CAN SE D S. WILEY revolutionary view of the impact of childhood trauma on
ISBN 978-0-465-01354-8
Jacket photograph © BananaStock / www.fotosearch.com 52699 adult health.
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
01/12
www.basicbooks.com
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S C A R E D S I C K
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Also by Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley
Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence
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S C A R E D
S I C K
The Role of
Childhood Trauma in
Adult Disease
ROBIN KARR-MORSE
WITH MEREDITH S. WILEY
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
New York
0465013548-KarrMorse_Design 10/12/11 1:01 PM Page iv
Copyright © 2012 by Robin Karr-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley
Published by Basic Books,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may
be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case
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Designed by Brent Wilcox
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Karr-Morse, Robin.
Scared sick : the role of childhood trauma in adult disease / Robin Karr-Morse ;
with Meredith S. Wiley.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-465-01354-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-465-02812-2 (ebook)
1. Psychic trauma. I. Wiley, Meredith S. II. Title.
BF175.5.P75K37 2012
155.9'3—dc23
2011029405
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For Alice Miller,
whose work showed us that the child
is indeed the father of the man—
and inspires those of us in her shadow
to have the courage to do the same
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For we live with those retrievals from childhood that coalesce
and echo throughout our lives, the way shattered pieces of glass
in a kaleidoscope reappear in new forms and are songlike in
their refrains and rhymes, making up a single monologue. We
live permanently in the recurrence of our own stories, what-
ever story we tell.
—MICHAEL ONDAATJE, Divisadero
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C O N T E N T S
PREFACE ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
INTRODUCTION xiii
1 Monster in the Closet: Trauma in the Body 1
2 Things That Go Bump in the Night: The Biology of
Stress and Trauma 17
3 Scared Sick: How Experience Becomes Biology 29
4 Little Traumas: Prenatal and Perinatal 53
5 Little Traumas: Infancy and Toddlerhood 91
6 Nowhere to Run: When Parents Are the Source of Trauma 123
7 No Place to Hide: The Role of Genetics and Epigenetics 149
8 Security Blanket: The Biology of Secure Attachment 189
9 Rock-a-Bye: Therapy and Beyond 215
10 It’s a Small World After All 235
APPENDIX A
Preventing Trauma to Young Children During Divorce 253
APPENDIX B
Maltreatment in Childhood 255
APPENDIX C
Recognizing Trauma 257
APPENDIX D
Working with Traumatized Children 261
APPENDIX E
Preventive Programs Proven Effective 265
Notes 273
Index 289
vii
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P R E F A C E
Confronting challenges to our health, we typically consider potential causes
like germs, genetics, diet and environmental toxins. But we often overlook
one of the most formative factors of all—the pervasive role of early emo-
tional trauma. Experienced without detection early in life, then held with-
out repair, trauma may lie unseen at the root of many forms of illness that
we currently dismiss as genetic or as the inevitable results of aging.
Scared Sickbegan as our effort to answer a question we have been fre-
quently asked since writing Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of
Violence. Released just as school shootings erupted across the country,
Ghosts drew upon emerging science to explain how child abuse and ne -
glect can alter the brain, paving the way for aggression and violence. But
many readers wondered: What happens to the majority of abused and
neglected children who don’t become violent? Do they actually emerge
unscathed?
What we found is surprising. While it is true that most abused or ne -
glected children do not become violent, chronic early trauma exacts an
enormous price not only in emotional but in physical and behavioral
outcomes. And child abuse and neglect are only the tip of the iceberg.
Early emotional trauma is also a common by-product of many routine
practices unrecognized as traumatic, experiences that range across cul-
tures, religions, ethnicities, race and income levels.
The equation described in the following pages in fact applies to all of
us—our lives, our families, our futures—and those of everyone we know.
The degree to which emotionally traumatic experiences pave the way for
disease is a unique calculation for each individual, mediated by several
factors, including genetics, timing, the intensity and frequency of trauma,
and the presence or absence of repair. Because most chronic disease builds
ix