For decades, research has proven that adverse childhood experiences can predict several health problems as an adult, including anxiety, depression, and heart disease. It might be confusing trying to rationalize why events that occurred when you were a child can affect your health as an adult, but understanding the reasons why this is a natural occurrence for many individuals can help break the link between childhood trauma and adult health.
Dysregulated stress is central to the relationship between a turbulent childhood and adult health. Experiencing toxic stress in childhood can change the brain, biology, and even your sense of self into your adulthood if you do not properly address and process it. Trying to manage stress as an adult without addressing your past that is causing a maintained level of dysregulated stress is not productive.
The brain undergoes a huge growth spurt in the first three years of life. When you experience overwhelming stress in this period of life, it influences your brain to stay on high alert. During these years of significant growth, trauma registers in the underdeveloped left brain. Later, your more developed right brain will recall memories consciously with words and reason. The right brain oversees the non-verbal and non-conscious processing of memories, which imprints childhood memories. Even after the left brain has developed fully, the right brain continues to be dominant in the processing of traumatic memories due to the left brain’s tendency to check out when you’re under overwhelming stress.
Childhood trauma can also lead to physical ailments. Overwhelming stress can cause too much, or not enough, stress hormones. Cortisol is a major stress hormone that helps your body go into fight-or-flight mode, and it is generally helpful in short-term scenarios. Dysregulated levels of cortisol can be linked to obesity, elevated blood sugar, immune dysfunction, disrupted sleep and mood, and immune dysfunction.
Toxic childhood stress affects the adult’s brain and biology. Reducing the adverse effects of childhood trauma starts with regulating dysregulated pressure. It is crucial to bring stress flare-up levels within tolerable limits. This will allow your brain and body to restore your health. The regulation of stress also allows the brain regions that were pushed to the point of warping stress levels back on track. This includes the logical left brain and the areas that give you an integrated sense of self. This prepares your adult self to process the inner wounds accumulated during the first eighteen years of your life.