So in Dr. Burke Harris' talk, she mentioned something about a day in her life that just changed her entire clinical practice and overall medical career. Now obviously you're wondering what the heck I am talking about. So she joined the California Pacific Medical Center and together they opened a clinic in Bayview. This is one of the most poorest and run down places in San Fransisco... They saw tons of children and provided them with top of the line care and the clinic met their numbers, but Dr. Burke Harris began to notice a trend. All these kids were being sent to her after being "diagnosed" with ADHD, which she couldn't figure out why. She decided to do lots of research and really dig into the subject and realized something. She realized that she could not just diagnosed these children with ADHD, but these kids had gone through so much trauma that it had to be something more.
In her talk, something that really stuck out to me was when Dr. Burke Harris said,
"Now, before I did my residency, I did a master's degree in public health, and one of the things that they teach you in public health school is that if you're a doctor and you see 100 kids that all drink from the same well, and 98 of them develop diarrhea, you can go ahead and write that prescription for dose after dose after dose of antibiotics, or you can walk over and say, "What the hell is in this well?."
Now this sticks to me because I do not think I have ever thought about something like that. Obviously I would think the kids just picked up something from the water and the other two kids were just lucky. But to actually take into consideration what the heck is up with that well is just mind-boggling. This is especially important because instead of diagnosing children with ADHD and pills, Dr. Burke Harris is taking into consideration the really effects of the child. She began looking at the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. Basically, there's a test called ACE with a series of questions over domestic violence, mental or physical abuse, physical or emotional neglect, parent mental illness, substance dependences, or parent separation or divorce. Now for every yes, you would get a point toward your ACE score and the total amount of points on your ACE score comes out to equal some type of health outcome. Studies show, the higher your ACE score, the worse your health outcomes. For a person with an ACE score of four or more, their relative risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease was two and a half times that of someone with an ACE score of zero. For hepatitis, it was also two and a half times. For depression, it was four and a half times. For suicidality, it was 12 times. A person with an ACE score of seven or more had triple the lifetime risk of lung cancer and three and a half times the risk of ischemic heart disease, the number one killer in the United States of America (TedMED). Now some of y'all reading this might find this bogus or just say "well of course people with that type of childhood would drink and/or smoke". Well quite frankly it really just isn't the behavior, it has to do more with the science of things.
So that's a lot of info on Dr. Nadine Burke Harris' studies and TedTalk, but the science behind how children can develop differently based on their home life or their experiences with abuse or neglect is just crazy. Like for instances, when I was a kid, I would play in my room and make messes right? Most of us as kids did that and then obviously you didn't want to clean it up then, but you'd do it later. Though, our mom or dad would yell at us because we made a mess and then we would have to clean it up right that instance. Well you'd go clean it to where you would think it's clean like maybe under the bed or throw it in the closet or something, but your parent came in later to check on your mess to make sure you cleaned it. It's not the way they want it, so therefore they yell or get on to you again because it's not to their standards. This is actually limiting the child to grow their own sense of solid self. Which is pretty crazy to think something that little can actually change your brain a little bit. With Piaget's Stages of Development Video, you see that when the lady gives the little girl the one graham cracker, yet she has two, she views it as not fair. Though when the lady breaks the little girls in half without touching her two, the little girl sees it as fair because they both have two. This is viewing the little girl as not fully developed enough yet to realize the unfairness of the situation and is changing her prefrontal cortex in the wrong way.
Finally I wanted to share with you guys why this really hits home to me, so I guess here I go. So no, I had a great childhood and I love my parents very deeply, but I really am so appreciative of my mom. This woman has been through it all. While I was watching this video, it really made me think about my mom and her childhood growing up. She definitely was dealt a crappy hand... Just noticing the way she is and how she acts really reflected from this video. I really do think that the way your parents treat you whether it be emotional or physical abuse or neglect, you're going to face hard things. And that is what really moves me the most, because my mom didn't go through that dark road of pills or drinking or any kind of drugs for that matter. She tried over and over to prove herself, which didn't end up working either way, but she proved to herself what she was capable. Yeah, she has depression and it comes and goes, but to see her as the strong and independent mother she is today, really is astonishing.
Okay so that is a lot to take in - lol. So as y'all can tell, parents have a LOT of influencing on our lives and how we develop into adults. Which is pretty fascinating, but really scary at the same time. Well I hope y'all didn't die while reading this and actually made it this far because she was lengthy today ;) Oh, here's the link to Dr. Nadine Burke Harris' TedTalk if ya wanna watch it and if you do, let me know how y'all felt in the comments! :) www.ted.com/talks/nadine_burke_harrisxoxo ;)
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Sources
Drexler, Dr. Peggy. “Is a Child's Behavior Always a Reflection of His Parents?” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Sept. 2012, www.huffingtonpost.com/peggy-drexler/is-a-childs-behavior-alwa_b_1886367.html.
Harris, Nadine Burke. “How Childhood Trauma Affects Health across a Lifetime.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, Ted.com, Sept. 2014, www.ted.com/talks/nadine_burke_harris_how_childhood_trauma_affects_health_across_a_lifetime/transcript?referrer=playlist-how_does_my_brain_work.
Misssmith891, director. Piaget's Stages of Development. Piaget's Stages of Development, Youtube.com, 26 Apr. 2011, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRF27F2bn-A&t=88s.
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