Child Abuse Causes Brain Damage

Babies are born with undeveloped minds and personalities. Through age appropriate life experiences, babies and children learn, grow and adapt through the stages of normal human development into an emotionally mature person who is aware of their own emotions and their effect on others.

But what happens when a child grows up in a home without an attentive, attuned and loving caregiver? Or what if their caregiver is attentive and loving sometimes but, scary and threatening (via spanking or emotional abuse) at other times?

Each time a child experiences real fear or terror, their body releases stress hormones to enable their fight/flight/freeze or fawn survival responses. Because a child’s mind is still developing, repeated exposure to these stress hormones during early critical periods can have profound, life long consequences¹. Childhood abuse actually alters the trajectory of brain development in structure, function, and connectivity. Luckily, the damage can be mitigated or buffered by external supports or genetic predisposition. Even having just one truly safe, loving and attentive relationship can create enough buffer to allow children to escape the worst effects of the abuse.

Early severe stress produces a cascade of neurobiological events that have the potential to cause enduring changes in brain development. These changes occur on multiple levels, from neurohumoral (especially the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal [HPA] axis) to structural and functional. These effects can lead to significant changes in brain development and function, influencing both mental health and cognitive abilities².

Overall, childhood maltreatment can lead to long-lasting changes in brain structure and function, contributing to increased vulnerability to psychiatric disorders and cognitive impairments. Check out the appendix for a summary of the effects.

When people who haven’t grown up in abusive environments tell you to “let it go” or “its all in the past” they are ignoring the fact that their brain architecture is VERY different than yours. The solutions that work for them are not the same as the solutions that will work for you.

There is nothing wrong with you. You spent your childhood living in a survival state instead of a state of growth and exploration. But you fucking survived. You did it.

Now as an adult, you get to make the rules. You don’t have to tolerate abuse anymore, not from anyone else and not from your own internal critic. You get to decide if you want to keep living in a survival state or if you want to shed the lies and start living from your soul.

The damage and changes to our brain are not final. We can make new connections through new experiences. We can engage the neuroplasticity of our brains to adapt to new conditions.

And in my ideal world, we could all do it together.

If that resonates with you, join me and your newest friends for Soul Purge: Vomit Up the Filth, and 8 week journey self discovery and radical soul reclamation. Links in the sidebar.

Appendix: Childhood Maltreatment Effects on the Brain

Structural Changes:

1. **Hippocampus**: Maltreatment is associated with reduced hippocampal volume in adults, which affects learning and memory[12][4][9].

2. **Amygdala**: While amygdala volume is generally not affected, maltreatment can lead to overactivity in this region, enhancing emotional responses to threats[4][11].

3. **Corpus Callosum**: Decreased volume in the corpus callosum, which facilitates inter-hemispheric communication, is observed in maltreated individuals[4][11].

4. **Prefrontal Cortex**: Changes in the prefrontal cortex, including the dorsomedial and orbitofrontal regions, have been noted, which can impact decision-making, self knowledge, emotional regulation[9].

Functional Changes:

1. **Emotional Regulation**: Maltreatment alters the development of systems involved in emotional regulation, leading to heightened amygdala responses and diminished prefrontal-amygdala connectivity[12][6].

2. **Reward Processing**: Reduced ventral striatal response to rewards is observed, which can affect motivation and mood regulation[1].

3. **Stress Response**: Maltreatment can disrupt normal cortisol regulation, leading to irregular stress responses[11].

Changes in Connectivity:

1. **Network Abnormalities**: Childhood trauma is linked to abnormal brain network connectivity, particularly in systems related to emotional regulation, attention, and cognitive processing[2][3][5].

2. **Delayed Development**: Maltreatment may delay brain development, affecting connectivity patterns crucial for higher-order functions like planning and decision-making[3].

3. **Gender Differences**: Research suggests that male brains might be particularly vulnerable to the effects of childhood maltreatment on brain connectivity during adolescence[3].

Citations:

1. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/key-concept/toxic-stress/ ↩︎
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12732221/ ↩︎

[2] https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/childhood-trauma-has-lasting-effect-brain-connectivity-patients-depression

[3] https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-legacy-of-maltreatment-on-the-brain

[4] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-HE23_1200-PURL-gpo87623/pdf/GOVPUB-HE23_1200-PURL-gpo87623.pdf

[5] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800837

[6] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27640984/

[7] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4443870/

[8] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9058958/

[9] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3868665/

[10] https://www.psypost.org/study-childhood-trauma-leads-to-lasting-brain-network-changes/

[11] https://cwig-prod-prod-drupal-s3fs-us-east-1.s3.amazonaws.com/public/documents/brain_development.pdf

[12] https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn.2016.111

Teicher, M., Samson, J., Anderson, C. et al. The effects of childhood maltreatment on brain structure, function and connectivity. Nat Rev Neurosci 17, 652–666 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.111)