Tag Archives: maltreatment

How Emotional Abuse in Childhood Changes the Brain

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By Leonard Holmes, PhD 

Updated on November 15, 2021

 Medically reviewed by 

Ann-Louise T. Lockhart, PsyD, ABPPPrint 

Depressed girl sitting at the street
Martin Dimitrov / Getty Images

Childhood emotional abuse and neglect can result in permanent changes to the developing human brain. These changes in brain structure appear to be significant enough to potentially cause psychological and emotional problems in adulthood, such as psychological disorders and substance misuse.

Around 14% of Americans report experiencing emotional abuse or neglect during their childhood.1 Emotional abuse can include:

  • Insulting, name-calling, or swearing at a child
  • Threatening to physically harm the child
  • Terrorizing or otherwise making the child feel afraid

Emotional neglect involves failing to meet a child’s emotional needs. This can include failing to:

  • Believe in the child
  • Create a close-knit family
  • Make the child feel special or important
  • Provide support
  • Want the child to be successful

If you are a victim of child abuse or know someone who might be, call or text the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 to speak with a professional crisis counselor.

For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database.


Australian victims, here’s Contact info from the concluded Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse: https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/contact

Contact & support

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has now concluded.

Any enquiries relating to the Royal Commission, including access to records, should be directed to the Attorney-General’s Departmentexternal resource. 

To make a complaint about the Royal Commission contact the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinetexternal resource. 

National Redress Scheme

The National Redress Scheme started on 1 July 2018 and will run for 10 years. You can find information about the Scheme at Nationalredress.gov.auexternal resource or you can call the National Redress Scheme on 1800 737 377 Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm local time.

Finding help and support

The work of this Commission, and particularly the stories of survivors, may bring up many strong feelings and questions. Be assured you are not alone, and that there are many services and support groups available to assist in dealing with these. Some options for advice and support are listed below:

1800 Respect – Call 1800 737 732 or visit www.1800respect.org.au or

TEXT 0458 737 732 

24/7 telephone and online crisis support, information and immediate referral to specialist counselling for anyone in Australia who has experienced or been impacted by sexual assault, or domestic or family violence.

Lifeline – Call 13 11 14 or visit www.lifeline.org.auexternal resource

24 hour crisis support and suicide prevention 

STATES in Australia offer their own range of Counselling & Support (Psychological).

How Abuse Alters Brain Structure 

As children grow, their brains undergo periods of rapid development. Negative experiences can disrupt those developmental periods, leading to changes in the brain later on.

Research supports this idea and suggests that the timing and duration of childhood abuse can impact the way it affects those children later in life. Abuse that occurs early in childhood for a prolonged period of time, for example, can lead to particularly negative outcomes.2

Dr. Martin Teicher and his colleagues at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Northeastern University studied this relationship between abuse and brain structure by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to identify measured changes in brain structure among young adults who had experienced childhood abuse or neglect.3

They found clear differences in nine brain regions between those who had experienced childhood trauma and those who had not. The most obvious changes were in the brain regions that help balance emotions and impulses, as well as self-aware thinking. The study’s results indicate that people who have been through childhood abuse or neglect do have an increased risk of developing mental health issues later on.

Childhood maltreatment has also been shown to increase the risk of anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, major depression, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and psychosis.3 The experience may also translate into a higher risk of substance misuse as a result of changes in their brain associated with impulse control and decision-making.

 Healing From Childhood Abuse With Former NFL Player Reggie Walker

Effects on Brain Structure 

Childhood abuse and neglect can have several negative effects on how the brain develops. Some of these are:4

  • Decreased size of the corpus callosum, which integrates cortical functioning—motor, sensory, and cognitive performances—between the hemispheres
  • Decreased size of the hippocampus, which is important in learning and memory
  • Dysfunction at different levels of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which is involved in the stress response
  • Less volume in the prefrontal cortex, which affects behavior, emotional balance, and perception
  • Overactivity in the amygdala, which is responsible for processing emotions and determining reactions to potentially stressful or dangerous situations
  • Reduced volume of the cerebellum, which can affect motor skills and coordination

Press Play for Advice On Healing Childhood Wounds

This episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast, featuring award-winning actress Chrissy Metz, shares how to heal childhood trauma, safeguard your mental health, and how to get comfortable when faced with difficult emotions. Click below to listen now.

Follow Now: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts / Amazon Music

Effects on Behavior, Emotions, and Social Function 

Because childhood abuse, neglect, and trauma change brain structure and chemical function, maltreatment can also affect the way children behave, regulate emotions, and function socially. These potential effects include:

  • Being constantly on alert and unable to relax, no matter the situation
  • Feeling fearful most or all of the time
  • Finding social situations more challenging
  • Learning deficits
  • Not hitting developmental milestones in a timely fashion
  • A tendency to develop a mental health condition
  • A weakened ability to process positive feedback

These effects can continue to cause issues in adulthood if they’re not addressed. Adults who experienced maltreatment during childhood may have trouble with interpersonal relationships—or they may avoid them altogether.1

This outcome could be related to attachment theory, or the idea that our early relationships with caregivers influence the way we relate to people later on in life. Emotional abuse and neglect don’t allow for a secure attachment to form between a child and caregiver, which causes distress for the child and influences the way they see themselves and others.

Adults who went through childhood emotional abuse or neglect may also experience:1

How childhood abuse or neglect affects children later in life depends on a variety of factors:

  • How often the abuse occurred
  • The age the child was during the abuse
  • Who the abuser was
  • Whether or not the child had a dependable, loving adult in their life
  • How long the abuse lasted
  • If there were any interventions in the abuse
  • The kind and severity of the abuse
  • Other individual factors

Treatment 

Through treatment, it is possible to address the effects of childhood emotional abuse and neglect. Treatment in these cases is highly individual since maltreatment can take many forms and each person’s response to it may differ.

Any form of treatment would likely include therapy and, depending on whether or not any other mental health conditions are present, may include medication as well. Some effective forms of therapy are:5

  • Exposure therapy: Exposure therapy involves interacting with something that typically provokes fear while slowly learning to remain calm. This form of therapy may improve neural connections between several regions in the brain.
  • Family therapy: Family therapy is a psychological treatment intended to improve relationships within the entire family and create a better, more supportive home environment. This type of treatment may improve HPA axis functioning and lead to a healthier stress response. 
  • Mindfulness-based approaches: Mindfulness-based therapy focuses on helping people develop a sense of awareness of their thoughts and feelings so they can understand them and better regulate them. These approaches may help improve resiliency against stress by benefiting several brain regions and improving neural connections.
  • Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT): TF-CBT focuses on helping people learn new coping skills, restructure negative or unhelpful thoughts, regulate their moods, and overcome trauma by crafting a trauma narrative. This form of therapy may help reduce overactivity in the amygdala.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • What is the definition of childhood maltreatment?
  • What are the signs of child abuse?

 The Effects of Childhood Trauma

7 Sources

By Leonard Holmes, PhD 
Leonard Holmes, PhD, is a pioneer of the online therapy field and a clinical psychologist specializing in chronic pain and anxiety.

The Lingering Trauma of Child Abuse

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Child abuse can cause psychological ramifications for many years.

Posted Apr 24, 2011

The lingering effects of child abuse and PTSD Source: http://bodyconversations.com

In an earlier post, I talked about child neglect (known as an “act of omission”). On the other end of the spectrum of child abuse is physical abuse, an act of commission.

According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics for 2006, approximately 905,000 U.S. children were found to have been maltreated that year, with 16% of them reported as physically abused (the remainder having suffered sexual abuse or neglect.)1 In other studies, it’s been noted that approximately 14-43% of children have experienced at least one traumatic abusive event prior to adulthood.2 And according to The American Humane Association (AHA), an estimated 1,460 children died in 2005 of abuse and neglect.3

The AHA defines physical child abuse as “non-accidental trauma or physical injury caused by punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning or otherwise harming a child.”3 However, it can be challenging to draw the line between physical discipline and child abuse. When does corporal punishment cease to be a style of parenting and become an abusive behavior that is potentially traumatizing for its child victims in the long-term?

A recent episode of the popular television show Dr. Phil featured a woman whose extreme disciplinarian tactics later resulted in her arrest and prosecution for child abuse. A featured video showed her forcing her young adopted son to hold hot sauce in his mouth and take a cold shower as punishment for lying. Audience members were horrified—as was Dr. Phil—but the woman insisted that she couldn’t find a better way to control her child. Many child abusers are not aware when their behavior becomes harmful to a child or how to deal with their own overwhelm before they lose their tempers.

At its core, any type of abuse of children constitutes exploitation of the child’s dependence on and attachment to the parent.

Another therapeutic term that is used in conjunction with child abuse is “interpersonal victimization.” According to the book Childhood victimization: violence, crime, and abuse in the lives of young people by David Finkelhor, interpersonal victimization can be defined as “…harm that comes to individuals because other human[s] have behaved in ways that violate social norms.”5 This sets all forms of abuse apart from other types of trauma-causing-victimization like illness, accidents, and natural disasters.

Finkelhor goes on to explain: “Child victimizations do not fit neatly into conventional crime categories. While children suffer all the crimes that adults do, many of the violent and deviant behaviors engaged in by human[s] to harm children have ambiguous status as crimes. The physical abuse of children, although technically criminal, is not frequently prosecuted and is generally handled by social-control agencies other than the police and criminal courts. “5

What happens to abused children?

In some cases—depending on the number of reports made, the severity of the abuse, and the available community resources—children may be separated from their parents and grow up in group homes or foster care situations, where further abuse can happen either at the hands of other abused children who are simply perpetuating a familiar patterns or the foster parents themselves. In 2004, 517,000 children were living in foster homes, and in 2005, a fifth of reported child abuse victims were taken out of their homes after child maltreatment investigations.6 Sometimes, children do go back to their parents after being taken away, but these statistics are slim. It’s easy to imagine that foster care and group home situations, while they may ease the incidence of abuse in a child’s life, can lead to further types of alienation and trauma.

How does child abuse turn into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?

For children that have suffered from abuse, it can be complex getting to the root of childhood trauma in order to alleviate later symptoms as adults. The question is, how does child abuse turn into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder later in life? What are the circumstances that cause this to happen in some cases and not others?

Statistics show that females are much more likely than males to develop PTSD as a result of experiencing child abuse. Other factors that help determine whether a child victim will develop PTSD include:7

  • The degree of perceived personal threat.
  • The developmental state of the child: Some professionals surmise that younger children, because they are less likely to intellectually understand and interpret the effects of a traumatic situation, may be less at risk for long-term PTSD).
  • The relationship of the victim to the perpetrator.
  • The level of support the victim has in his day-to-day life as well as the response of the caregiver(s).
  • Guilt: A feeling of responsibility for the attack (“I deserve it”) is thought to exacerbate the changes of PTSD.
  • Resilience: the innate ability to cope of the individual.
  • The child’s short-term response to abuse: For instance, an elevated heart rate post-abuse has been documented as increasing the likelihood that the victim will be later suffer from PTSD.

Carolyn Knight wrote a book called Working With Adult Survivors of Childhood Trauma that states: “Trauma, by definition, is the result of exposure to an inescapably stressful event that overwhelms a person’s coping mechanisms.”6 She points out that an important aspect of an event (or pattern of events) is that it exceeds the victim’s ability to cope and is therefore overwhelming. A child should not have to cope with abuse, and when abuse occurs, a child is not equipped psychologically to process it. The adults in their lives are meant to be role models on how to regulate emotions and provide a safe environment.

According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, some of the particular symptoms of child PTSD include:8

  • Frequent memories and/or talk of the traumatic event(s)
  • Bad dreams
  • Repeated physical or emotional symptoms whenever the child is confronted with the event
  • Fear of dying
  • Loss of interest in activities
  • Regular physical complaints such as headaches or stomachaches
  • Extreme emotional reactions
  • Trouble sleeping
  • Irritability, anger, violence
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Constant or often clingy or whiny behavior and regression to a younger age
  • Increased vigilance or alertness to their environment

THE BASICS

Once a child has grown to be an adult, however, symptoms of PTSD can become more subtle as he or she learns how to cope with this in day-to-day life. The symptoms of PTSD can be quite general and can mimic other disorders: depression, anxiety, hypervigilance, problems with alcohol and drugs, sleep issues, and eating disorders are just a few. Many have problems in their relationships and trusting another person again. Many even end up in abusive relationships and find themselves re-enacting the past.

Community support is a vital tool in preventing child abuse and the PTSD that can result from it. If you suspect that you or a loved one is suffering from child abuse, please report it to your local Child Protection Services — or the police, if a child is in immediate danger. The longer that abuse continues, the higher the risk of causing severe symptoms.

  • For more information about actions to take if you suspect a case of child abuse, visit the Dreamcatchers website.
  • If you or a loved one may be suffering from delayed effects of trauma due to childhood abuse, I encourage you to make a therapyappointment with someone who specializes in trauma and who can put you on a path of healing.

REFERENCES:

1 Child Maltreatment 2006. Washington DC: US Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children Youth and Families Children’s Bureau; 2008. 1-194

2 http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/916007-overview

3 http://www.americanhumane.org/

4 http://www.americanhumane.org/children/stop-child-abuse/fact-sheets/chil…

5 http://www.americanhumane.org/children/stop-child-abuse/fact-sheets/chil…

6 United States Department of Health and Human Services

7 “Child Abuse and Neglect, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” by Angelo P Giardino, MD, PhD, Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine; Medical Director, Texas Children’s Health Plan, Incarticle continues after advertisementnull

8 http://www.aacap.org/

About the Author

Susanne Babbel, Ph.D., M.F.T., is a psychologist specializing in trauma and depression.Online:website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

RETRIEVED https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/somatic-psychology/201104/the-lingering-trauma-child-abuse