When It’s All Said and Done

The Lasting Effects of Childhood Trauma on Adult Mental and

Physical Health
By Beth Bogolub

For most of her life, 22 year old Theresa Sanchez faced gross abuse at the
hands of her father, and she can’t quite shake its effects.

Kathleen Moreno lived a life of poverty that was compounded by an

alcoholic and drug addicted father, as a mother suffering from Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder (PTSD), that has affected her entire life.

Two girls who come from different places, with one horrible thing in
common: and a history of childhood abuse that has not only lead to increased
mental health problems, but also the potentially for a greater likelihood of major
physical health problems in the future. The effects of childhood trauma can be seen
throughout the life of the victim and can have a lasting effect on future mental and
physical health.

“The body remembers trauma,” said Taffie Bucci, a licensed clinical social
worker, “Physical manifestations of the trauma are one of the ways our bodies deal
with it.”

A report from the Children’s Bureau, the Federal Communication

Commission (FCC) and Child Protective Services published in January of this
year, showed that in 2015, 6.6 million children were living in abusive and
neglectful environments in the United States. That number had increased since
2014, and has continued to grow since then.

“These numbers don’t surprise me,” said Moreno, “I’m sure there were just
as many families in 2014, but when I told my family they said I was lying and
trying to get attention.”

Dr. Vince Felitti and Dr. Anda of the Center for Disease Control (CDC)
published a study: The Adverse Childhood Experiences study. The created a test
called Adverse Childhood Experiences (The ACE’s test) which looks at physical,
mental and sexual abuse in children as well as parental mental illness or substance
abuse, familial incarceration, and physical and emotional neglect.

Those with an ACE’s score of four or more had double the risk for
developing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) than someone with an
ACE of zero or one, double the risk for hepatitis, four times the risk for depression,
12 times the risk for suicide, as well as an increased risk for cancers. A person with
an ACE score of seven or more (Moreno, Sanchez and myself), all of those
statistics double again as well as triple the lifetime chances of lung cancer and
Ischemic Heart Disease, which is one of the top killers in the USA.

“That’s insane numbers,” said Sanchez, “it makes sense though.”

That makes for a future 6.6 million facing increased risk for chronic illness,
heart disease, cancer and a host of other physical and mental health problems.

Katie Moreno was born in Florida, but grew up on the island of St. Croix in
the US Virgin Islands. Her family are the owners of the Sprat Hall Plantation, a
former sugar plantation from island’s colonial days.

“I grew up down the hill from my grandparents, I wasn’t really allowed to

go outside or anything though,” Moreno said. “But my grandpa loved me, we had a
great relationship and he helped us.”

Moreno started working at the age of nine to support her family working
with tourists on her aunt’s horseback riding tours, waitressing and other minimum
wage, tourist focused jobs.

“Working with my Aunt Jill wasn’t that bad, I just did what I needed to do,”
Moreno said. “But at the 19th Hole [restaurant] I made a different group of friends
that I normally wouldn’t have associated with.”

She was also suffering sexual abuse from her father.

“He molested me when I was eight until I was 16,” said Moreno.

The police only got involved once and her mother claimed to have no
knowledge of what was going on.

“Once the police got involved she [her mother] claimed she didn’t know
what I was saying,” said Moreno, “But once he moved back to live with us it
continued and she didn’t do anything about it.”

Moreno moved off of the island when she was 16 to live with her friend
Dawn and her family in Conn.. She would join the navy, marry and divorce, and
then move to Calif. where she met her current husband and started a family.

However, the effects of her childhood are still being felt. Moreno now
suffers from chronic migraines, bilateral hip pain, has had benign tumors on her
hands, a new lump in her ovaries, and all but one of her pregnancies have ended in
miscarriages. She also suffers from PTSD, depression and was recently diagnosed
with Borderline Personality Disorder.

“People with BPD are always looking for some form of satisfaction, they are
impulsive and self damaging, this damage can often manifest itself in self harm
and risky sexual relationships,” said Bucci. “Personality disorders are the hardest
to treat because they are literally part of who the person is.”

Nonetheless, Moreno is living a life that she wants. She is handling her
health issues, and has found happiness in raising her son.

“I love him more than anything,” she said.

Theresa Sanchez was born in the City of Chicago and grew up in the
southern suburb of Mount Greenwood, a predominantly lower middle, middle class
white Irish Catholic families and African-American families. Sanchez and her
sisters are mixed race Mexican and Caucasian.

Her race and looks set Theresa apart from a young age, but her father was
also an alcoholic and her mother suffered from breast cancer. Sanchez was
physically and sexual abused by her father until her parents divorced when she was
eight years old. Her mother and older sister also suffered at the hands of her
alcoholic father. Her mother also inflicted emotional abuse on Sanchez as well as
her sisters.

“I got into a really bad fight with mom when I told her what she was doing
to me,” said Sanchez, “she didn’t think she was abusing me, she thought she was
helping.”
 Sanchez, now 22, suffers from arthritis, chronic bronchitis as well as just an
overall weakened immune system. She is constantly getting sick and often
struggles with maintain her health. She also suffers from depression and anxiety
disorders and has regular panic attacks.

“The brain develops differently [for children in trauma], they form different
pathways and the pathways they make are the very pathways that develop anxiety
and depression,” said Bucci, “and like I said, the body has its own responses to
trauma, its own ways of dealing with it.”

Today Sanchez still has a strained relationship with both of her parents,
particularly her father, but over the years all three have grown to understand each
other a little more. Sanchez has been able to talk to her father about what
happened, and he has accepted what she has told him and not made excuses. Her
mother is supportive of her, and Sanchez is now following her dreams and
studying culinary and food science at Iowa State University.

Child abuse and neglect is a real issue in this country, and affects families
from every race, religion and economic status. The effects of this type of childhood
can be seen long after the child has grown up. Knowing what those effects might
be is a way from people to not only understand and take care themselves, but can
also help those around them to better understand the situation.