Category: Trauma and Its Consequences

I do not believe that there is any more important action to be taken in this lifetime than the healing of the effects of trauma — both individually and globally.

+INSECURE INFANT ATTACHMENT, DAY CARE AND EMOTIONAL NEGLECT

alchemynow2 Comments

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In a world of perfect strangers a baby’s gotta do what a baby’s gotta do.  There’s a time in an infant’s pattern of physiological development where its attachment patterns appear clearly and unequivocally, and certainly around a year of age is the time nature has intended that this should happen.  That’s why attachment experts can measure infant attachment at this developmental stage.  (Scoring the Mary Ainsworth Strange Situation assessment of infant attachment.)

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When I read information – or rather MISinformation about infant attachment such as I discovered on the About.com website in its article entitled, Attachment Styles

By Kendra Cherry, About.com Guide I not only cringe, but I want to scream and shake somebody!

The author states (on page 3):

“Before you start blaming relationship problems on your parents, it is important to note that attachment styles formed in infancy are not necessarily identical to those demonstrated in adult romantic-attachment.”

‘Attachment styles formed in infancy’ are directly in response to the quality of early infant-caregiver interactions, and the nature and quality of these attachment interactions DO matter MOST.  These earliest attachment ‘styles’ in infancy BUILD THE BODY an infant will live in/with for the rest of its life.  Never again will those earliest body-brain-nervous system attachment interactions with caregivers have THIS KIND OF IMPACT or THIS KIND OF POWER to change the developmental physiology of a human being exactly in response to the nature of the caregiving environment the body is forming in interaction with.

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We CANNOT lump together ‘attachment experiences over a lifespan’ as being equal.  They are NOT equal.

Our earliest attachment experiences with our infant-toddler caregivers BUILD us from the ground up.  Sorry folks.  That foundational body-brain building only happens ONCE in a lifetime – for all of us.  There are no exceptions.  Once our earliest developmental Critical Windows of development have closed especially 0-3, whatever nature accomplished for us in response to the quality of our attachment environment is set within us for life.  Nobody can return down the road to a little developing body and get a ‘do over’.

To use computer-related imagery, these attachment-caregiver experiences 0-3 hardwire our body, nervous system, stress-calm response system, vagus nerve system, immune system, and set the combination of our genetic-expression into motion in response to either a benevolent or malevolent environment as our operating system is put into place that will run within us for the rest of our life.

No, dear Kendra Cherry, all lifespan attachment experiences ARE NOT EQUAL!

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This blog is packed with information about the kinds of physiological alterations that happen as a young infant-child grows a body-brain in response to a malevolent environment of unsafe and insecure attachment relationships.  There is a growing body of thought that these adaptations ALONE do not create the lifetime of suffering a survivor of early severe violent trauma, neglect and abuse will experience.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that it is the CONFLICT or the MISMATCH that happens when a person formed in a malevolent environment later enters a benevolent environment that creates ‘the problems’.  As Dr. Martin Teicher and his research group describe it, those raised from the start of their life form an ‘evolutionarily altered’ body-brain that makes perfect sense in ‘that kind of a world’.  But ‘that kind of body’ cannot LATER adapt to a malevolent world.

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What does it say about our society that we have evolved an individual segment that aligns itself with ATTACHMENT PARENTING – versus what?  Those that believe there is ANY OTHER SAFE and SANE way to parent infants and children?

Any infant-toddler parenting environment that does NOT put the attachment needs of the little one FIRST and PRIMARY is a malevolent one.

Sure, based on my severe abuse history as an infant-child this blog is devoted to describing the worst of the worst in terms of early caregiver-offspring harm.  But there is a continuum that we need to NEVER lose sight of between a truly optimal and benevolent early caregiving environment and a truly traumatic malevolent one.

My fear is that we are creating a nation of insecurely attached members, most of them who will suffer from an insecure dismissive-avoidant attachment pattern – built DIRECTLY into all levels of their body-brain development – from a lack of optimal early attachment experiences.

I believe it has already happened in America that insecure dismissive-avoidant LACK of optimal early attachment has become the NORM.  TRAGIC!  ANY insecure attachment pattern reflects adaptations to some degree of malevolence and neglect AWAY from optimal.

Once dismissive-avoidant insecurely attached people take over the primary DAY CARE experiences that infants and toddlers experience, the human beings that are being raised ALSO by dismissive-avoidant insecurely attached parents will GUARANTEE that the generations following these patterns on down the line will be SPLIT between so-called ‘logic’ and ‘emotion’ in such a way that emotional intelligence will exit from our culture along with the full optimal development of healthy human beings.  The consequence of the denial of the emotional component of humanity will be a destruction of abilities to experience true empathy, altruism, compassion, whole-human caregiving, increases in diseases of all kinds, and a spiraling destruction of participation in ‘community’.

If we want to raise generations of remote-controllable robots, of zombies who are dead to their own emotions and who are physiologically unable to access them, who are incapable of responding optimally to the emotions of others, who have no clue what true human empathy and the caregiving response it is meant to engender even is, then we are well on our way to accomplishing our mission.

Never mind that we are slipping toward creating a malevolent insecure dismissive-avoidant world.  The citizens we are raising without adequate and optimal safe and secure attachment to their earliest primary caregivers will never even know it.

Those infants being raised within optimal early safe and secure attachment environments are becoming the exception.  As we head toward our own demise it will soon be the fully safe and securely attached individual who has to REVERSE adapt from a benevolent early world to the malevolent world they are going to find outside of their home of origin.

When degrees of malevolence in infant-children’s earliest environment (including emotional neglect that creates a dismissive-avoidant insecure attachment-built body-brain) – become the norm it will be the benevolently, optimally formed safe and securely attached human beings that are going to be the outsiders.

Is this what we want, to create a nation where the healthiest most safely and securely attached individuals don’t fit in because THEY ARE TOO HEALTHY?

Babies have the human right to safely and securely attach to their primary earliest caregiver – their MOTHER.  This is their human right because without this primary safe and secure attachment 0 to primarily age one an infant cannot possibly grow an optimal body-brain.  Day care providers as well as parents need to be educated about how optimal primary safe and secure attachment creates the healthiest human being possible so that these infants who DO attend day care can be given what they need to transition into an environment that cannot possibly put any one single infant’s attachment needs at the top of the priority list.

To deny that an infant has essential attachment needs and to create an environment where these needs are not recognized and met is malevolent emotional neglect whether it happens within the home or within a day care setting.

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+A START ON THE TOPIC OF TEARS, CRYING, WEEPING, THE ANS AND ATTACHMENT….

alchemynowLeave a comment

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Well, if I am going to ‘try to think’ about Substance P and pain, I guess it’s a logical next step to ‘try to think’ about crying and tears!  I actually located an entire book devoted to the topic – not about babies or children, but about adults:

Adult Crying: A Biopsychosocial Approach (Biobehavioural Perspectives on Health & Disease Prevention) by Ad J.J.M. Vingerhoets and Randolph R. Cornelius (Mar 15, 2002)

Product Description

Crying is a typical human expression of emotion. Surprisingly, until now little scientific attention has been devoted to this phenomenon. Many textbooks on emotion fail to pay attention to it, and in scientific journals there are hardly any contributions focusing on this behavior. In contrast, there is much interest from the lay public, allowing pseudo-scientists to formulate theories that have little or no scientific basis. Is there any evidence in support of statements that crying is healthy or that not crying may result in toxification? How do people react to the crying of others? Is crying important for the diagnosis of depression, and if so, how? This book aims to fill this gap in scientific literature. Crying is discussed from several perspectives and specific attention is given to methodological issues and assessment. Each chapter provides a review and a summary of the relevant scientific literature.

About the Author

Ad J. J. M. Vingerhoets is Professor of CLinical Health Psychology at Tilburg University, The Netherlands.

Randolph R. Cornelius is Professor of Psychology at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA.

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Well, in my ignorance on the subject (even though I’ve shed my share of tears in my lifetime) I have never before heard of the ‘lacrimal gland’.  Makes sense that we have one for each eye – and that the actual specifics about these glands sound complicated with all kinds of scientific terms and names.  The only part of the description that sounds even remotely familiar to me has to do with the nerve connection that tears have to the parasympathetic (STOP) branch of our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS).  (Yes, that’s the STOP and GO, stress-calm response control system that has such influence on how we are in our body in the world.)

Well, and then there’s this (from the book mentioned above):

“The lacrimal nucleus receives neuronal input from the frontal cortex, the basal ganglia, the thalamus, and the hypothalamus, as well as from the retina.

“Parasympathetic secretory fibres [sic] from the lacrimal nucleus pass through the geniculate ganglion, synapse in the superior cervical ganglion and then follow the course of the carotid, the ophthalmic artery, and its lacrimal branch to provide sympathetic stimulation of the small arteries within the lacrimal gland.  (page 23)”

Gee, and how come I never knew THIS about crying?  Wait, it gets better!  (Clear as mud!)

“Stimulation of sympathetic fibers appears to have little effect on tear secretion but does act through the regulation of the blood supply of the main lacrimal gland.  Besides the nerve fibers containing the classical neurotransmitters acetylcholine (parasympathetic) and norepinephrine (sympathetic), fibers are present that contain neuropeptides such as Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP), Met- and Leu-Enkaphalin (M- and L-Enk), Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and Substance P [serum] (SP)….  The VIP and the M- and L-Enk nerves in the lacrimal gland are mostly of parasympathetic origin, where VIP and M- and L-Enk coexist presumably with acetylcholine.  NPY in the periphery in most cases coexists in postganglionic sympathetic neurons with norepinephrine.  SP is of primary sensory origin, differentiating from the trigeminal ganglion.  The colocalization in the close association of the peptidergic fibers with the secretory structures of the gland suggests that the neuropeptides are important neuromodulators of lacrimal secretion.  This complex innervation of the lacrimal gland may reflect different populations of acinar cells that are activated separately thus producing a different secretory mix of fluids or proteins in the tears.  Another view is that it represents a necessary redundancy, a safety factor, in the control of tear production.  (page 24)”

This chapter goes on to describe reflex tears, tear gas, “crocodile tears,” along with all kinds of other bits of information about tears I’m not sure I ever want to know.

But what about tears of grief and sadness?  OK, here it is:

“Of all the vertebrates, including the primates, humans alone possess the psychogenic type of reflex secretion, designated as crying or weeping.  This affective lacrimation is controlled in the frontal cortex and in the anterior portion of the limbic lobe of the brain.  There is no evidence of any animal other than humans shedding tears due to emotion rather than stress or irritation, despite many anecdotal reports about pets and other animals.  Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) may show tears, wetting the surrounding lids, because a groove in the skin, continuous with the medial canthus of the lids, drains the tears onto the face….  Lacrimal puncta for normal drainage of tears are not visible.  The aquatic mammals such as seals, dolphins and whales secrete a watery mucus to protect their eyes from sea water.  The overflow of these tears due to lack of a drainage system may have been misconstrued as emotional tears.

“Patients with a proven decrease or absence of conjunctival sensory nerve impulses in the Schirmer test will give a history of having copious tears during emotional stress.  The Schirmer test was applied for the first time as an objective test for psychogenic reflex tearing by Delp and Sackeim (a987).  In their study on the impact of psychological manipulations of mood on tearing, lacrimal flow was assessed before and after mood manipulations intended to produce states of happiness and sadness.  Lacrimal flow, at least among women, appeared to be responsive to manipulations of mood and may be an index of aspects of affective experience that are incompletely or poorly assessed by self report techniques.  (pages 26-27)”

“…all terrestrial animals produce tears, but there is an evolutionary divergence in the composition of tears and pronounced species differences have been described in this respect….  Causes for these differences remain as yet unknown, but an explanation might be that they are attributable to adaptation to the changing environment during the evolution of the various animals.  Emotional or psychogenic tears are in fact reflex tears, where the stimulus is emotional rather than irritant-induced.   (pages 27-28)”

“Crying has no direct biological function in the protection of the eye and may serve no physiological purpose whatever.  All animal species can survive in their natural environment without the capacity of crying. Darwin (1872/1965) gave the subject of weeping much thought in his masterpiece The expression of the emotions in man and animals, but he nowhere ventured a suggestion as to how it has come about in the evolution that man is the only animal that weeps.  Montagu (1960) proposed the hypothesis that in man weeping established itself as an adaptive trait in that it served to counteract the effects of more or less prolonged tearless crying upon the nasal mucosa of the infant.  Early in the development of man, those individuals who were able to produce an abundant flow of tears would be naturally selected in the struggle for existence, since the tears acted to prevent mucosal dehydration, whereas those who were not so able would be more likely to succumb more frequently at all ages and leave the perpetuation of the species to those who could weep.  (page 28)”

“Frey et al. (1986) demonstrated the presence of prolactin in the main lacrimal gland and in tears and suggested that this substance may function to stimulate tear production.  This might help explain, in part, why male and female children have similar crying behavior (Bell & Ainsworth, 1972; Maccoby & Geldman, 1972), but women cry more often than men once they reach adulthood….  Serum prolactin levels in male and female infants and children are not significantly different; it is only after the age of about 16 that female prolactin levels exceed those of males….  Prolactin is dramatically increased during pregnancy….  (page 29)”

“Newborn babies secrete tear fluid already in the first day of their life…although they do not demonstrate weeping overtly.  Premature infants, however, may fail to secrete tears at birth, depending on the degree of prematurity….  In most cases, crying with tears starts at about six weeks of age…when the efferent nerve supply to the main lacrimal gland is completely established.  Crying thus seems to be both phylogenetically and ontogenetically a late development in the human species.  (page 30)”

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In this book of 352 pages I’ve read enough to know that other than the citation mentioned (in the excerpt above) to the work of Bell & Ainsworth, 1972 I need to look elsewhere to find information on the link between emotional pain, crying and human attachment.

I got lucky!  I found this:

THE MEANING OF CRYING BASED ON ATTACHMENT THEORY

Judith Kay Nelson, Ph.D.

Published in Clinical Social Work Journal

Vol. 26, No. 1, Spring 1998

ABSTRACT: Crying is inborn attachment behavior which, according to attachment theorists John Bowlby and Margaret Ainsworth, is primarily an appeal for the protective presence of a parent. Infant crying triggers corresponding caretaking behavior in the parents. These reciprocal behaviors help establish and maintain the parent-child attachment bond.

Crying continues throughout life to be a reaction to separation and loss, to carry an attachment message, and to trigger caretaking responses. Crying can be classified according to the stage of the grieving process to which it corresponds: protest or despair. The absence of crying when it would be expected or appropriate corresponds to an unresolved grief reaction representing detachment. Each type of crying and noncrying elicits different caretaking responses with interpersonal, clinical, and cultural implications.

“In order to establish effectively and maintain the attachment tie, crying, as well as other attachment behaviors, triggers a reciprocal set of responses in others known as caretaking behaviors.”

Well worth a read!

No doubt more posts on this topic coming!

see: +MORE LINKS ON TEARS, CRYING AND WEEPING

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+STARK REALITY: MOTHERS WHO ARE REWARDED BY THE SUFFERING OF THEIR INFANT-CHILDREN

alchemynowLeave a comment

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I just can’t leave this piece of research I discovered while I was writing my last post alone.  Something inside of me feels like I just received a massive electric shock!  Yet at the same time I recognize this feeling.  It’s one that happens when something I read resonates within me to the bottom of my core.

Study: Crying Baby ‘Natural High’ for Some Moms

“A screaming, crying baby is not usually a source of enjoyment for new mothers, but a recent study has found that some moms actually get a “natural high” when faced with their crying infant.”

I NEVER anticipated finding such a piece of research!  At the same time I am amazed that someone actually had the smarts and the courage to FIND this information — not just any old place — but within the brain of MOTHERS who delight in the suffering of their infant-children!

My mother’s ‘unfairness, pain or disgust’ response is what motivated-created the pain-inducing response TO ME in my mother.  My mother, plain and simple, was capable of completely hating me.  (That these same brain regions must be involved in twisted confusions between self-other from early on in hate-projected-out-onto-offspring cases like my mother’s was is subject for my further investigations.)

I have such a powerful sense of BINGO BINGO BINGO!

BUT……  This is my sociologist daughter’s take on this article:

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This is very interesting.  I had a somewhat different interpretation than you though (looking at your blog post):

I think this statement “For mothers with a secure attachment, we found that both happy and sad infant faces produced a reward signal in their brain, or a ‘natural high’,” is related to this statement “Moms found as having a secure attachment in childhood showed a greater release of the hormone oxytocin into their bloodstream, according to the report.”

I interpreted this as meaning that healthy (i.e., secure attachment) moms received an oxytocin release from sad faces as well as happy — which evolutionarily would better equip them to deal with the sad infant (not just walk away…)?

The part I thought you meant was like your mom was this:
“However, mothers with an insecure attachment pattern didn’t show the same brain response … their own infant’s crying face activated the insula, a brain region associated with unfairness, pain or disgust.”
So, she never had the appropriate hormone release to *want* to deal with the crying baby (you).  It instead activated a sense of unfairness, disgust………..???

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I KNOW this kind of mother!  I also believe that many of this blog’s readers know this kind of mother, also!

Now, can we imagine a more obvious contortion of what nature intends for a newborn infant than a mother that actually FINDS GREAT REWARD IN ITS SUFFERING?

Believe me, these mothers DO EXIST!  Suddenly, after encountering those few words, Study: Crying Baby ‘Natural High’ for Some Moms, a new light has gone off inside of me that illuminates the entire world differently!

I am AFFIRMED!  I have a new clarity!  That is EXACTLY what my mother did every minute of every hour of every day and night of the entire 18 years I spent being beaten and battered and tortured and tormented and violently traumatized.  SHE ENJOYED doing that to me!!!

In fact, she so enjoyed my suffering, and it so rewarded her that she devised all kinds of ways to MAKE sure I suffered as much as possible!

I don’t have the inner fortitude right now to pursue this line of thinking-via-research right now.  This new affirmation, this new confirmation of my own reality of suffering has to sink in — down to the operations of every molecule in my body — this body whose development my mother’s insane abuse so changed in its development as I had to respond to the worst of the worst some human mothers CAN and DO perpetrate against their offspring.

These kinds of mothers obviously have a body-brain that is built completely differently from normal.  Nothing about their stress – calm connection response system is working normally or WELL on ANY level.  That technological advances have actually given researchers a way to SEE and WATCH these changes is beyond amazing, beyond incredible.  My reaction?  “IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME!  Maybe NOW someone will FINALLY be able to HEAR the survivors of these kinds of mothers!  Maybe NOW someone can begin to begin to grasp what we are trying to live with and heal from!”

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+INSECURE DISMISSIVE-AVOIDANT MOTHERS – THEIR BRAIN OPERATES DIFFERENTLY IN RESPONSE TO THEIR BABY

alchemynowLeave a comment

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Insecurely attached dismissive-avoidant mothers’ brains show differences in how they respond to their babies. I found a slideshow online with lots of pictures and diagrams called The Neurobiology of Mother-Infant Attachment.  Once I had the page open and my cursor placed on top of it, I simply used the roller between the buttons on my computer’s mouse to scroll through all this visual information and its accompanying captions to ‘get a picture’ of what the differences look like within the brain of a securely attached mother of an infant and the brain of an insecurely attached dismissive-avoidant mother’s brain looks like as they interact with facial cues from their infant.

I was curious about who exactly put this remarkable informative slideshow together, so continued my online search until I found a leaflet featuring a workshop on this same topic that was held in London March 3, 210.  The slideshow matches.  All of this is the work of Dr. Lane Strathearn, a developmental pediatrician working in Houston, Texas.

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Oh, MY!  What a range of research listings appeared on my computer screen when I Googled this doctor’s name!  (This was my mother — who DELIGHTED in my suffering from the moment I was born!)  The first one that catches my eye is this one reported on FOX News Thursday, August 27, 2009:

Study: Crying Baby ‘Natural High’ for Some Moms

“A screaming, crying baby is not usually a source of enjoyment for new mothers, but a recent study has found that some moms actually get a “natural high” when faced with their crying infant.”

“The study, which looked in the cause of maternal neglect, involved 30 first-time mothers. Researchers studied their brain activity as they were shown photos of their newborns, with various facial expressions.

The researchers also looked at the factors related to the new mothers own upbringing, including how “secure” their attachment was to parents and careers.

“For mothers with a secure attachment, we found that both happy and sad infant faces produced a reward signal in their brain, or a ‘natural high’,” said Dr. Lane Strathearn of University of Queensland in Australia.

“However, mothers with an insecure attachment pattern didn’t show the same brain response … their own infant’s crying face activated the insula, a brain region associated with unfairness, pain or disgust.”

Moms found as having a secure attachment in childhood showed a greater release of the hormone oxytocin into their bloodstream, according to the report.”

Click here to read more from AAP.

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I am reminded of this post:  +HOOKED ON ‘D’ SMILES – THE HAPPINESS CENTER

And about all the others that I wrote about the genuine smile:  Follow this to blog posts

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This link follows to an article that mentions exactly what my daughter and I have been thinking about regarding the writing of ‘our book’ about my childhood.  We cannot consider secure and insecure attachments and the conditions that create them without looking for our answers in the bigger picture – that really shows us what the society is like that creates the individuals that are its members.

University of Queensland – UQ research finds the mum-bub bond may reduce neglect

“UQ researcher Dr Lane Strathearn sees strengthening the bond between mother and baby as a possible way of reducing childhood neglect.

Dr Strathearn’s recently completed PhD identifies how increased pressures placed on mothers by society have reduced the perceived importance of raising children.

“Over the past decade we have seen dramatic changes in the social landscape in which our children are raised, with increasing demands on mothers in particular to balance raising a family with providing an income and meeting educational and career-related demands,” Dr Strathearn said.

“I feel that the basic needs of children have fallen lower and lower on the priority list of families and society, with physical or emotional neglect often the unfortunate result.

“This study emphasises the need to address the basic, universal needs of children, and stresses the importance of this early mother-infant relationship.

“Strengthening this crucial relationship may help to prevent some of the long term consequences of neglect that we are seeing more commonly today, such as delinquency, crime, developmental delay and psychiatric disorders.”

A father of seven, Dr Strathearn grew up in Redcliffe, studied medicine at UQ and completed paediatric training at the Brisbane Mater Children’s Hospital, before heading to the US in 2001.

Now based at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, he still has close ties to Brisbane, with his PhD completed through UQ’s School of Medicine.

Spanning nine years and drawing upon large longitudinal studies based in Brisbane and brain imaging data collected in Houston, Dr Strathearn’s research aimed to develop a better understanding of the pervasive problem of child neglect.”  READ ARTICLE HERE

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There seems to be no scientific doubt that emotional neglect creates insecure dismissive-avoidant attachment.

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+DOPAMINE REWARD SYSTEM, POSSIBLE GENETIC LINK TO ATTACHMENT QUESTIONED

alchemynowLeave a comment

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This is intriguing research about variations in the dopamine (‘reward’) gene and its potential influence on variations in patterns of attachment NON abused infants can display.  The research used Ainsworth’s Strange Situation test of attachment, and report discovery of a definite genetic link that can create Disorganized insecure attachment patterns in infants that (according to researchers) otherwise experience a safe and secure early attachment environment with their caregiver.

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Dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene polymorphism is associated with attachment disorganization in infants

By Lakatos et. al., Molecular Psychiatry (2000) 5, 633-637., Hungry

“About 15% of one-year-old infants in non-clinical, low-risk and up to 80% in high-risk (eg maltreated) populations show extensive disorganized attachment behavior12 in the Strange Situation Test.3 It has also been reported that disorganization of early attachment is a major risk factor for the development of childhood behavior problems.4 The collapse of organized attachment strategy has been explained primarily by inappropriate caregiving, but recently, the contribution of child factors such as neurological impairment5 and neonatal behavioral organization6 has also been suggested. Here we report an association between the DRD4 III exon 48-bp repeat polymorphism and attachment disorganization. Attachment behavior of 90 infants was tested in the Strange Situation and they were independently genotyped for the number of the 48-bp repeats by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The 7-repeat allele was represented with a significantly higher frequency in infants classified as disorganized compared to non-disorganized infants…  The estimated relative risk for disorganized attachment among children carrying the 7-repeat allele was 4.15. We suggest that, in non-clinical, low-social-risk populations, having a 7-repeat allele predisposes infants to attachment disorganization.”

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Transmission Disequilibrium Tests Confirm the Link Between DRD4 Gene Polymorphism and Infant Attachment

By Gervai et. al., American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B (Neuropsychiatric Genetics) 132B:126–130 (2005), Hungary

This article talks about how a variation in a D4 dopamine gene “may act as a resilience factor in the optimal development of early attachment” although researchers report “we can only speculate about mechanisms through which the polymorphism of the DRD4 gene may affect the development of infants’ attachment behavior.  The DRD4 gene is expressed in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which is richer in dopamine than any other region of the cerebral cortex.  Prefrontal cortex and dopamine play a role in attention, working memory and reward-related learning, as well as negative emotionality, social withdrawal, and sensitivity to stressful situations….  The level of dopamine and the density of dopamine receptors in PFC are increasing between 6 and 12 months of infant life, when many of these functions go through intensive development.  This period is also crucial for the development of first attachment relationships…..  Learning processes during the infant’s first year of life involving the prefrontal cortex might be influenced by the DRD4 genotype through perceiving and reacting to environmental (caregiving) stimuli and stressful situations differently.  Evidence is accumulating from separate studies of inter-relationships among genetic factors, distress regulation, attention, brain activity and attachment….”  (page 4)

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This replicated study DID NOT find the genetic association:

No association of the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) and -521 C/T promoter polymorphisms with infant attachment disorganization

Authors: M. J. Bakermans-Kranenburg; M. H. Van Ijzendoorn — Attachment & Human Development, Volume 6, Issue 3 September 2004 , pages 211 – 218

Abstract

“In a first molecular genetic study Lakatos and colleagues found an association between attachment disorganization and the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene polymorphism, in particular in the presence of the -521 T allele in the promoter region of the DRD4 gene. Replication of their study in a sample of 132 infants did not confirm the role of the DRD4 7+ -allele and the -521C/T promoter gene in disorganized attachment. Although our sample was larger, and contained more children with CT or TT alleles, which enhanced the probability of finding the DRD4 and C/T interaction, the association was not found. Even when we combined our sample with the Lakatos sample, the interaction effect of the DRD4 and -521 C/T polymorphisms on disorganized attachment was absent.”

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Here is a very nice online presentation of the basics regarding the assessment of infant attachment:

Is your child securely attached? The Strange Situation test (2008) By Gwen DeWar

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And this research, of course, is fascinating!

What’s in a Smile? Maternal Brain Responses to Infant Facial Cues

Lane Strathearn, MBBS, FRACP, Jian Li, PhD, Peter Fonagy, PhD, P. Read Montague, PhD — PEDIATRICS Vol. 122 No. 1 July 2008, pp. 40-51 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-1566)

(free full text online by clicking on article title)

“OBJECTIVES. Our goal was to determine how a mother’s brain responds to her own infant’s facial expressions, comparing happy, neutral, and sad face affect.

METHODS. In an event-related functional MRI study, 28 first-time mothers were shown novel face images of their own 5- to 10-month-old infant and a matched unknown infant. Sixty unique stimuli from 6 categories (own-happy, own-neutral, own-sad, unknown-happy, unknown-neutral, and unknown-sad) were presented randomly for 2 seconds each, with a variable 2- to 6-second interstimulus interval.

RESULTS. Key dopamine-associated reward-processing regions of the brain were activated when mothers viewed their own infant’s face compared with an unknown infant’s face. These included the ventral tegmental area/substantia nigra regions, the striatum, and frontal lobe regions involved in (1) emotion processing (medial prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and insula cortex), (2) cognition (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex), and (3) motor/behavioral outputs (primary motor area). Happy, but not neutral or sad own-infant faces, activated nigrostriatal brain regions interconnected by dopaminergic neurons, including the substantia nigra and dorsal putamen. A region-of-interest analysis revealed that activation in these regions was related to positive infant affect (happy > neutral > sad) for each own–unknown infant-face contrast.

CONCLUSIONS. When first-time mothers see their own infant’s face, an extensive brain network seems to be activated, wherein affective and cognitive information may be integrated and directed toward motor/behavioral outputs. Dopaminergic reward-related brain regions are activated specifically in response to happy, but not sad, infant faces. Understanding how a mother responds uniquely to her own infant, when smiling or crying, may be the first step in understanding the neural basis of mother–infant attachment.” (bold type is mine)

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+INFANT-CHILD ABUSE, SUBSTANCE P AND A LIFETIME OF SADNESS

alchemynow2 Comments

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I have yet to find a way to write about the connection I know exists between infant-child violent trauma caused within an abusive environment and the lifelong experience of living in a body that henceforth knows ONLY one thing for sure:  Pain of Sadness.  Nor can I find ANYONE who has clearly written about this subject before me as it involves Substance P and depression caused by infant-child abuse.

I know intuitively (and my body knows it) that Substance P (our pain neurostransmitter), chronic sadness, chronic depression, chronic anxiety ‘stress response’ (PTSD) and an extremely insecure and unsafe infant-toddler-child attachment-relationship environment are absolutely connected.  I also believe that future research that focuses on these connections will show I am right.  This is logical because ABUSE CAUSES PAIN and when this pain is extreme (and chronic), happens early in an infant-child’s life during its rapid growth during critical windows of development, and involves a failed-dangerous attachment relationship, there is no way that the Substance P system (along with all other developing physiology of a little one) could NOT be radically changed as a consequence.

I still believe that all Trauma Altered Development due to growth of a human infant 0-3 (and beyond) in an environment of violent trauma and malevolent deprivation is orchestrated by the immune system in a feedback-loop process that changes the body-brain we live in for the rest of our lives.

Sometimes when I turn to an online search regarding a topic that is front and center in my thinking I am astounded to immediately locate EXACTLY what I need.  The excerpt from a research study specifically refers to Substance P, the neuropeptide of pain signaling, as being connected to the stress-fear response related – in my thinking – to interrupted early attachment:

“Substance P causes a “fight or flight” response, and there is evidence of substance P antagonists blocking this stress response via blockade of substance P receptors in the amygdala.  There are multiple animal models providing evidence for this. Guinea pig pups that are separated from their mothers make vocalizations that seem to result from increased substance P released in their internal amygdala. [This bold type and italics is mine.]  Substance P antagonists inhibit these vocalizations. More direct evidence has come from cats who manifest rage behavior when their medial hypothalamus is stimulated. The medial hypothalamus has direct projections to the medial amygdala. Substance P antagonists as well as antidepressants block this behavior. Similar effects have been noted in hamsters with forced intruders in their cages and in mice forced to swim. There appears to be no direct interaction between substance P antagonists and antidepressants; substance P antagonists seem to work at sites unrelated to monoamines.

Other areas of the brain that have been implicated in substance P activity are the dorsal raphe nucleus and an area of the thalamus called the habenula, which has the highest density of substance P receptors. The habenula inhibits firing of the dorsal raphe nucleus. The dorsal raphe consists of approximately 50% serotonin neurons and 50% substance P neurons.”

“It [Substance P] is thought to be the primary neurotransmitter for nociceptive [pain] information.”

2001 informative and fascinating article on Substance P (CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLE) by Harrison S, Geppetti P., Italy

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Article on cell communication and signaling from Germany (2008):

Impact of norepinephrine, dopamine and substance P on the activation and function of CD8 lymphocytes

“During the past 30 years in became evident that neurotransmitter are important regulators of the immune system.  The presence of nerve fibers and the release of neurotransmitters within lymphoid organs represent a mechanism by which signals from the central nervous system influence the immune cell functions. Neurotransmitter per se cannot induce any new function in immune cells but they are mainly responsible for the “fine-tuning” of an immune response.”

“neurotransmitters are specific modulators of certain immune functions.”  [bold type is mine]

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Divergent effects of norepinephrine, dopamine and substance P on the activation, differentiation and effector functions of human cytotoxic T lymphocytes (2009)

“Neurotransmitters are important regulators of the immune system, with very distinct and varying effects on different leukocyte subsets…..  Conclusion:  Neurotransmitters are specific modulators of CD8 + T lymphocytes not by inducing any new functions, but by fine-tuning their key tasks. The effect can be either stimulatory or suppressive depending on the activation status of the cells.”

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(Hypertension. 1997;29:510.)
© 1997 American Heart Association, Inc.

Hypothalamic Substance P Release

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From Harvard Medical School – Harvard Health Publications

Depression and pain

Hurting bodies and suffering minds often require the same treatment.

(This article was first printed in the September 2004 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. For more information or to order, please go to http://www.health.harvard.edu/mental.)

“The convergence of depression and pain is reflected in the circuitry of the nervous system. In the experience of pain, communication between body and brain goes both ways. Normally, the brain diverts signals of physical discomfort so that we can concentrate on the external world. When this shutoff mechanism is impaired, physical sensations, including pain, are more likely to become the center of attention. Brain pathways that handle the reception of pain signals, including the seat of emotions in the limbic region, use some of the same neurotransmitters involved in the regulation of mood, especially serotonin and norepinephrine. When regulation fails, pain is intensified along with sadness, hopelessness, and anxiety. And chronic pain, like chronic depression, can alter the functioning of the nervous system and perpetuate itself.

The mysterious disorder known as fibromyalgia may illustrate these biological links between pain and depression. Its symptoms include widespread muscle pain and tenderness at certain pressure points, with no evidence of tissue damage. Brain scans of people with fibromyalgia show highly active pain centers, and the disorder is more closely associated with depression than most other medical conditions. Fibromyalgia could be caused by a brain malfunction that heightens sensitivity to both physical discomfort and mood changes.”

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An online chapter reading on Sadness and Depression – worth a read.  Unfortunately (on page 7) the article does not state that failed safe and secure attachment with a primary caregiver(s) is probably the most neglected ‘cause’ of depression at the same time it influences genetic expression most powerfully.

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“Substance P (SP) is thought to have an impact in the pathophysiology of depression and the mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs.”

Substance P serum levels are increased in major depression: preliminary results

By Baghai et al., University of Munich, Germany, Biol Psychiatry 2003 Mar 15;53(6):538-42

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More United Kingdom research on Substance P and depression HERE

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I ask, “What happens to our development when contact with humans causes infants pain rather than brings them reward (Dopamine, a reward-related chemical)?”

Transitions in infant learning are modulated by dopamine in the amygdala

By Barr et al., Nature Neuroscience 12, 1367 – 1369 (2009)

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International research team on infant frontal cortex development at 9 months:

Polymorphisms in Dopamine System Genes are Associated with Individual Differences in Attention in Infancy

By Holmboe et al., Nature Neuroscience 12, 1367 – 1369 (2009)

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+SUBSTANCE P – IT’S OUR BODY’S BIOLOGICAL LINK TO FEELING EMOTIONAL AND PHYSICAL PAIN

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Interesting article:

Sadness Strengthens with Age

Researcher “…Levenson thinks the heightened sadness response might be beneficial for maintaining and strengthening social ties. Sadness “is a very functional emotion,” Levenson says. “It’s an emotion that really brings people towards us and motivates them to help us.”

SEE ALSO:

+CLEAR ARTICLE ON LIFELONG INFANT-CHILD TRAUMA CONSEQUENCES

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+ONE IN THREE CHILDREN SUFFER FROM DEPRESSION? – THE STATS

alchemynowLeave a comment

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Earlier this week I had plans to go into town and meet my friend for lunch.  It took me four hours of steady movement to get out the door.  I noticed that even my cell phone seemed to take HOURS longer to charge itself, longer than usual.  EVERYTHING seemed to take a long time – a long, long time.

I was reminded of an image that appears in Dr. Bruce Perry’s PowerPoint –Neurodevelopmental Impact of Childhood Trauma:  Focus on Dissociation –about how the sense of time passing builds itself into various brain regions as an infant-child’s body grows and develops as shown in his diagram on page 10:

The ‘Sense of Time’ is broken down to show the primary and secondary brain areas involved, along with the kind of cognition and the mental state related to each.  I don’t have the text that accompanied Perry’s original presentation of this information, but he is evidently describing the processing of time related to childhood trauma experiences and dissociation:

Extended Future – NEOCORTEX is primary, Subcortex is secondary, cognition is abstract, mental state is CALM

Days and Hours – SUBCORTEX is primary, Limbic is secondary, cognition is Concrete, mental state is AROUSAL

Hours and Minutes – LIMBIC is primary, Midbrain is secondary, cognition is Emotional, mental state is ALARM

Minutes and Seconds – MIDBRAIN is primary, Brainstem is secondary, cognition is Reactive, mental state is FEAR

Loss of Sense of Time – BRAINSTEM is primary, autonomic is secondary, cognition is Reflexive, mental state is TERROR

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Once I carefully ordered and transcribed all of my mother’s Alaskan homesteading letters that found their way into my possession after she died, I realized that she had meticulously omitted writing to her mother about anything related to the terrible abuse my mother had committed against me.

I also realized that over and over again my mother DID complain to my grandmother about how obnoxiously SLOW Linda was.  I know now that my mother had, through her nearly constant brutalization and traumatization of me from my birth, had created my body-brain not only so that it continually had to dissociate but also so that my body became permanently weighted down under the yoke of lifelong depression.

One of the clearest connections I know of for myself between the patterns of dissociation and the connected depression (hypoarousal) is that my sense of the passing of time has NEVER worked the same in my body-brain as it does for a non-severely abused infant-childhood abuse survivor.

All the experiences an infant-toddler has are building its body-brain, including how the senses process the passage of time.  What are we doing so wrong in the earliest attachment-caregiving environment of our offspring in our nation (see yesterday’s posts on United Nation’s studies) that is CAUSING these levels of suffering to change the physiological development of our children in adaptation to a malevolent environment?

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Child Trends DataBank

Children’s Exposure to Violence in U.S. at 60%

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I located a book online today that presents information both about what happened to me and about raising a child who does NOT end up living a life of depression.

Raising an Optimistic Child: A Proven Plan for Depression-Proofing Young Children–For Life

By Dr. Bob Murray and Dr. Alicia Fortinberry

If you click on this title’s active link it will take you to a page that talks about the skyrocketing rates of increasing childhood depression in both the United States and in Australia.  This is part of the information you will read:

Childhood Depression Statistics

“The rate of childhood depression is increasing by 23% a year according to a Harvard Medical Center study.

The rate of depression is doubling every 20 years.

1 in 3 American children suffers from depression, 4% of children under 6, according to 2001 National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) statistics.  Depressions are on average e similar in Australia.

Preschoolers are the fastest growing market for antidepressants.

There is absolutely no evidence that antidepressants work for young children….”

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We need to be VERY WORRIED about the conditions in our nation that are creating these kinds of stress-anxiety responses in our offspring!  These reactions are being built into little people’s bodies directly in response to the caregiver environment that they are being raised in and by.

TIME online:  Genes and Posttraumatic Stress by Claudia Wallis

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Can Early Abuse Change Our Genes? It’s Possible

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Effect of Childhood Trauma on Adult Depression and Neuroendocrine Function: Sex-Specific Moderation by CRH Receptor 1 Gene

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The Link between Childhood Trauma and Depression

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January 4, 2011

Controversial Gene-Depression Link Confirmed in New Study

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Gene Protects From Depression After Childhood Abuse

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HOMELAND INSECURITY

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+THE UNITED NATION’S REPORT CARD ON AMERICA’S CHILD WELL-BEING – THE WIDE GULF BETWEEN THE HAVES AND THE HAVE-NOTS: AM I IMPASSIONED OR EMBITTERED?

alchemynowLeave a comment

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Where does the calm voice of reason lie when it comes to hotbed topics that ignite American political passions or give the passive pawns (those of us who are now some scaled-down version of consumers) plenty of opportunity to turn away?

When it comes to the conditions created within our society that directly affect the lack of well-being of our nation’s children might it be best to listen to the trained voices of those who study societies as a whole – the sociologists?

I post here the informal email correspondence that took place this past hour between myself and my sociologist daughter concerning

The United Nations — The Innocenti Report Card 9 (2010)

THE CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND:  A league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries

It appears that this report concerns the gap between the haves and the have-nots in our nation regarding the well-being of our children.  As my daughter clarified for me, the variable being measured in this 2010 9th report card is different than the overall well-being measured in the 2007 7th report card: +21 RICH NATIONS COMPARED ON CHILD WELL-BEING – U.S. AND U.K. AT THE BOTTOM.  I did not initially understand the difference between what was specifically being measured in these two reports until my daughter clarified this point for me.

If you would like to see the September 2009 8th United Nation’s Report Card 8:  Progress for Children:  A Report Card on Child Protection it is available by clicking on this title.

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I sent my daughter the link to The Innocenti Report Card 9 — THE CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND:  A league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries (December 2010) and this is the discourse that followed:

She:  Definitely not good.  I don’t think we can even call it cognitive dissonance — most Americans just flat out don’t realize we aren’t best at everything!  So, therefore, what is there to fix?

Me:  I sense it even in your comment here, honey — nobody gets the real issue

like it’s destiny that we DON’T?  Is our nation MEANT to fail in the grand scheme of things?

NOBODY CARES!

This isn’t the issue of “most Americans just flat out don’t realize we aren’t best at everything!”

It’s an issue of suffering children, suffering families — social problems that CREATE this discrepancy — and long term extremely destructive consequences!

She:  I do get what you are clarifying here.  Cognitive dissonance would require that we have an awareness of facts that contradict each other.  Many Americans simply operate in ignorance of the reality/facts around them.  The collective national psyche is that “America is the shining example” — which I think contributes to ignorance of the severity of problems in the first place and to the lack of making changes.  I think that is a very important part of the picture.

Many people do care — but it is an uphill struggle much of the time.  Yes, it is incredibly serious.  I don’t know if we will turn things around, but I don’t think it is “destined” either way.  There are solutions out there and there have been times when we’ve made decisions in a relatively quick timeframe that changed the course of the country (for the better) — the implementation of Social Security/Medicare and civil rights, being more recent examples.  Those things didn’t occur without resistance!

Just for some perspective — in terms of inequality — conservatives argue that the overall quality of life in the United States has risen dramatically over the past century — for everyone.  And also that even most of the poorest Americans are far better off than those in third world nations.

This ignores, however, the rapid social changes that have occurred and the consequences on things that aren’t as tangible as food/water/shelter.  The impact on children being raised by stressed mothers/parents and subpar child care environments, the quality of education as a whole, what is going on with our food supply.

More to say, obviously — hopefully I’m articulating at least somewhat coherently.

Me:  This isn’t MINOR though — we are just plain too far down at the bottom to even BE blissfully ignorant – like the canary in the mine shaft, if there’s this much wrong with the well-being of our nation and its children, there is a WHOLE UGLY PICTURE here!

There will not be an America in 50 years at this rate, plain and simple – if we last that long

Me:  If what makes us feel better about our abysmal failure in taking care of the most important, most vulnerable, most helpless and dependent segment of our nation’s population is to compare our suffering children with those in the ‘third world’

I hope we get the hell dropped off of the rich nations’ list entirely!

She:  agreed

Me:  Then the UN should fire its statisticians – obviously they are lying

She:  No, they are looking at disparity — the gap between the middle and the lowest.  Just imagine having moved the whole curve over a bit.  Inequality is a very important measure.  The fact that inequality continues to worsen in the U.S., and reflects a larger (and growing) gap than our other “rich nation” peers — is a BAD thing.

Me:  Wasn’t that what the civil rights movement

and the ‘women’s movement’ were about

inequality?

revolutions?

civil wars?

We could make a separate nation, entirely separate, of the portion of our population – say the top 1/2 of one percent that owns at least 95% of our nation’s wealth

THAT would create a more accurate picture for everyone else remaining American — or would they have the power to take our nation’s name with them?

For every single one of these nationally neglected children some kind of trauma altered development and insecure attachment is building their body-brain

We will end up being a nation, as these children mature, of war mongers

Oxytocin and the human attachment connection calm peaceful potential growth is being thwarted in favor of vasopressin and testosterone — along with such an imbalance in neurochemistry that the reward system will continue to go in the wrong direction

These [have-not] children are being raised in degrees of malevolence, not benign benevolence and their BODY development will show it

from excerpt in last night’s post:  +WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO US: VIOLENT TRAUMA, MALTREATMENT, ATTACHMENT – BIRTH TO AGE THREE (and beyond)

“Recent research has also supported transgenerational transmission of biological response to trauma.  Whether this finding proves ultimately to be a risk or resilience factor remains a question.  An affected mother’s exposure to violent trauma during pregnancy (i.e., the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City) and her glucocorticoid stress response were linked to the glucocorticoid levels, upregulation of the receptor setpoint, and behavior of her infant by 9 months of life (Yehuda et al., 2005)….  Could this transmission of response to shared stress during pregnancy be one example at the very beginning of the organism’s life of adaptation in the service of evolution?  Is the mother’s biology preparing the offspring for expectation of threat?  If so, can one say that the development of PTSD (and/or other posttraumatic psychopathology) is a form of risk if no further threat actually exists, or resilience in the form of potentially beneficial hypervigilance to actual subsequent threat?” [bold type is mine]

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There is such a thing as a tipping point – when this all goes TOO far we will not be able to bring our nation back to center or to the positive — That’s where destiny-natural consequence enters the picture.

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+U.N. REPORT CARD ON CHILD WELL-BEING AMONG GLOBE’S 24 RICHEST COUNTRIES: AMERICA FLUNKS!

alchemynowLeave a comment

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This IS A MUST READ!  The United Nation’s 2010 report card on child well-being shows the comparative standing of the United States among the world’s 24 richest nations — and we FLUNK!

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2010

United Nations — The Innocenti Report Card 9

THE CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND:  A league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries

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+HAVING THE COURAGE TO LOOK FOR THE TRUTH

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+HAVING THE COURAGE TO LOOK FOR THE TRUTH

alchemynow2 Comments

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For all the interventions and attempts at prevention of human difficulties, for all the therapy, counseling, self-help books, expensive research that results in a plethora of psychological theories, treatment programs, ‘mental illness’ diagnostic categories and their corresponding prescribed medications that exist in our culture for humans of all ages, who exactly is telling us the truth?  How did we come to convince ourselves that humans can break the laws of nature and not suffer devastating consequences?

If a person leaps from a ten story ledge and falls to their death on the ground, they did not break the laws of nature, they broke their neck.

As I bring together what I am thinking at this moment with what I write in this post I am finding I face a shocking fact that I don’t think ANYONE really wants to admit.  A major contributing factor to all that is targeted by the areas of concern I listed in my first paragraph is our culture’s denigration of WOMEN.

Who would want to admit that misogyny is entrenched in America?

Is it?

A fundamental fact in natural law is that human infants and children need certain elements available to them in their earliest caregiving environment to grow their body-brain.   Nature has also devised a most clever way to meet the needs of infants:  Infants are given to mothers.  Gee, rocket science here — mothers are women.

If we choose to NOT have women-mothers be the primary caregivers to their infants then we better make sure we know exactly what appropriate and adequate MOTHERING is so that we can reproduce the meeting of infant-toddler-child needs in some other way.

True, many if not most human infants DO survive nearly completely inadequate early caregiving environments.  But NEVER do these deprived infants grow a body-brain that DOESN’T include in it a full range of trauma altered changes to their development.

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Maybe there is something built into the psyche of our nation that makes us believe WE CAN HAVE IT ALL just because we want it.

On the most important level that exists for our species, we seem to believe that we can create children and raise them in any kind of environment we want to — and what?  Expect no consequence?  Are we a nation of stubborn, willful, ignorant spoiled brats that we can actually believe we can do anything we want to and suffer nothing negative in consequence?

I find it appalling past pathetic to finally realize that the bottom line for nearly ALL of the difficulties humans face today — related to what I listed in my first paragraph — is that inadequate MOTHERING changed our physiological development in ways that I present again and again and again on this blog (included most recently in the two post-links below).

It is ludicrous to me that when we seek ‘help’ nobody tells us this fact!  How can we assume that we can break the direct link between how what happened to us PRIMARILY conception to age three fundamentally created the physical body IN EVERY WAY that we live in/with for the rest of our lives?

Are we going to wait as a nation until we cross the point of no return before we recognize that the care we give our mother’s and their offspring is the most important expression of our commitment to our continued survival?

We have already been told that our current generation of youth ages 17-24 are mostly unfit for military duty to defend our nation.  Aren’t we concerned that epidemic obesity may well soon mean that parents – for the first time in the history of our species – are likely to outlive their children?  Are we too busy denying the impact of inadequate care to infants and children to notice that the more we disturb the mother-infant safe and secure bonded relationship at the beginning of life the higher the devastating price we pay as individuals and as a society forever more?

Families create civilizations.  That means mothers, fathers and all relations that care for the newest members of that civilization.  If our nation can experience such a violent (vile?) reaction to the topic of Health Care Reform, what on this green earth would really happen to us if we tried to institute reform for completely adequate care for our infants, toddlers, children and adolescents?  A civil war?

Heaven forbid!  We would also have to look at how we care for the people who care for our young ones, most especially the mothers who care for the youngest ones!

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As long as we continue to deny — as a nation, society, culture, civilization — how our earliest experiences impacted our own TOTAL physiological development on ALL LEVELS we can continue to pretend that somehow we adults simply HATCH into the grown people we are — what?  All by ourselves?  If we experience inadequate early caregiving and then continue to have problems — why?  Because somehow we are ‘genetically inferior’, damaged flawed goods, faulty decision makers, inadequate human beings, or simply are getting what we deserve?

We are approaching being a nation of nonsense.

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+WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO US: VIOLENT TRAUMA, MALTREATMENT, ATTACHMENT – BIRTH TO AGE THREE (and beyond)

+AN OUTLINE – THE SCOTTISH TAKE ON INFANT ABUSE, NEGLECT, TRAUMA AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

It takes courage to think against the mainstream, but when the mainstream’s thinking goes so far off the target of just plain common sense, sane people really have no other sane choice.

As I realize that the only place I can actually turn to discover the truth about what matters most in human development across the lifespan lies hidden and buried in the field of Infant Mental Health, I want to SHAKE this nation of ours.  I can no longer call it ‘great’ except when I add ‘going greatly off track’.  I, for one, do not wish to follow along in that dangerous, dangerous rut.

Maybe all of us -- not only violent trauma, neglect and maltreatment survivors -- need to belong to THIS club

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2010

United Nations — The Innocenti Report Card 9

THE CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND:  A league table of inequality in child well-being in the world’s rich countries

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+21 RICH NATIONS COMPARED ON CHILD WELL-BEING – U.S. AND U.K. AT THE BOTTOM

+TO BE OR NOT TO BE A TRAUMA-CHANGED HUMAN — THE QUALITY OF MOTHERING HOLDS THE ABSOLUTE KEY

+AMERICANS MUST NOT BELIEVE THAT CHILDREN ARE HUMAN BEINGS — THUS, NO HUMAN RIGHTS

+ALIGNING OUR NATION WITH UNITED NATIONS CHILD RIGHTS IS AGAINST OUR OWN LAWS

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