Tag: sexual abuse

+AS DR. MARTIN TEICHER STATES — EARLY ABUSE, ALTERED BRAIN DEVELOPMENT AND THE SCARS THAT WON’T HEAL

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Sometimes I try to figure out how the kinds of altered brain development that happened to me through severe abuse and trauma especially during the early years of my growth actually FEEL like from the inside of me.  Today, as this poor parched and unusually dry earth sends back to me a dull hollow thumping sound when I send a stream of water from the hose upon it, I think about what it feels like to be that kind of thirsty.

I contrast that thought with the knowledge that too much water upon the earth is equally as harmful as too little is.  Then I find myself wondering, “Are the left brain hemisphere developmental changes abuse survivors experience a consequence of too much harmful experience or are they a consequence of too little positive experience?  Are the changes created by a combination of both, or are they created by something else entirely?”

Does anyone know?

While it might not be possible for the very earth that provides all life to experience both severe drought and severe flooding in the same place at the same time, as I read SCARS THAT WON’T HEAL: THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF CHILD ABUSE —By Martin H. Teicher I am beginning to understand that what he describes of the changes that happen to the developing brain of a traumatized infant-child in fact creates a similar – and therefore very possible – reality as the combined flooding and drought at the same time would be like.

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I encourage readers to please take a look at this entire article by clicking HERE.  (It includes a mention toward the end about Borderline Personality Disorder, as well.)  I am going to skip down to the end of the article to post today what Teicher says in conclusion [I added underlining for emphasis]:

Adaptive Detriment

“Our team initiated this research with the hypothesis that early stress was a toxic agent that interfered with the normal, smoothly orchestrated progression of brain development, leading to enduring psychiatric problems. Frank W. Putnam of Children’s Hospital MedicalCenter of Cincinnati and Bruce D. Perry of the Alberta Mental Health Board in Canada have now articulated the same hypothesis.  I have come to question and reevaluate our starting premise, however.  Human brains evolved to be molded by experience, and early difficulties were routine during our ancestral development.  Is it plausible that the developing brain never evolved to cope with exposure to maltreatment and so is damaged in a nonadaptive manner? This seems most unlikely. The logical alternative is that exposure to early stress generates molecular and neurobiological effects that alter neural development in an adaptive way that prepares the adult brain to survive and reproduce in a dangerous world.

“What traits or capacities might be beneficial for survival in the harsh conditions of earlier times? Some of the more obvious are the potential to mobilize an intense fight-or-flight response, to react aggressively to challenge without undue hesitation, to be at heightened alert for danger and to produce robust stress responses that facilitate recovery from injury.  In this sense, we can reframe the brain changes we observed as adaptations to an adverse environment.

“Although this adaptive state helps to take the affected individual safely through the reproductive years (and is even likely to enhance sexual promiscuity), which are critical for evolutionary success, it comes at a high price. McEwen has recently theorized that overactivation of stress response systems, a reaction that may be necessary for short-term survival, increases the risk for obesity, type II diabetes and hypertension; leads to a host of psychiatric problems, including a heightened risk of suicide; and accelerates the aging and degeneration of brain structures, including the hippocampus.

“We hypothesize that adequate nurturing and the absence of intense early stress permits our brains to develop in a manner that is less aggressive and more emotionally stable, social, empathic and hemispherically integrated.  We believe that this process enhances the ability of social animals to build more complex interpersonal structures and enables humans to better realize their creative potential.

“Society reaps what it sows in the way it nurtures its children. Stress sculpts the brain to exhibit various antisocial, though adaptive, behaviors.  Whether it comes in the form of physical, emotional or sexual trauma or through exposure to warfare, famine or pestilence, stress can set off a ripple of hormonal changes that permanently wire a child’s brain to cope with a malevolent world.  Through this chain of events, violence and abuse pass from generation to generation as well as from one society to the next.  Our stark conclusion is that we see the need to do much more to ensure that child abuse does not happen in the first place, because once these key brain alterations occur, there may be no going back.”

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+LINKS: CHILD ABUSE AND CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION

alchemynow6 Comments

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I am getting way behind on posting information links on child abuse prevention and Child Rights.   Here’s a post for catching up!!  Just click, roll and scan – follow any links that appeal to your interests.

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New Site about Kids’ Health for Parents

Posted: 10 Mar 2010 08:40 AM PST on Prevent Child Abuse New York’s Blog

Many parents, upon discovering their child’s stuffy nose, rising fever or latest injury, retreat to the computer to do some research. Other parents may consult Google to find answers about developmental questions, potty training or sleeping difficulties. While this can be helpful, the sheer volume of information available on the internet can be overwhelming and at times inaccurate. Good news, parents. The search for reliable information about child health and development just got easier.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently launched a website that’s backed by 60,000 pediatricians. Healthychildren.org offers detailed answers to questions that parents have about their child’s well being. This website encourages parents to be proactive about their children’s health, providing reliable, up-to-date information.

Healthychildren.org is divided into multiple, easy to use sections, which include Ages and Stages, Healthy Living, Safety and Prevention, and Health Issues.

Although Healthychildren.org is an easy and convenient way to receive the up-to-date information, parents should always consult with their own pediatrician as well.

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Excellence in Child Abuse Prevention Awards

Posted: 15 Mar 2010 12:19 PM PDT on Prevent Child Abuse New York’s Blog

Do you know someone who has made an exceptional difference in the lives of New York’s children and families? Who works tirelessly to see that children live in families that love, nurture and protect them? Who has made their community a better, more supportive place for parents and kids? If so, we want to hear about them!

Prevent Child Abuse New York and New York’s Children and Family Trust Fund are proud to announce the 15th annual award recognition of excellence in the field of child abuse prevention in New York State.
Qualified nominees will have had an impact on any of four levels:

  • Societal issues, such as social norms or public policies.
  • Community issues, such as community development.
  • Personal relationships, such as family or peer-to-peer interactions.
  • Individual knowledge, attitudes, skill, or behavior about children or maltreatment.

The awards will be presented at the 15th Annual Child Abuse Prevention Conference, Education, Inspiration & Solutions , being held at the Marriott Hotel in Albany, New York, April 26-28, 2010.

Individuals, organizations and companies are all eligible for nomination.

For more information about the NYS Child Abuse Prevention Conference and the Excellence Awards, please call 518-445-1273.

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From CRIN – Child Rights Information Network

9 March 2010 – Child Rights at the Human Rights Council 58

Side event on national violence strategies [news]

A side event at the 13th Council session tackled the issue of violence against children, with delegates discussing the publication and implementation of the Council of Europe’s new Council of Europe Policy guidelines on integrated national strategies for the protection of children from violence.

Hannu Himanen, Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations Office, began the event by quoting the 2006 UN Study on Violence Against Children, which emphasised that action on violence requires an integrated plan. He said: “A piecemeal approach does not do the job.”

“For example”, he said, “in Finland, my country, the governement banned corporal punishment in 1984. This was an important step, but still it occurs. A recent study showed that one quarter of Finish adults accept the notion of corporal punishment.”

Mr Himanen said that a quote from Thomas Hammerberg, Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, at the 20th CRC anniversary conference, had stayed with him. Mr Hammerberg said: “It is paradoxical and an affront to humanity that the smallest and most vulnerable people should have less protection from assault than adults.”

Lothar Friedrich Krappmann, of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, said: “The adoption of these guidelines is a significant step in the protection of violence against children.”

He went on to emphasise that: “No violence against children is acceptable. All violence against children is preventable.” Mr Krappmann said this was not limited to physical violence, but also mental abuse.

He said there had not been enough coordination between different initiatives, programmes and policies. “These guidelines affect more than 200 million children,” he added.

Marta Santos Pais, Special Representative to the Secretary General on Violence Against Children, also presented at the event. She said: “Regional organisations such as the Council of Europe can have a huge influence in regional implementation of standards, and aid cross fertilisation.”

The Council has been very influential in promoting a regional platform, she continued. In 2010, many countries have not adopted a violence strategy, even though the UN Study on Violence Against Children stated all countries should adopt a strategy by 2007. This should also include laying down markers for implementation. These European guidelines help to address some of these requirements and are relevant everywhere, she added.

She said: “I believe that promoting the dissemination of these guidelines will help us move forward on implementing the UN Study’s recommendations, and could provide a good framework in countries all over the world.”

Lioubov Samokhina, Head of the Children’s Rights Policies Division at the Council of Europe, spoke about the development of the guidelines, and the approach taken in the drafting process. “The main objective of the guideline is to promote a culture of respect for the rights of children, and to stimulate change in the attitude towards children and childhood,” she said. The main aim of the guidelines, she added, was to encourage States to develop a multi-faceted and systematic framework.

Idália Moniz, Secretary of State for Disability, Portugal, spoke of her country’s efforts to adopt an integrated and model strategy. She emphasised the importance of redefining budgets. Portuguese criminal law was changed in 2007 to outlaw all forms of corporal punishment. Cooperation is needed on all levels, from local researchers to policy and decision makers, she said.

NGO role

Peter Newell, of the NGO Advisory Council on Violence Against Children, spoke of the role of the non-governmental sector.

He said: “We are speaking about all violence, however slight. There is an adult tendency to draw a line between so-called softer forms of violence.”

He said the biggest role for NGOs was advocacy. “I think these guidelines are an advocacy tool of great value,” he added.

Mr Newell said there is still a long way to go, within the Council of Europe, and everywhere else. Mechanisms are still not being used to promote an end to all violence against children, and no country can claim to have an effective strategy against violence against children when some forms of punishment are still legally endorsed.

Twenty seven of the 47 Member States have still not prohibited all forms of violence against children, and in many countries corporal punishment is still permitted in institutions such as care homes. It is inconceivable that States would defend legalised violence towards any other groups, such as women, people with disabilities or elderly people, Mr Newell said.

Retrospective research studies interviewing young adults about their childhood show many had experienced sexual assault and other forms of violence, but they did not report it, in part because of a mistrust of social services. He said: “Proper child protection systems must involve children being systematically invited to give their views on such systems.”

Mr Newell said it was important that, while it is usually NGOs that facilitate child participation for government programmes and policy, it should really be governments themselves that are involving children directly.

“It is fine for NGOs to provide demonstration and pilot projects, but in doing so it is important we are not colluding with governments in their failure to fulfil their obligations,” he said.

A change in attitudes requries long-term campaigning. Mr Newell also mentioned how some church and faith groups were embracing an approach against violence, while evidence of abuse in such institutions is becoming more publicly acknowledged.

He said he felt conspiracy laws should be used against those groups that attempt to cover up evidence of sexual exploitation and other forms of violence towards children.

During the discussion following the presentations, a delegate asked if there had been any positive examples of the international dissemination of the guidelines. Ms Samokhina spoke of plans to organise events on the guidelines, inviting international representatives from a range of countries and organisations.

Mr Krappmann said it is “such a hard job” to eradicate violence against children, and that it is “not just the job of European States, but of all States.”

Ms Santos Pais noted that international cooperation was also essential in respect of the migration of children.

About the guidelines

In line with the recommendations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children, these guidelines were developed to promote the development and implementation of a holistic national framework to safeguard the rights of the child and to eradicate violence against children.

The guidelines are based on eight general principles (protection against violence, the right to life and maximum survival and development, non-discrimination, gender equality, child participation, a state’s obligations, other actors’ obligations and participation, best interests of the child) and four operative principles (multidimensional nature of violence, integrated approach, cross- sectoral co-operation, multi stakeholder approach). These have been mainstreamed throughout, including into sections on integrated national, regional and local action; education and awareness-raising measures; legal, policy and institutional frameworks; research and data collection.

Further information

For more information, contact:
Council of Europe
Building a Europe for and with children, DG III- Social Cohesion / Council of Europe, B Building – Office B137, F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex
Tel: +33 3 88 41 22 62; Fax: +33 3 90 21 52 85
Email: children@coe.int
Website: www.coe.int/children

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22119

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NGO statements

OMCT: Violence against children in detention

ECPAT : Children’s right to protection from sexual violence

Defence for Children International: Statement on Prosecution of children in military courts

Women’s World Summit Foundation: Statement on violence against children

Further information

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COUNCIL OF EUROPE: Call for papers on ending sexual violence [news]

This call for papers is addressed to legal, health, social, research and education professionals wishing to contribute to a Council of Europe study on sexual violence against children. The study will serve as a background for the Council of Europe awareness raising campaign to stop sexual violence against children.

The Council of Europe campaign

The Council of Europe Strategy on the Rights of the Child (2009-2011) has amongst its major focuses that of eradicating all forms of violence against children. In particular, it calls for launching comprehensive awareness-raising actions to prevent and combat sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children.

In response to this mandate, in autumn 2010, the Council of Europe will launch a pan-European campaign to stop sexual violence against children. The campaign’s overall objective will be to raise European societies’ awareness of the full extent of sexual violence against children and to equip them with knowledge and tools to prevent it. The campaign will address the various forms of sexual violence including child pornography, child prostitution, online grooming, child sex tourism and child sexual abuse.

The future study

Given the complexity and sensitivity of the issue at stake, the Council of Europe wishes to prepare a study to inform and guide the campaign. The study should cover inter alia the following dimensions:

  • Overview of the extent of sexual violence (sexual exploitation and sexual abuse) in Europe;
  • Overview of the legal framework (global and European) to combat sexual violence against children;
  • Sexual violence reporting and referral mechanisms;
  • Rehabilitation services for child victims of sexual violence;
  • The range of services available for children exhibiting sexually harmful behaviour;
  • Training of professionals to identify and report sexual violence;
  • Internet dimensions of sexual violence against children;
  • Support services for potential and actual adult perpetrators of sexual violence;
  • Data collection on violence against children;Communication and awareness raising campaigns against sexual violence in Council of Europe member States.
  • Sexual education and prevention of sexual violence

The proposed length for research articles addressing one of the aforementioned issues should be no more than 8,000 words (about 15 to 16 A4 pages, normal spacing) and should be submitted in one of the official languages of the Council of Europe, i.e. English or French.

Following the selection procedure, a limited number of experts will be invited to work with the Council of Europe on a contractual basis, during the period between April and June 2010.

Building a network of professionals

The experts who will contact us will be also invited to express their interest in cooperating with the Council of Europe in the various projects and activities to be launched during the campaign, the objective being to build a network of professionals wishing to bring their expertise and the results of their work to a community of practice at European level.

How to contact us

Please fill the document enclosed and send it, accompanied by your CV to Ms Marie-Francoise GLATZ (marie-francoise.glatz@coe.int) by 31 March 2010 at the latest.

For more information, contact:
Council of Europe
Building a Europe for and with children
DG III- Social Cohesion / Council of Europe
B Building – Office B137
F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex, France
Tel: +33 3 88 41 22 62; Fax: +33 3 90 21 52 85
Email: children@coe.int
Website: www.coe.int/children

Visit: http://www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=22165

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Further information

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+THE TRAGEDIES OF TRAUMA TOPPLING US LIKE DOMINOES ON DOWN THE GENERATIONS

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I have been thinking about personality disorders today.  One of our homesteading neighbors just sent me a copy of the 1982 letter she wrote to my mother to ‘disown’ her as a friend because my mother had grown so abusive toward her and her husband.  My mother’s life was such a tragedy.  My mother, in turn, caused me the loss of my own best self and my own best life.  Yet I haven’t been able to write today — and now I am thinking of another woman, another best life lost, and another……

Sometimes I can only observe — all of it — feeling more like an historian without any answers, seeing only the causes…….and feeling so helpless.

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I wish I could think of something light and upbeat to write about tonight, but I cannot.  Better perhaps not to write at all?

I am thinking of a woman I passed by as I left the grocery store an hour ago, having just spent a careful hour shopping for the best buys I could find to make it through the next 30 days without spending more than my $150 food budget for the month I spent tonight.  I included some things to do a little Christmas gift baking.  I want to make the cut-out, colorfully decorated tiny cinnamon cookie people I haven’t made for nearly 20 years.

This woman was standing beside the store’s DVD kiosk with two other women I didn’t know.  I wasn’t even sure this woman was the woman I thought it was until I heard her speak.  She has gained a lot of weight since I saw her last – actually except for one very brief passing, it has been about 3 ½ years.

“I should sell my house and take my accordion and go on a long cruise,” I could hear her saying as I passed by with my cart.  The other two women she was with were busy selecting their movie and didn’t appear to be listening to her at all.  “I’m not in good shape.  I’m not doing well at all.”

I tried to be friends with this woman when I first met her about six years ago.  It didn’t work.  She consumes people’s energy and attention in a continual flurry of drama that exhausts everyone who knows her (I suspect Histrionic Personality Disorder).  About three years ago she sold her big house in our little town and made enough money from the sale to buy another big house in the country, on some land about 35 miles away.  I was surprised to see her at the store tonight, after dark, a long way from home.

Leaving town and living in the country.  I remember that phase when it hit her.  Everything was going to be better then.  That’s all she needed, to get away from all the town people, to be in the quiet, to do her art, play piano, play accordion, garden.  Living in a peaceful place, that would be better she had told everyone.  I have always wondered how she would survive without having an audience to feed upon.  Would she find a new one?

I briefly thought about stopping on my way out of the store to greet her.  A quick thought as I continued on my way past her out the door.  I didn’t dare stop.  It would not be good for me.  I would be overwhelmed.  Being anywhere around this woman is so complicated….

Yet I know about her past.  I know about the years of sexual abuse she suffered as a little girl.  Her father’s best friend, her babysitter’s husband.  Pillar of the church.  Nobody heard the little girl.  Nobody believed her.  It destroyed her.  It destroyed her life.  It still does.

This woman no longer uses drugs, which she did heavily during all the years she raised her children.  The children did not turn out well.  No surprise.  Nearly a year ago her drug using, drug dealing daughter’s drug using, drug dealing son was shot to death along with his friend.  The trial for the shooter just ended here a week ago.  He was acquitted.

I heard about the outcome for the trial from my friends while we ate quiche at the laundromat yesterday.  I was told my (laundromat) friend’s son has known the shooter for a long time and used to buy his winter’s supply of firewood from him.  One time while picking up what was the last load of wood my friend’s son would ever buy from this man, he watched him grab his rifle that was standing beside his front door and shoot an alien he saw outside his living room window.  He shot through the glass.  Everyone local knows this guy is absolutely loopy, but nobody asked at the trial, and nobody could say.

Nobody was there that dark night in the desert to witness when the woman I passed by at the store tonight lost her 20-year-old grandson to his early and violent death not far from his grandmother’s country home.  I think of my own daughter who just found out last Wednesday that she is carrying a boy – my first grandchild.

I can’t go there in my thinking……

There are so many, many places I cannot go in my thinking.  So many, many things I cannot afford to do because of the damage that was done to me through my own history of severe infant-child abuse.  I could not afford to stop and offer my love to this grieving grandmother, this woman I once tried to befriend.  I can only write this much, and no more.

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Please feel free to comment directly at the end of this post or on

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Your Page – Readers’ Responses

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