The quote “secrets are no fun, secrets hurt someone” was said by almost every single person when they were little, and it could not be truer.
A recent NPR article pondered the question if family secrets, such as childhood abuse, violence, death, addiction or neglect, can make one sick. These events that could have happened in a child’s life may entirely affect their health mentally, physically and many other ways.
Vincent Felitti believes sexual abuse can cause one to become obese later on in their adult life. He did a study with 17,000 middle class families, and found out that those who had suffered problems during their childhood had a “very dramatic increase in pretty much every one of the major public health problems that we’d included in the study.”
Cancer, addiction, diabetes and stroke were the problems that had occurred most often among people. One has to understand that not all the people who had a traumatic childhood turned out to develop an illness or some kind of health problem later in life.
UW-La Crosse student Kenzie Kraus has had someone close to her be sexually abused when they were seven years old. “For the first years, the person was quiet and secretive. For a while they were mentally distraught from the event, but now the person is doing sports again and remains physically active.”
Megan Gunnar, a developmental psychologist at the University of Minnesota, said, “Your stress response system may, in some cases, be programmed to overreact, influencing the way your mind and body work together.”
After these traumatic events happen to a child, the part of the brain that controls judgment seems to be the one most affected. Bodies are controlled by the mind. Don’t have motivation to go outside and run? Well, that comes from the brain telling the body how motivated it is to do something. The brain can control what one thinks and sometimes it could be out of one’s control if they are dealing with an event like sexual abuse.
People still remain skeptical about these findings, and if they can truly believe sexual abuse and childhood problems can be the cause of complications like obesity and cancer. However, some doctors and people believe it is important to establish that link between early childhood experiences with later adult health outcome.
If you or someone you know is dealing with a problem like this from their childhood, there are counselors available on the UW-L campus. If you are ready to open up about the problem, it would not hurt to stop and make a visit to somebody. Especially if you see your health declining or have had problems with your health since the incident(s).
Go to uwlax.edu/counseling-testing to find out more information about counselors on campus.