09-Aug-2020 12:00 AM
1958
A friend recently celebrated her 25th birthday. She was working in one of the top-paying software companies and her parents had already started looking for a suitable match for her. They wanted the best boy for their daughter but were disappointed when some of the very good families rejected her because she was obese. She weighed 330 pounds and was struggling with it because no slimming club could help her in getting a healthy BMI. Her parents learned about a weight management program in their city, which was conducted under the guidance of experts and insisted her to join it. Initially, she was reluctant but she joined it.
In about two weeks she had lost 28 pounds and maintained it for several weeks. And then in about four weeks period, she regained 38 pounds. And in short order, she was over 300 pounds, faster than she had lost the weight.
The experts in the weight program asked her about the extreme response? She explained that it was triggered by being sexually harassed at work by a much older man which reminded her of her incest history with her uncle. She felt miserable and couldn’t help taking drugs and other coping devices to relax.
The experts said that nearly 55% of people in the weight management program acknowledged the history sexual abuse or some other form of childhood trauma. When asked, some of them revealed the harrowing experiences of their childhood adversity. These were not limited to the sexual abuse but also included physical abuse which was more than spanking, emotional abuse like humiliation. Many of them admitted that they were neglected because they either grew up in a home where one of the members was chronically depressed, mentally ill, and suicidal or in hospital, or they were brought up without both biological parents, or they were from a family where a member was a drug addict or alcoholic, or the mother or siblings were beaten up routinely or one of the members of the family was imprisoned during his childhood. The incidences they shared showed the ugly face of our society.
This form of child abuse has been growing massively in dysfunctional households and continues to haunt a child for the rest of his life.
According to the statistics, in a middle-class population, one in eleven people has experienced six of these forms of Adverse Childhood Experiences, ACE. This is common but the issue never gets touched and is often swept under the carpet. Such experiences in childhood that are protected by shame and by secrecy or by social taboo play out powerfully and proportionately decades later, in terms of their emotional state, biomedical disease, and life expectancy.
People with troublesome childhood adopt dangerous ways to relax. To cope up with the stress they start smoking or drinking or taking iv drugs or overeating. It gives them temporary relief but robs them of their health because it is done in very heavy amounts. In some cases, there is a chronic major unrelieved stress which has a direct effect on the CNS. Under stress, the brain signals the body to produce pro-inflammatory chemicals that suppress the immune system and cause serious health problems.
Nobody is born with a criminal mindset but the surroundings around a person can turn him into a potential threat to society. The problem of ACE has a huge impact on a person’s physical and mental well-being.
Therefore a practical approach should be made to deal with such a problem and attention should be given to prevent it from happening. The onus lies on us because if the problem goes unchecked we are going to have an epidemic of youth who are diseased, distressed, and sick in the head.