In a new study, researchers found that almost every child exposed to “multiple adversities” ended up with a psychiatric diagnosis while still a youth. The few kids who didn’t (those labeled “resilient”) ended up with poor outcomes in adulthood anyway.
Thus, the researchers suggest that the focus should be on preventing childhood adversity rather than on promoting “resilience.”
“Resilience to childhood adversity was uncommon. Individuals who appeared resilient in childhood were at risk for delayed poorer outcomes in adulthood. Public health efforts should prioritize minimizing early adversity exposure over promoting resilience,” they write.
William Copeland at the University of Vermont led the research, which was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, the official journal of the American Psychiatric Association.
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Given the fact that ACEs are the number one actual cause of most psychological distress, and the psychologic and psychiatric industries want to “treat” all distressed people. Perhaps it’s past time for those industries to be able to honestly bill for “helping” child abuse survivors? Right now, they can’t.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/your-child-does-not-have-bipolar-disorder/201402/dsm-5-and-child-neglect-and-abuse-1
But this would mean that the psychologic and psychiatric industries would need to stop denying and covering up child abuse, especially for their pastor “partners.” It’s past time to end “the dirty little secret of the two original educated professions.” Since, of course, profiteering off of covering up child abuse is actually illegal.
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I’m not even indigenous or wasn’t a young boy or fragile-looking girl, but I was victimized by the Catholic Church. It didn’t arise until a few years ago in my mid 30’s. It’s the reason why I was victimized by Psychiatry and still am now.
I bet Psychiatry wouldn’t be as big if cults didn’t exist. Less people would seek out Psychotropic medications due to having less trauma. Modern society in general is extremely unrealistic and forces people to seek out drugs/alcohol/Psychotropic medications. The counselling industry wouldn’t be as big if faiths/religions didn’t exist.
It’s deplorable how kids are victims of modern society stressing their parents out. Or the kids are born because contraception/endocrinology education is non-existant/wrong info from manipulation, especially in cults/religions/faiths and certain politically-charged areas. There isn’t even any research that supports that a deity (one of the various ones on this planet) even exists in the first place.
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Quire, however I would like to know more about the resilience story.
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“Resiliance” puts the emphasis on the victim to be solely responsible for their ability to survive and thrive or at least function. I am an example of someone who had (i see in hindsight) incredible resilience in childhood and most of my adulthood however in old age i am falling apart and now well aware i had been living in a coma like state that made me compliant and quiet and grateful though i was not building community, long lasting connections nor the sort of memories that ultimately would counterbalance the ones i had from childhood. More over my appearing to be functioning fine meant i wasn’t aware specifically of the skills and experience they are based on being missing from my life so i couldn’t do more than try all i could on my own, all alone and that just wasn’t enough.
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Praying for the world where resources go not to expanding mental healthcare but in making the lives of kids less precarious! A win win all around.
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The ‘new study’ is not actually new. Sigmund Freud published “The Aetiology of Hysteria” in 1896, where he argued that childhood sexual abuse was the cause of ‘hysteria’. His research sparked outrage in academic and public spheres, and led to him being personally ostracized. He renounced this theory a year later. Both before and after this time, the field of psychiatry has continued to re-victimise, diagnose, medicate, torture, and incarcerate survivors of adversity, both children and adults. When will psychiatrists acknowledge that, for over a century, they have understood that suffering causes emotional, psychological, physical, social, and financial consequences, and that their fabricated ‘disorders’ only serve to silence victims, absolve perpetrators, neglect adversity, and sell drugs?
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Right on!
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From my point of view, these people don’t know what they are talking about.
Childhood “adversity” (torture, etc.) triggers responses that are considered to be psychiatric disorders. But that bad treatment, as evil as it might be, does not cause these responses. The responses are chosen unconsciously from a repertoire that we all carry with us based on deep layers of past experience.
It would be great if more children could be raised totally humanely. But even then, shit does happen. True “resilience” comes from straightening out the distant past experiences so that they can no longer be triggered by something terrible that happens in this life.
Good luck making children’s lives better. I’m all for it, and it would help. But it won’t eliminate what we call “mental illness.” People who have good childhoods go bad, too. Just less often.
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