Module 5: Balance: Past and Present
Personal Past
We have seen that Native people share a past that includes both strongly negative experiences and, as LaVerne reminds us, positive experiences based on healthy traditional values. Both affect our present. In addition to the shared past, each of us has a unique personal past and this too affects who we are today.
Adverse Childhood Experiences
While some of us may have had wonderful childhoods that helped us grow to become healthy adults, others have had difficult childhoods. A large scientific study, the Adverse Childhood Experiences study found that repeated traumatic experiences in childhood can greatly impact our life, our health, work and social relationships. 4,5.
The initial Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study examined the relationship between childhood trauma and the risk for physical and mental illness in adulthood. Childhood trauma was identified as having any of the following experiences before the age of 18.
- Substance abuse in the household.
- Physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
- Witnessed family violence.
- Household member imprisoned.
- Parental separation or divorce.
- Depression, mental illness, or suicide among family members.
New research in neuro-development demonstrates that high levels of fear and long periods of stress during childhood can alter normal brain structure and function. Sustained stress results in overproduction of the stress hormones that can compromise normal brain development and immune and nervous systems.6