How and Why Childhood Depression and Anxiety Lives On

It has been discovered that nature and upbringing should not be regarded as enemies or objects of complete contradiction, but as two interconnected truths working together to form human knowledge. Nature was designed to grow. Many recent and remarkable studies have documented the effects that a young child's experience can have on both body composition and brain chemistry. In particular, child neglect can permanently change a person's body. These physical changes may lead to greater likelihood of someone suffering from depression or anxiety later in life. The sad results from a large study of depressed women in the US showed that women who were neglected as children had significantly increased hormone responses to depression compared to women who had no history of neglect. It suggests that child violence is associated with a persistent persistence of the hormonal system associated with a stress response, and this may pose a significant risk to mental retardation in adulthood. The study, conducted by Dr. Charles Nemeroff of Emory University, looks at women diagnosed with trauma during childhood; depressed women without childhood trauma; and healthy women. Each person was given a moderately stressful experience and asked to perform simple mathematical problems aloud in a strong non-verbal judging panel. Cortisol and ACTH (two hormones that play a key role in a person's response to stress) are measured in each study while completing a task. It has been found that levels of these hormones are more pronounced in women who are currently being distressed. In fact, their ACTH response indicators were more than six times higher in healthy women. In addition to high levels of stress hormones, another study of the same group found that women who were traumatized in childhood had abnormal growth of the brain hippocampus, indicating another physical effect of trauma that could lead to permanent mental disorders in later life. Other brain structures may also be affected by premature trauma or neglect. While the basic brain unit is in place at birth, the neuronal mechanisms of the body's response to different experiences are still developing. There is a critical period in the first three years of a child's life when most of these mechanisms are formed. If a child receives negative feedback at the beginning of life, ways to form lasting relationships and respond to positive experiences can be crippled or even destroyed. While this may be a reaction to helping the child survive, it can cause lasting harm to the individual. Some studies show that the brains of the most neglected children are often smaller than the average, with undeveloped areas in the cortex. The long-term effects of this are still being studied, but it shows another way in which your growth or deficiency may affect a person's biological makeup. The knowledge that nature and upbringing are two vital aspects of human health will no doubt prove to be a very useful tool in the research and treatment of mental illness, and may lead to even more effective treatment in the future.