Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Introduction
Hundreds of thousands of children suffer childhood trauma, neglect and abuse globally
every year. Those nearest to children are usually accused of their abuse and neglect. As indicated
by Childhelp.org., more than 6.5 million children are sent to state child protective services due to
abuse cases annually and investigative reports are initiated generally against 50:% of these
children (Schean, 2017). Although the number of reported cases is quite substantial yet there may
be a large number of children going through traumatic and abusive experiences whose cases are
not reported.
Due to this discrepancy it is extremely difficult to exactly ascertain the number of abused
and neglected children. If not treated properly, the childhood abuse leaves extremely negative
There is a strong relationship between many physical, mental and reproductive problems
in later life and childhood abuse or trauma. Links have also been confirmed between some
instances of childhood abuse and vices like excessive use of illicit drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
Besides adversely affecting the health of a person, childhood trauma and abuse is also
instrumental in reducing the lifespan of the individual by 21% when dealing with the after effects
of abuse. It has been revealed in studies related to adult abusers of drugs and alcohol that
substance abuse and stress related disorders can be linked to childhood abuse and trauma.
2
Physical, emotional and sexual abuse as well as physical or emotional neglect can leads
to childhood trauma. Evidence is available that out of those being treated for alcohol or drug
abuse problems, about 70 % on the average confirms physical, emotional or sexual abuse in
childhood. Bulk of the information linking substance abuse to a person's abuse in childhood is
50 studies examining female drug abusers having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
were reviewed in a study carried out by the Harvard Medical School researchers and funded by
the National Institute on Drug Abuse. According to the study very high percentage of substance
abusers have been diagnosed with PTSD. Most of the women being studied said that they relive
till this day the trauma of their child abuse through nightmares of flashbacks.
Research that majority of alcoholics being treated have been found to suffer from childhood
trauma. The evidence in the study shows that most of the participants were physically,
emotionally or sexually abused as children and that a link existed between childhood abuse and
alcoholism.
It can be said without any doubt that everlasting scars and emotional pain are left by the
child abuse on the remainder life of a person. According to other studies, even the areas
controlling reasoning, decision-making, emotions and planning in the brain are also badly
affected and damaged by the childhood abuse and neglect (Edalati & Krank, 2016). Therefore,
children suffering from abuse and neglect are likely to adopt unhealthy behaviour like substance
3
persons in addition to vulnerabilities will provide in-depth information about the issue. Closely
documenting and treating individuals who have been experiencing comorbid substance use
problems and they being exposed to child abuse may inform interventions that would lead to
better outcomes.
4
References
Edalati, H., & Krank, M. (2016). Childhood Maltreatment and Development of Substance Use
Schean. (2017). Childhood Trauma and the Risk of Adult Substance Abuse - Nsight. Retrieved
from https://nsightrecovery.com/childhood-trauma-risk-drug-abuse/