Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology, and How You Can Heal

Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Jul 2015 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

A “courageous, compassionate, and rigorous every-person’s guide” (Christina Bethell, PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) that shows the link between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) ​and diseases, and how to cope and heal from these emotional traumas.

Your biography becomes your biology. The emotional trauma we suffer as children not only shapes our emotional lives as adults, but it also affects our physical health, longevity, and overall well-being. Scientists now know on a bio-chemical level exactly how parents’ chronic fights, divorce, death in the family, being bullied or hazed, and growing up with a hypercritical, alcoholic, or mentally ill parent can leave permanent, physical “fingerprints” on our brains.

When children encounter sudden or chronic adversity, stress hormones cause powerful changes in the body, altering the body’s chemistry. The developing immune system and brain react to this chemical barrage by permanently resetting children’s stress response to “high,” which in turn can have a devastating impact on their mental and physical health as they grow up.

Donna Jackson Nakazawa shares stories from people who have recognized and overcome their adverse experiences, shows why some children are more immune to stress than others, and explains why women are at particular risk. “Groundbreaking” (Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance) in its research, inspiring in its clarity, Childhood Disrupted explains how you can reset your biology—and help your loved ones find ways to heal. “A truly important gift of understanding—illuminates the heartbreaking costs of childhood trauma and like good medicine offers the promising science of healing and prevention” (Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart).

Ratings and reviews

I would have preferred that the book had included a note stating the author did not at all have in mind those people suffering serious adverse childhood experiences who also were struggling with autism spectrum disorder. As one who has for decades suffered this perfect-storm combination of life’s misfortune, knowing this would have notably helped as I read it. Perhaps she could also have strongly advocated for high school curriculum that teaches the science of the basics of young children’s developing brains and therefore healthy/unhealthy methods of parental/guardian child rearing. In 2017, when I asked a teachers federation official over the phone whether there is any such curriculum taught in any of B.C.’s school districts, he immediately replied there is not. When I asked the reason for its absence and whether it may be due to the subject matter being too controversial, he replied with a simple “Yes”. This strongly suggests there are philosophical thus political obstacles to teaching students such crucial life skills as nourishingly parenting one’s children. Put plainly, people generally do not want some stranger—and especially a government-arm entity, which includes school teachers—directly or indirectly telling them how to raise their children. Albeit, a knowledgeable person offered me her observation on perhaps why there are no mandatory childrearing courses in high school: People with a dysfunctional family background do not particularly desire scholastically analyzing its intricacies; i.e. they simply don’t want to go there—even if it’s not being openly discussed. (Frank Sterle Jr.)

This book is a groundbreaking and an important read that everyone should read. The ACE study creates connection and understanding between childhood experience to both simple and complex health problems in adulthood. The author goes into great medical detail creating a clear visual understanding, then goes on to illuminates the light at the end of the tunnel of healing.

This is an exceptional work on the topic. Highly recommended for anyone and everyone on this planet.

About the author

Donna Jackson Nakazawa is an award-winning science journalist, public speaker, and author of The Last Best Cure, in which she chronicled her yearlong journey to health, and The Autoimmune Epidemic, an investigation into the reasons behind today’s rising rates of autoimmune diseases. She is also a contributor to the Andrew Weil Integrative Medicine Library book Integrative Gastroenterology. Ms. Nakazawa lectures nationwide. Learn more at DonnaJacksonNakazawa.com.