Editors Note: This article was written by Leo Stephens, daughter of Guy Stephens, the founder of the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. Leo is a rising junior at a Maryland public high school with a passion for neuroscience, psychology, and music. Leo wrote this article for an honors english class based on their interest related to these topics. Leo hopes to further explore these interests in college, aiming to blend their curiosity about the brain and mind with their love of the arts.
For the longest time, humans knew next to nothing about the organ that resides in their own skull: the brain. A vital organ that controls our actions, thoughts, and behaviors. A price of misunderstanding the workings of the brain has led to detrimental effects, like traumas known as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). From a multitude of recent research and surveys, the brain is now being seen in a new light. An organ built for survival has many ways to do just that– survive. These are often shown as trauma responses, which are how the brain attempts to prevent past harms from coming again. Our brains are made for safety, but this sometimes does the exact opposite because of the society we live in.
Trauma, as described in the context of Adverse Childhood Experiences, is generally on the lines of experiences like child neglect, child abuse (sexual, physical, or emotional), loss and grief, and such that are similar. People need to be educated on the effects of trauma and trauma responses from ACEs to create a world that doesn’t punish the wounded, to instead create a world with a trauma-informed mindset that lowers the stigma around mental health as a whole. For all people of all genders, races, creeds, and lifestyles.
We have to change “we don’t understand you, so you must be acting out for the attention” to “we do understand you, and you are struggling.”
A common misconception is that there are only universal traumas; only certain things can be traumatic. It’s often thought that events such as wars, physical abuse, and sexual assault are the only things that can impact people in general. The reality is that outside factors affect different people and different brains in different ways. Of course, some things fundamentally will be more traumatic than others, but some brains are more sensitive. This is often from events in early life. From the moment we are born, the body and brain are working together to stay alive. It makes sense that “The more bad things you do to children early, the more difficult it is for them to reach normal development” (Fauber). Normal development in the sense of a brain that is not hypervigilant and very reactive. It’s that hypervigilance that creates “behavior problems.”
But behavior is not black and white; cut down the center of bad reactions and good reactions. As an example, a boy is frustrated in class and starts to have a meltdown. When the adults in the room try to console him, he attempts to push them away and run out of the room. The adults restrain him and put him in an isolated room to “cool down.” But that “misbehaving” boy was autistic and didn’t know how to express his frustration. Then, he felt cornered because when he does this at home, he gets yelled at. He’s scared. So he tries to leave only to be met with pain and isolation when he just needed a way to escape to calm himself. That is punishing a behavior instead of helping. If someone is scared, giving them more reasons to be afraid will only worsen this cycle. There will be more meltdowns from this boy, and he may get physically aggressive out of fear of being trapped again.
The brain is made up of sections that carry out different functions. For simplicity, we can look at Dr. Dan Siegel’s hand model of the brain. You hold your hand in front of you, palm facing your face. Think of your wrist as the brain stem. Tuck your thumb into your palm, and this represents your limbic system, which contains parts of the brain associated with memory, emotion, and fight or flight. Now fold your fingers over your thumb; this will represent the cerebral cortex, which is responsible mainly for motor control, behavior, and (in simple terms) rational thinking and decision-making. How brain development has been found to work is that it goes from the bottom up. However, this does not mean that the upper parts don’t function in children; they are simply not at their fullest. When a trauma in early childhood occurs, the brain’s development is hindered to a degree. Rendering the limbic system to have to work extra hard and faster. This slows the development of the cortex and causes the brain to function more on the limbic system level. Keep in mind this doesn’t mean the cortex doesn’t work or will never develop; it simply means the brain is more prone to engage the limbic system rather than the cortex.
Focused on limbic brain regions – specifically the hippocampal, parahippocampal and amygdalar regions – because limbic structures have been commonly implicated in the neuroscience of trauma.
Bradura-Brack PhD
The most common form of trauma children are subjected to is abuse of several types, oftentimes by parental figures and the adults in their lives. “This family member, who most likely is supposed to take the role of protector and provider, is instead hurting their children physically and emotionally” (Jenkins). This creates a brain that is afraid of the people who get too close, both physically and emotionally, because they are used to the people they should be close to hurting them. The result? A more hyperactive limbic system, an adult who is prone to stress responses. Stress responses could lead to a continued cycle of abuse because the mind is built to prefer hurting over getting hurt. Saying this is a problem is an understatement.
But does this excuse behavior? No, it doesn’t. But the people who claim that people suffering “need to get over it” or are “making a big deal of nothing” (things that I have heard before) are nothing but hurting these people further. As humans, we rely on the validation of others in our experiences. Why else would social media be so popular? People who have been through trauma need validation of their suffering; they need help. Not punishment. Words like that, yelling, and hitting are all punishments people use to try to force people with trauma (and ACEs) to “act right.” This isn’t okay.
The brain is a complex system, and we still do not fully understand how it works. We are still learning. However, there’s a direct correlation between the limbic system and trauma. This cannot afford to be ignored anymore. We as a society need to get better at recognizing people who are suffering, especially children. If we start helping kids, we start helping the health of society as a whole.
Works Cited
Badura-Brack, Amy S., PhD, et al. “Hippocampal and Parahippocampal Volumes Vary by Sex and Traumatic Life Events in Children.” Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience : JPN, vol. 45, no. 4, July 2020, pp. 288-97. Publicly Available Content Database, https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.190013.
“Emotion.” Britannica Student, school.eb.com/levels/high/article/emotion/106029#283143.toc.
Fauber, John. “Early Trauma Found to Affect Adoptees’ Brains: [Final Edition].” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 17 Feb. 2003. U.S. Newsstream Collection, www.proquest.com/newspapers/early-trauma-found-affect-adoptees-brains/docview/261757651/se-2?accountid=13115.
Jenkins, Amy. “Child Abuse.” Teen Health and Wellness, teenhealthandwellness.com/article/82/child-abuse. Accessed Jan. 2025.
