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My Colleague Leonie Hibbert found this interesting article on https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/09/psychological-injuries-physical-illness/

While I might personally have some reservations about the self- administration of his test and some of the actions he recommends, I think what he has to say about the relationship between childhood trauma and later physical and mental illness is spot on and exactly as members of our Somatic Psychotherapeutic community have espoused for many years.

Here are three excerpts from the article which is titled “How Psychological Injuries Cause Physical Illness—And How Therapy Can Heal It” by Dr.Eric Kuelker, PhD, RPsych . He is a practicing clinical psychologist. And (he says) he is the only psychologist in his country (Canada) to publish aggregate data on how much his clients progress in therapy. His TEDx talk and access to the Psychological Injury Index are available at psychologicalinjuryindex.com.

“Cancer is not the only possible outcome for people with 4 or more childhood traumas. They are 3 times more likely to develop heart disease.¹⁵ This actually dwarfs the influence of genetics — a team from Harvard found that those with the highest genetic risk of heart disease were 65% more likely to develop it,¹⁶ but those at the highest psychological risk were 310% more likely to have it.”

“Cardiologists say that we should focus on abuse and neglect to kids, in order to reduce diabetes and heart attacks in 70 year olds. The nature of the invisible injuries, the ones that our healthcare system ignores, is revealed. They are psychological injuries. Physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Emotional or physical neglect. Having a parent with a substance abuse problem, a major mental health issue, a criminal, violence between the parents, or separation from a parent by divorce or death before age 18: these are some of the most common psychological injuries that people experience. They are so powerful, and shape people’s lives to such a degree, that they show up 60 years later as poor health and premature death. That is why the heart specialists are more worried about what happens to 7 year olds, than the seniors who sit in their waiting rooms.”

“When people carry a lot of emotional pain from their invisible wounds, they try to numb it out. And this is the second way that psychological injuries are a massive factor in 7 of the 10 leading causes of early death.⁹ Because junk food can be an anaesthetic to emotional pain. Smoking calms jittery nerves. Alcohol and drugs distract and dull painful memories. Anywhere you look, people with psychological injuries are abusing substances to try and soothe themselves. People with 4 or more traumas as a kid are 40% more likely to be overweight or obese than those with no traumas.¹⁰ They are 3 times more likely to smoke,¹¹ and nearly 6 times more likely to have problems with alcohol,¹² or use illicit drugs.¹³ The impact is so big that childhood traumas are estimated to account for one half to two third of serious problems with drug use.

Click on the link to read more!