“Fight, flight or freeze” responses are normal, logical defenses to an overpowering threat, like Maria’s older, stronger cousin. He sneaks into her room once or twice a month when he has stays over with Maria’s brother.
Maria shifts quickly to ‘high alert’. She shakes under her sheets, in her own house with overwhelming fear of what he might do, too scared to speak.
The more primitive, or “survival-focused” parts of Maria’s brain, including her amygdala, work to keep her hyper-aroused, and focussed on the immediate threat. Even though Maria is not strong enough to fight him or fast enough to outrun him, her threat responses are hard at work, beyond Maria’s control at this point: Simultaneously, the amygdala mutes the thinking or cognitive part, her pre-frontal cortex. Stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol begin pumping, her breathing, heart rate and blood pressure all increase, and digestion slows . These are only a few of the natural neurological and biochemical responses to threat.
But there is a price to pay for the experience of chronic threat…
Chronic ‘fight, flight or freeze’ brain-use causes Maria’s natural, neurobiological defenses to develop into deeply ingrained or grooved pathways and connections in her young, developing brain — leaving Maria always on ‘high alert’. Even after the immediate threat is gone, the dysfunctional, anti-social behaviors can linger, can frustrate, can be quickly re-triggered.
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The relentless fear and toxic stress are actually changing the physical architecture of Maria’s brain.
Public health research reveals that Maria’s health can also suffer lifelong, traceable to her developmental trauma, including depression, severe obesity, lung disease, liver disease, heart disease, drug abuse, alcoholism, teen pregnancy and it may end in her early death — early death by as much as 20 years.
Whether abuse, family dysfunction or neglect, childhood trauma directly impacts about 2 out of 3 of us at some level. Experts call it an “epidemic.”
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Trauma-Informed adults CAN make a difference.
Get Informed. Click on the links below.
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Informed already? Then, please “share” the blog post. Help grow awareness of this secret epidemic destroying childhoods.
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Toxic stress changes brain architecture CLICK HERE (2 minute video)
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Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University CLICK HERE
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Understanding the Behavioral and Emotional Consequences of Child Abuse CLICK HERE
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Defensive behaviors stay turned on (“Clinical Implications”, PAGE 10) CLICK HERE
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Look for other parts of this series “Nowhere to Hide” on LucidWitness.com for more information.
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“Nowhere to Hide” series overview
click HERE
“Nowhere to Hide” series links
Each separate, individual article in the series focuses on a single component of the workings of developmental trauma, via real life examples in short “60 second” soundbites, akin to “Public Service Announcements” (PSAs). They are designed for sharing in social media networks to grow public awareness.
Trigger warning:
The children’s experiences in the vignettes are unvarnished. Their traumatic responses may trigger painful memories.
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“PSA” Links for social media
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Nowhere to Hide: Maria; Fight, flight or freeze
Nowhere to Hide: Andre’s Fear; What are Adverse Childhood Experiences?
Nowhere to Hide: Jamar’s Hyper-arousal
Nowhere to Hide: Roberto’s Dissociation
Nowhere to Hide: Danny’s Memory
Nowhere to Hide: Ashley’s “Normal” Education? Part 1
Nowhere to Hide: Ashley’s “Normal” Education? Part 2
More to come
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“Like” us at “Trauma-Informed Pedagogy” on Facebook
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Please share a PSA link to help grow public awareness of the impacts of developmental trauma. There are so many of us who’ve never heard of the overpowering life-long impacts.
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“Peek Inside a Classroom” series overview
The second original series, “Peek Inside a Classroom”, provides much more detailed looks inside my classroom, primarily focused on specific students: Jasmine, Danny and José.
Other children are captured in broader looks at education reform concepts: “Failing Schools or Failing Paradigm?” and “Effective Education Reform”, co-authored with Sandra L. Bloom, M. D..
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“Peek Inside a Classroom” series links
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Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine
Peek Inside a Classroom: Danny
Peek Inside a Classroom: Failing Schools or Failing Paradigm?
Peek Inside a Classroom: Effective Education Reform (with Sandra Bloom, M.D.)
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“Click for Resources…” series overview:
“Click for Resources” posts are the theory and research behind the narrative posts in “Nowhere to Hide” and “Peek Inside a Classroom”.
Each post in “Click for Resources “ is divided in three parts:
1) general press articles,
2) Research Journals or academic papers
3) social media, often with video.
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“Click for Resources” series links:
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1. Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Studies: CLICK HERE
2. Impacts of Childhood Trauma: Overview CLICK HERE
Click for Resources: Social Media on Impacts of Childhood Trauma
Click for Resources: Journal Articles on Impacts of Developmental Trauma
3. Trauma-Informed Schools CLICK HERE
4. Trauma-Informed Social Services CLICK HERE
5. Trauma-Informed Juvenile Justice CLICK HERE
6. Trauma-Informed Public Policy CLICK HERE
7. Childhood Trauma Training and Tools CLICK HERE
8. Book and Publication selections CLICK HERE
9. #800 phone numbers CLICK HERE
Developmental trauma, still “the elephant in the [class] room” for many adults.
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“Like” us at “Trauma-Informed Pedagogy” on Facebook
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LucidWitness.com 
I did not have a name/handle for ACE but had to work with these kids and their school staff as well as parents. Towards the end of my tenure as principal at Bovill School, we had the good fortune to tap into the Positive Behavior Supports program and Jerry Lilly. We were able to team-up with parents, teachers etc. and devise a plan of action that worked every time—-every time—when we were able to get all parties on the same page. The Cooperative Discipline program from AGS was also a way to train staff on identifying why the child was misbehaving and providing a number of positive interventions to use. Both of these programs take extra time, training, and coordination. Time better spent, I think, than on test prep and developmentally inappropriate curriculum/standards. Suspending and expelling students should be a last resort unless life-threatening issues are at play. What I hear from the field is that the number of kids with emotional/behavior concerns is drastically on the rise. Teachers, support staff and parents need more supports asap. A much better place to spend $27.5 million dollars a biennium than on the Smarter Balanced Assessment testing in Oregon???
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Thank you so much for sharing pauleck47. I couldn’t agree more.
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