Childhood trauma physically reshapes the brain and body by producing long-term biological changes. Repeated exposure to threats trains the immune system and nervous system to remain chronically vigilant, treating the environment as permanently risky. The immune system responds by overproducing inflammatory molecules, creating systemic chronic inflammation in the absence of physical injury. Elevated inflammatory markers can persist for years or decades after early trauma. Chronic inflammation and constant high-alert neural states alter brain functioning and neural wiring, increasing vulnerability to serious mental health conditions later in life.
As you may already know, the immune system's primary purpose is to protect us in situations it perceives to be risky. In most cases, this pertains to illness, injury, infections, viruses, bacteria, and so on-but also to stressful situations. Should it sense a threat of any of these kinds, it readies itself to respond. But when abuse, neglect, or instability are the norm in a child's life, their immune system remains ready and activated.
As such, since the immune system believes it's permanently at risk, it operates accordingly at all times. It produces chemical messengers-specifically, inflammatory molecules-to protect the body from infection or injury, but in extreme excess. However, without any physical wounds to tend to, this overproduction gives rise to chronic inflammation. Astoundingly, the 2022 study discovered elevated levels of these inflammatory markers years, even decades, after the participants' trauma.
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