Hello Fellow Warriors,

I tried posting about something I believe in and received "0" responses and 1 downvote. It is difficult for me to believe that I cannot find anyone interested in promoting self-care and awareness around the importance of early childhood development.

I really love my Buckeye football but I can put that aside and care about real life matters at the same time. I would greatly appreciate your time in reading what I have to say.

 
I would like to speak about the growing epidemic of homelessness, prison overcrowding, domestic violence, prostitution, suicides, and crime in general. Not to mention gangs, divorce rates, addiction of any kind and various mental illnesses that could include various trauma and stressor related disorders. When you unpack all the layers from all these societal concerns, it typically stems from early childhood development and/or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Results have shown that the more ACEs a child is exposed to, the greater the likelihood of negative health and life outcomes, including:
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Asthma
- Depression
- Alcohol abuse
- Illicit drug abuse
Most people know of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or narcissistic personality disorder (often confused with narcissistic traits). but may not know about these other disorders:
Adjustment Disorders – are unhealthy or unhelpful reactions to stressful events or changes in a child’s life. These reactions can be emotional, such as a depressed mood or nervousness, or behavioral, such as misconduct or violating the rights of others.
Reactive attachment disorder (RAD). Children with RAD show limited emotional responses in situations where those are ordinarily expected. This might show in a lack of remorse after bad behavior or a lack of response to positive or negative emotional triggers. Children with RAD may not appear to want or need comfort from caregivers. They might not care seem to care when toy is taken away from them.
Disinhibited social engagement disorder – Children with DSED are usually open to interactions with strangers. They can be over-eager to form attachments to others. Walking up to and even hugging strangers. They may wander off with strangers. They can be over eager to form attachments with others, walking up to and even hugging strangers. They may wander off with strangers without checking with their parent or caregiver.
Unclassified and unspecified trauma disorders – Childhood stress and trauma can have health and life impacts beyond various types of emotional disorders, such as, adverse childhood experiences:
- Physical, sexual or emotional abuse
- Physical or emotional neglect
- Household Violence, substance abuse or mental illness
- Parental separation or divorce
- Incarceration of a family member
- Poor academic achievement
- Unemployment
These topics all have somethings in common and that is the numbers keep increasing every year at higher rates and even more concerning is that when you peel back all the layers it all points to early childhood development and their caregivers. I am wiling to bet that all of you reading this knows someone, a family member, friend, school mate, co-worker and/or you. that is affected from something of the above. And some are affected more severely than others.
I know I was personally affected by trauma and have suffered some of the above disorders, as well as so many other people. According to hopkinsmedicine.org, it is estimated that about 26% of Americans 18 and older (a bout 1 in 4 adults) suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year. Many people suffer from more than one mental disorder at a given time. I can speak to personal experience and the pain that I have had to endure. I can speak to going through all kinds of confusion in trying to find my own identity throughout my teenage and early adulthood. I can speak to being in “dark places”. I can speak to being alone. I can speak to rising above it all and pulling myself out of my issues and problem behaviors that stemmed from many ACEs throughout my early childhood development. And possibly more importantly, I can speak to how to prevent myself from regressing. I have learned a personal mantra that I have grown to live by but based on lots of knowledge around these various topics. I now focus on my physical, emotional, and mental health daily by a set of routines and thought processes summed up the phrases “Walk Away” and “Run Towards”. To “Walk Away” refers to environments, people, situations, food etc. that are toxic or not only unhelpful to your progression but may also lead you to harm yourself or others. “Run Towards” refers to life balance, goals, dreams. I personally cannot stand to be stagnant in life, I always want to learn and grow and will continue living this way as it is a lifestyle. If you want to better your life, you must change the way the way you think. I know many other people have come from many tough situations and experiences and it inspires me more to see people better themselves!!
You learn in psychology 101 to never suppress your emotions and there are a good number of people that have suffered from their early childhood development and/or adverse childhood experiences continue to suffer into their adulthood that continue to suppress their negative experiences as opposed to facing and confronting their truth. Self-reflection and being honest with yourself is a critical piece of reality that if you do not, your problem behaviors and/or disorders will most definitely continue and could worsen.
I want to be part of a community that raises awareness around these topics and issues in hopes to get the root causes and possibly make a difference for the future. I can bring value for those that can relate and struggle to trauma and stressor disorders. I can share what I have learned through life experience, education and learning the stories of others.
Knowing that this trend of so many people going through adverse childhood experiences is not going anywhere soon, I have been working on a passion project where I want to share what I have learned while at the same time, continue to learn from others. I want to hear your story; I want to hear your friend’s story. How did you pull yourself out of your difficult situations? What did you do to better yourself and your situation? What do you continue to do so that you don’t go back to the “dark places”?
I plan on creating a channel that will hopefully help contribute to providing more awareness to early childhood development and to inspire each other to become better versions of themselves. If interested, please comment below your thoughts of this growing epidemic and/or if you are interested in joining this fight. Until I announce my channel, I would like to guide people to a channel called ‘Soft White Underbelly’ by Mark Laita on YouTube. I recommend giving his channel a look as he is doing some real eye-opening stuff in America. Maybe start by watching his intro video before watching any of his other content as he explains the purpose of what he does.
Remember for the future of all children, they only have one early childhood so if you are going to be a parent, I beg that you please do your research on what every child needs throughout their development and research what not to do. You do not know, what you do not know. One of the worst feelings in the world is to go to sleep at night and feeling that you are alone………. your family does not understand you; your coworkers do not understand you; your friends do not understand you, etc. I only had a select few of my closest friends and only a couple of family members that are willing to listen to me, and be there when I needed it, most others in my life have dismissed me, probably for various reasons and I do not blame them. I state that to relate to so many others that struggle with very difficult situations and have problems finding people that will listen or help them.
This is where I can excel and help those that want to try and free themselves from some of their struggles. I am fully committed to making the best version of myself in all three phases of health and that has been instrumental in my personal growth. Life is a grind and the hardest thing about life is living! I have been working on a passion project where I can help those that are willing to listen, learn, and change the way they think. I have already been helpful in many different support groups and I am getting closer to being able to reach bigger audiences via YouTube or other social media. The more people that are willing to join and share their experiences and input, the better. Feel free to message me if you would like to be part of this movement. Thank you very much for reading!!