{"id":6986,"date":"2015-03-09T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T10:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?p=6986"},"modified":"2015-02-21T10:41:23","modified_gmt":"2015-02-21T15:41:23","slug":"could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Could a Difficult Childhood Age You?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/images\/agree-terms.php?id=100105897\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-6988 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/258\/2015\/02\/ID-100105897-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"ID-100105897\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>Jack\u00a0was the victim of child abuse growing up.\u00a0Then, his mother died and he became a ward of the state, in and out of foster homes. His childhood was not only filled with abuse and trauma, but abandonment. As an adult, he suffered from depression and anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>Many people have stories like Jack&#8217;s &#8211;some less traumatic\u00a0like\u00a0growing up in a home with a depressed mom, an alcoholic dad, critical parents who fought continuously,etc. We know the psychological and emotional fall out of such events, but what about the physical effects of trauma, abuse, and psychiatric disorders?<\/p>\n<p>A new study gives credence to the idea that a rough childhood ages a person on the cellular level. The study published in <em>Biological Psychiatry<\/em> looked at 299 healthy adults\u00a0and\u00a0assessed them for\u00a0\u00a0psychiatric disorder diagnoses and childhood histories of \u00a0adversity like abuse, neglect and parental loss.<\/p>\n<p>What researchers found was that childhood stress and psychiatric disorders were\u00a0linked to cellular changes, especially those who experienced major depression and anxiety disorders, parental loss or childhood maltreatment.\u00a0When researchers analyzed DNA,\u00a0\u00a0specific cellular changes important to the aging process were found. Thus, childhood adversity\u00a0may accelerate the aging process.<\/p>\n<p>This study supports the idea that we have to be better at preventing childhood maltreatment and help children deal with significant loss and trauma at an early age.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source:\u00a0Audrey R. Tyrka, Stephanie H. Parade, Lawrence H. Price, Hung-Teh Kao, Barbara Porton, Noah S. Philip, Emma S. Welch, Linda L. Carpenter.\u00a0Alterations of Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number and Telomere Length with Early Adversity and Psychopathology.\u00a0<em>Biological Psychiatry<\/em>, 2015; DOI:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.biopsych.2014.12.025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">10.1016\/j.biopsych.2014.12.025<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jack\u00a0was the victim of child abuse growing up.\u00a0Then, his mother died and he became a ward of the state, in and out of foster homes. His childhood was not only filled with abuse and trauma, but abandonment. As an adult, he suffered from depression and anxiety. Many people have stories like Jack&#8217;s &#8211;some less traumatic\u00a0like\u00a0growing&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":419,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[914],"tags":[602,823,3216,135,3217,3214,304,41,3215,297],"class_list":["post-6986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-relationships-2","tag-abuse","tag-aging","tag-aging-process","tag-anxiety","tag-cellular-changes","tag-childhood-abuse","tag-depression","tag-neglect","tag-parental-loss","tag-trauma"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Could a Difficult Childhood Age You?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Could a Difficult Childhood Age You?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jack\u00a0was the victim of child abuse growing up.\u00a0Then, his mother died and he became a ward of the state, in and out of foster homes. His childhood was not only filled with abuse and trauma, but abandonment. As an adult, he suffered from depression and anxiety. Many people have stories like Jack&#8217;s &#8211;some less traumatic\u00a0like\u00a0growing&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Doing Life Together\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-09T10:00:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-21T15:41:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/02\/ID-100105897-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda Mintle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drlindamintle\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Could a Difficult Childhood Age You?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Could a Difficult Childhood Age You?","og_description":"Jack\u00a0was the victim of child abuse growing up.\u00a0Then, his mother died and he became a ward of the state, in and out of foster homes. His childhood was not only filled with abuse and trauma, but abandonment. As an adult, he suffered from depression and anxiety. Many people have stories like Jack&#8217;s &#8211;some less traumatic\u00a0like\u00a0growing&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html","og_site_name":"Doing Life Together","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","article_published_time":"2015-03-09T10:00:34+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-02-21T15:41:23+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/02\/ID-100105897-200x300.jpg"}],"author":"Linda Mintle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drlindamintle","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html","name":"Could a Difficult Childhood Age You?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/02\/ID-100105897-200x300.jpg","datePublished":"2015-03-09T10:00:34+00:00","dateModified":"2015-02-21T15:41:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/02\/ID-100105897-200x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/files\/2015\/02\/ID-100105897-200x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/2015\/03\/could-a-difficult-childhood-age-you.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Could a Difficult Childhood Age You?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/","name":"Doing Life Together","description":"Relationship Doctor, Mental Health, Emotional Wellness, Relationship Advice &amp; Entertainment","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/#\/schema\/person\/1e16a9c7332cfcc5b5d89e4ba3a36142","name":"Linda Mintle","description":"It is rare that a trained academic who speaks passionately to the heart of people providing real answers to real life problems is so relatable. Dr. Linda\u2019s fun personality and expertise comes through whether she\u2019s helping her audience stress less or make peace with their thighs! Dr. Linda has her Ph.D. in Urban Health and Clinical Psychology and is a national expert on mental health. She has specialized in the treatment of eating disorders, anxiety, depression and pain management. With 30 years of clinical experience working with couples, families and individuals, she brings her common-sense approach to people who want to live in positive mental health. Dr. Linda is also a bestselling author with 21 book titles to her credit, a radio host of the Dr. Linda Mintle show, professor, national speaker, winner of the Mom\u2019s Choice Award, a national news consultant, featured writer for Beliefnet and hosts her own website. Her academic appointments keep her abreast of current research in her areas of expertise. Her media experience includes seven years as the resident expert for ABC Family\u2019s Living the Life television show and regular appearances on network television and radio. It is often said that being with Dr. Linda is like having coffee with a friend. She makes the complicated issues of relationships and mental health easy to understand and applicable to everyday living. The ease she has with people, coupled with her clinical training and experience makes her a sought-after speaker on college campuses, conferences and special events. Whether she is doing a TV skit with Tim Conway or discussing teen violence with Queen Latifa, Dr. Linda will entertain, educate and integrate faith and mental health in everyday living. Check out her latest book Hope and Healing for Anxiety, a whole-person approach to eliminate anxiety. .","sameAs":["https:\/\/drlindamintle.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/drlindamintle\/","https:\/\/x.com\/drlindamintle"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/author\/lmintle"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/419"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6986"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6990,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6986\/revisions\/6990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/doinglifetogether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}