Childhood Trauma¹ Can Affect A Person's Health Across A Lifetime童年创伤会影响一个人一生的健康

The human brain is really remarkable². It begins developing all the way back in the womb and continues right into adulthood³. So many things have to go just right for the brain to develop to its full capacity and for us to be emotionally healthy and cognitively⁴ functioning. This process is meticulously⁵ complex, and with that comes caveats⁶. The brain is a plastic organ (meaning it's really malleable) and our environment plays an important role in shaping the developing brain during childhood, a period when children learn so much about the world around them.

人类的大脑是非常了不起的。它在子宫里就开始发育，一直持续到成年。为了让大脑充分发育，让我们拥有健康的情感和认知功能，很多事情都需要做得恰到好处。这一过程非常复杂，并伴随着一些警告。大脑是一个可塑的器官(这意味着它真的是有可塑性的)，在儿童时期，我们的环境在塑造发育中的大脑中扮演着重要的角色，在这个时期，孩子们会对周围的世界了解很多。

Brain plasticity is something parents may not be aware of in terms of how upbringings in negative environments might impact children's brain development. This crucial developmental period is often hindered in children that are subjected to challenging environments while growing up, such as neglect, poverty, or physical and emotional abuse.

大脑可塑性是家长们可能没有意识到的，在负面环境中成长会如何影响孩子的大脑发育。这一至关重要的发展阶段往往阻碍了儿童的成长，因为他们在成长过程中受到了充满挑战的环境，如忽视、贫穷或身体和精神上的虐待。

In a TED⁷ talk, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris explains how repeated neglect, abuse, and having parents struggling with substance abuse and/or mental health problems can have a real effect on the brain development of children, and how these events shape the health of these children over a lifetime. Harris makes a plea to pediatric medicine to help detect and prevent these events and tackle these challenges "head-on" by trying to identify them as early as possible, to protect and preserve child development.

在一次TED演讲中，儿科医生纳丁·伯克·哈里斯解释了反复的忽视、虐待以及父母与药物滥用和/或精神健康问题作斗争是如何对儿童的大脑发育产生实际影响的，以及这些事件如何在这些孩子的一生中塑造他们的健康。哈里斯呼吁儿科医学帮助发现和预防这些事件，并通过尽可能早地发现它们来“正面”解决这些挑战，以保护和保护儿童的发展。

Johannes Van Zijl

It's well documented that these types of experiences have lasting⁸ effects on children, especially when they occur during this critical period of development. It can change brain structure and function, influence the developing immune and hormonal⁹ systems, and even affect how DNA¹⁰ is processed. It has also been shown that children who experienced severe trauma have shorter life expectancies¹¹ and a higher risk of dying of heart disease and cancer.

有充分的证据表明，这些类型的经历对儿童有持久的影响，特别是当它们发生在发育的关键时期。它可以改变大脑的结构和功能，影响发育中的免疫和激素系统，甚至影响DNA的处理方式。研究还表明，经历过严重创伤的儿童预期寿命较短，死于心脏病和癌症的风险较高。

Recent research has even shown that mothers who themselves experienced childhood emotional neglect can pass on cross-generational "imprints¹²" of fear and anxiety to their own children, an example of the devastating¹³ long-term effects.

最近的研究甚至表明，童年时经历过情感忽视的母亲会把恐惧和焦虑的跨代“印记”传给自己的孩子，这是毁灭性的长期影响的一个例子。

These childhood experiences can have long-term repercussions¹⁴, which is why it is vital to focus on providing a nurturing¹⁵ and safe environment for all children to grow up in, and identifying and tackling challenging situations as early as possible. Childhood trauma does not only influence the health and wellbeing of the child in question but may have an everlasting¹⁶ generational effect on their kids one day.

这些童年经历会产生长期影响，因此，重点在于为所有儿童提供一个养育和安全的环境，让他们在其中成长，并尽早识别和处理具有挑战性的情况，这一点至关重要。童年创伤不仅影响有关儿童的健康和福祉，有朝一日还可能对其子女产生永久的世代影响。