The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity—A Transformative Guide to Understanding Childhood Trauma and Health

by Nadine Burke Harris

Suddenly, my patients’ physical reactions didn’t seem so crazy. If their systems were flooded with stress hormones just like Sarah’s or the tadpoles’, it stood to reason that their bodies, including their blood pressure, blood sugar, and neurological functions, might react in similar ways; all could be seen as side effects of stress hormones. It made biological sense that a high dose of stress hormones at the wrong developmental stage could have an outsize impact on my patients’ downstream health. It was exactly what happened to the younger tadpoles versus the closer-to-metamorphosis froglets—the difference between adaptive and maladaptive reactions is all about the when.