When the Body Says No: the cost of hidden stress

by Gabor Maté

The straightforward connection between childhood experience and adult stress has been missed by so many researchers over so many years that one almost begins to wonder if the oversight is deliberate. Adults with a history of troubled childhoods may not encounter more serious losses than others do, but their ability to cope will have been impaired by their upbringing. Stress does not occur in a vacuum. The same external event will have greatly varied physiological impact, depending on who is experiencing it. The death of a family member will be processed in a markedly different way by someone who is emotionally well integrated and in a supportive relationship than it will be by a person who is alone or—like Anna prior to her therapy—tormented by chronic guilt due to childhood conditioning.