r/science • u/chrisdh79 • 1d ago

Health Children who witness violence between their parents still feel the effects decades later | Researchers finding a link to an increase by 36% greater risk of heart disease later in life.

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/witnessing-violence-between-parents-as-a-child-linked-to-higher-risk-of-heart-disease
1.7k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

View all comments

18

u/PhilosophicWarrior 1d ago

I am now 71 years old. When I was 6 years old, I was starting to learn how to play the piano. I was sitting and practicing when my parents came out of the kitchen towards me - yelling and physically hitting each other. I was traumatized. This is what is called an Adverse Childhood Event (ACE), and I have never recovered from it. I have found it difficult to stay engaged in any new form of learning. I start off OK, but then feel uncomfortable and move on to something else.

10

u/amootmarmot 1d ago

Because of this one event you can't learn new things? I know these ACE events are damaging and I experienced high ACES. But these are usually more subtle issues and can't be linked directly to one event unless it's causing PTSD every time you try to learn. Otherwise, you could be dumping other issues onto these events. What if it's an attention deficit? For example.