"Evidence continues to grow that trauma like abuse, neglect and witnessing violence at an early age rewires children’s brains and thus adversely affects their mental health going forward, helping to explain the “reactive aggression” that prompts a range of anti-social behaviors, according to participants in a roundtable discussion hosted by LISC Chicago on Jan. 30, the second in the “Healthy Wednesday” series on a variety of topics....
“If you’re a witness, you’re much more likely to be a victim or a perpetrator,” she said. “Trauma, in communities like Little Village … can become part of the common human experience. It’s just accepted: This is the way life is.” And residents have reason to think so, even if they’re wrong in the larger sense: “We can’t get angry at people for responding normally to abnormal conditions....
"According to “violence interrupters” from the anti-violence group CeaseFire, he said, many youth with whom they work had multiple self-reports of violence in their family and communities and ongoing trauma as a result....
"To learn more about the cyclical connections between mental health and violence, Saclarides Bocanegra recommended the book “Changing Places: How Communities Will Improve the Health of Boys of Color,” edited by Christopher Edley Jr., and Jorge Ruiz de Velasco."
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