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Did you grow up in a home with domestic violence when you were a child? If so, you grew up with Childhood Domestic Violence (CDV). Because May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we want to discuss how growing up with domestic violence can have a significant impact on your mental health, even into adulthood. Fortunately, there are ways you can practice resilience against the lifelong impact of...

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month and we want to share some facts you may not know about abuse and childhood trauma. 1. Child abuse and Childhood Domestic Violence (CDV) are two different things. When you read the phrase “Childhood Domestic Violence,” what do you picture? Many believe Childhood Domestic Violence (CDV) is the same thing as child abuse, but these two phrases have different...

Written by Shirley Sanguino What could be contributing to their depression at such a young age? As someone who experienced childhood depression, I know it can be pretty difficult to feel all alone in the battle against it. I remember being told I could not have depression because I was just eleven years old, yet I felt as though I was at the bottom of a well with no way out and no one to...

There is so much to understand and things to know about domestic violence (DV). It impacts the health and well-being of those families involved, but also has an impact on communities and society. Research is conducted regularly on DV, and it has its own national awareness month. Yet, with all of the knowledge already available, the impact of domestic violence is still a massive social issue:...

In the United States, 1 in 15 children are exposed to domestic violence (DV) each year, and 90% of these children witness the violence that occurs in their homes. These are daunting statistics. Perhaps you know of and want to help a child living with domestic violence (DV). You know you can help this child have more hope than they currently have. You just aren’t sure where to start or what you...

What is an Adverse Childhood Experience, or ACE? The term “Adverse Childhood Experiences” comes from the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Study, conducted from 1995 to 1997. The study originally began in an obesity clinic. As it grew, it started to uncover links between childhood trauma, chronic disease, and mental health issues. It became the largest body of research to categorize 10 types of childhood...

In homes with domestic violence, children are negatively impacted at all stages of their development in the key areas of life: physical, mental, behavioral, and relational. Trauma from childhood adversities, including domestic violence, can impact children’s bodies as well as their minds. Not only can physical impacts range from gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, respiratory, and...

At its heart, Childhood Domestic Violence (CDV) occurs when a person grows up living in a home with domestic violence. Domestic violence is violence between parents or violence towards a parent, perhaps from a stepparent or significant other. The violence can be physical, non-physical, or both, but it is NOT directed towards the child. CDV has little awareness compared to other adversities that...

How CDV and Parental Substance Abuse Combine Childhood domestic violence and parental substance abuse often happen in the same home. When they do, the effects become more than the sum of their parts. A child exposed to domestic violence may already feel unsafe or emotionally overwhelmed. If a caregiver is also misusing substances, daily life becomes even more unpredictable. Substance use can...

The awareness of how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) impact mental health in children and sustain the impact into adulthood has come a long way since the original landmark study, conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente in the 1990s, which used a sample population in California. What we’ve come to understand is that ACEs do not discriminate. They break through all...