The most crucial developmental task of the first three years of life is the creation of a safe, secure attachment bond between a baby and its primary caregiver, generally the mother. This bond is built through constant, intricate give-and-take emotional communications between the caregiver and child. This very innate, sophisticated process is absolutely necessary for proper brain development.
Children who grow up feeling secure in their primary relationships will develop normally, able to handle most traumas that may occur at any time during the course of their lives.
But children who are subjected to severe trauma, including traumatic separation from their primary caregivers lack this ability, and this lack can last a lifetime without aggressive treatment. They will suffer from emotional dysregulation, have less impulse control, overreact to stimuli, and have less ability to tolerate stress and frustration. They are more at risk for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, violent behavior, suicide, substance abuse, and other cognitive, emotional, behavioral and physiological damage.
Imagine being a baby or toddler with a fully developed amygdala, which is the brain structure that processes fear and is fully developed at birth, but not having the concomitant ability to understand or respond in a productive way nor having their primary caretaker to soothe and protect them.
That baby will experience pure, unadulterated, uncut terror, panic and ultimately, despair. My heart is aching to know of the bottomless pain these poor little children are experiencing every minute of every day because our nation has been highjacked by a dangerous sociopathic narcissist and his cronies.
Anyone out there who believes that what is happening is justified for ANY reason whatsoever needs to search their soul to see if they have one.
Kvetchin With Gretchen 
Thanks .I get it .The world can be devastating if ONE is not properly nurtured and bonded to a solid foundation .I’m 65 and have survived .My mother was wonderful my father not so much .But You Know this secret .Great info GRETCH TO KVETCH .Sent via the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks so much, JP. Yes, you are a survivor as am I. Again, Mom was great, Dad struggled. And we find our coping mechanisms. These little children have a bumpy road ahead of them.
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing Gretchen. So well written, but so painful to read and take in. Let’s hope all of those poor children get some good therapy later in life. Sigh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Michelle! It is painful, but it is science. I also hope that these poor children (and parents) are able to overcome this travesty.
LikeLike
Great article. I think my family was the same. Mom was ok (with issues) and Dad really useless..probably best he left.
LikeLike
Nice Article. My mom was ok (had issues) and dad was useless and best he left us.
LikeLike
I’m so sorry that happened to you. I’m glad you had your mom, even though there were issues, to mitigate some of the damage.
LikeLike
Once again, you hit that nail on its big, orange head.
Hey, that’s not a bad idea. Let’s take a whole bag of hammers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Petrea! That sounds like a good idea to me!!
LikeLike
Beautifully and intelligently stated Gretchen.
LikeLike
Thank you so much, Karen!
LikeLike
Exceedidngly well stated. We are going to be living with the disastrous results of this short-sighted and cdruel policy for generations. I have read that such trauma in wartime leaves shildren with altered brains and that can be passed on to subsequent generations, as happened in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.
LikeLike
I like this web site so much, saved to my bookmarks.
LikeLike