5 Adverse Child Events underlying Gender Dysphoria
Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) refer to a range of negative situations a child may face or witness while growing up, such as physical neglect, parental separation or divorce, living in a household in which domestic violence occurs, or living with an alcoholic. These experiences negatively alter the brain at a deep level where most basic needs originate and a person’s identity is formed. Because there is a known and strong relationship between Childhood Mental Health problems such as anxiety, depression and detachment, and a relationship between these problems and GD, there is almost certainly a relationship between adverse child events, including sexual abuse, and the development of gender confusion.
Trauma in childhood is known to impact child development and the occurrence of mental health problems later in life, and research shows that mental illness precedes the onset of transgender ideation in young people. This suggests that gender distress is not the problem—mental illness is. For example, a major 2018 study of mental health in transgender-identifying youth found overwhelming evidence that mental illness is present before the onset of transgender belief. This study compared over 1,300 trans-believing youth with age-matched peers using clinical data gathered from three large pediatric practices in California and Georgia. Psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, and attention deficit disorders were several times higher than the peer group, suicidal ideation was up to 54 times higher, and self-harm was up to 144 times higher. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5914494/pdf/PEDS_20173845.pdf
According to Dr. André Van Mol—the co-chair of the American College of Pediatricians’ Committee on Adolescent Sexuality —in the overwhelming majority of cases, the desire to switch one’s gender identity is closely connected to adverse experiences in childhood. More broadly, studies have reported a high frequency of childhood emotional and physical neglect and abuse among transgender-identifying individuals. Given the role of ACEs play in the development of gender dysphoria. it is adding insult to injury to advocate that the first and only step in treating trauma done to a child’s identity is to alter their body with cross-sex hormones and surgery. By not addressing the underlying causes of the problem, gender altering treatments are not merely ineffective, they are ch. They are child abuse.