Silence, Secrecy and Shame

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Trauma is a silent earthquake that shatters the foundation of your being while the world keeps spinning like nothing happened. It’s the ghost that moves in when chaos knocks on your door — uninvited, but never leaving. It carves cracks into the soul, etching fear, grief, and rage into every corner of your inner landscape.

It’s the scream that never leaves your throat.
The breath you forget how to take.
The heartbeat that races even when you’re still.
It turns time into a loop — one moment playing over and over like a broken record, demanding your attention, stealing your peace.

Trauma is memory with a pulse.
It shows up in dreams that jolt you awake, in touch that feels like fire, in silence that roars louder than any sound. It changes the way you see people, the way you love, the way you trust, the way you walk through the world.

It doesn’t just happen to you — it happens within you.
It builds a home in your nervous system, wires your brain for danger, and teaches your body to brace for impact — even when there is none.

Even in all its violence, trauma is not the end.
It is the wound that screams for healing, the dark tunnel that dares you to find the light…

The abuse of children has to be seen as a public-health issue, which has serious implications for a country’s development. Abuse can take various forms, including physical, emotional and sexual. It can take place in the home, at school, at church, and other social spaces.

The Gleaner (2021) reported that about 2,000 to 3,000 reports of child abuse in Jamaica are believed to have gone unreported. Before the arrival of the virus in 2020, Jamaica recorded between 12,000 and 14,000 reports of child abuse annually and between 900 and 1,200 reports monthly. Preliminary data from the National Children’s Registry showed that there were 9,853 reports for 2020 and an average monthly report of 700 – 800 cases for 2021.

Deputy registrar at Jamaica’s National Children’s Registry, Warren Thompson, while noting that the figure represented a 22% decline over the 2019 figure of 12,674, said the 2020 figure was likely to remain in the 9,000 range when the data was officially processed.

The Toronto Caribbean Newspaper was invited to join Grace Kennedy Foundation on April 2^nd, 2025, at 6 pm Live on YouTube as Prof. Wendel Abel, (Head Community Health, and Psychiatry at The University of the West Indies), delivered his lecture titled “Breaking the Cycle on Childhood Trauma.” The lecture explored the effects of childhood trauma and strategies for healing, to support healthier futures for children and communities.

During his lecture he delivered up to date statistics on childhood trauma in Jamaica, and some of what I heard was shocking:

• 8 out of 10 children reported having experience violence in their home, or in their community
• 1 in 4 reported sexual traumas (female)
• 1 in 10 sexual traumas (male)
• Bullying is a major problem in the schools

Another important aspect of childhood trauma that was discussed was the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences. ACE’s are a set of potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (before age 18) and have been shown to have a powerful impact on long-term health, behavior, and well-being. What I didn’t know is that Adverse Childhood Experiences earlier in life can lead to an early death.

The original ACE Study, done in the 1990s by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, identified 10 core ACEs, which fall into three main categories:

Abuse

1. Physical abuse – being hit, slapped, or physically hurt.
2. Emotional abuse – being constantly criticized, belittled, or verbally attacked.
3. Sexual abuse – any sexual contact, or behavior imposed on a child.

Neglect

1. Physical neglect – not having basic needs met (food, clean clothes, medical care).
2. Emotional neglect – not feeling loved, supported, or protected emotionally.

Household Dysfunction

1. Substance abuse in the household.
2. Mental illness in a parent or household member.
3. Incarcerated household member – someone in jail or prison.
4. Domestic violence – witnessing violence between adults at home.
5. Parental separation or divorce – especially if it was traumatic or messy.

In his lecture, Prof. Abel shared data indicating that children were more likely to be abused by people they know and trust rather than strangers. He urged family members to be vigilant about who has access to their children.

Another aspect of trauma that we may not realize is that it doesn’t just mess with your mind; it literally gets under your skin, altering your biology. Two powerful ways it does that are through epigenetics and telomere shortening.

Trauma and Epigenetics: Rewriting the Code Without Changing the DNA

Epigenetics is the study of how behaviours and environment (like trauma) can change the way your genes function — without altering the DNA sequence itself.

Here’s how trauma plays a role:

• Your DNA is like the hardware of a computer.
• Epigenetics is the software — it decides which genes get “turned on” or “off.”

When you experience trauma — especially in childhood — your body goes into survival mode. Stress hormones like cortisol flood your system. This intense, prolonged stress can leave epigenetic marks on your DNA. These marks can silence, or activate genes that regulate things like:

• Immune function
• Inflammation
• Brain development
• Emotional regulation

So, someone who experiences trauma may have their stress-response genes stuck in “on” mode, making them more reactive, anxious, and prone to mental, or physical illness. Even more wild? These epigenetic changes can sometimes be inherited — meaning trauma can echo across generations without a single word being spoken.

Trauma and Telomere Shortening: The Biological Clock of Stress

Telomeres are like the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces, but for your chromosomes. They protect your DNA during cell division. Every time a cell divides, telomeres get shorter. When they get too short, the cell stops working properly, or dies. Chronic stress and trauma accelerate this shortening. Here’s what that means:

• People with high levels of trauma — especially ACEs — have shorter telomeres than those with less, or no trauma.
• Shorter telomeres are linked to early aging, weakened immune systems, chronic illness, and even early death.

It’s like trauma presses fast-forward on your biological aging.

Safety: The Nervous System Needs to Know It’s Okay

When a child feels physically and emotionally safe, their nervous system can relax. This is critical because trauma sends the brain into constant “fight, flight, or freeze” mode.

A safe environment:

• Calms the amygdala (the brain’s fear center)
• Supports healthy brain development, especially in the prefrontal cortex (reasoning, decision-making, empathy)
• Keeps cortisol and adrenaline from flooding the system long-term (which is what leads to inflammation and telomere shortening)

Without safety, the child’s body is constantly bracing for impact — even when no threat is present.

Security: Predictability Builds Trust

Security is about consistency and reliability — knowing what to expect from: caregivers, routines, and relationships. This builds attachment, and secure attachment is everything. It teaches the child:

• “I can trust people.”
• “I matter.”
• “It’s safe to explore the world and myself.”

When kids don’t feel secure, they start to internalize the opposite: “People leave. Love isn’t safe. I must fend for myself.” This belief system rewires how they approach: friendships, intimacy, authority, and risk — sometimes for life.

Nurturing: Love is Medicine

To nurture is to: see, hear, validate, guide, and celebrate a child. It’s emotional attunement — matching their energy, soothing their fear, helping them regulate big feelings. Nurturing relationships:

• Teach emotional intelligence and resilience
• Build self-worth and a sense of belonging
• Act as buffers against trauma — even if the child experiences hardship

Studies show that one single caring adult can protect a child from the long-term effects of trauma. Just one. That’s how powerful love and presence are.

A Safe, Secure, Nurturing Environment doesn’t prevent all hardship — but it gives a child the internal tools and external support to survive, adapt, and thrive.

It teaches the body that the world is not always dangerous.
It teaches the heart that it deserves care.
It teaches the mind that healing is possible.

REFERENCES:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749379709005066

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751722217302913

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022395616308354

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-04682-w

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00787-019-01329-1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306453014002637

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20230520/editorial-abuse-children-public-health-issue