The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity

"An extraordinary, eye-opening book." --People

National Health Information Awards winner

"A rousing wake-up call. . . . This highly engaging, provocative book prove[s] beyond a reasonable doubt that millions of lives depend on us finally coming to terms with the long-term consequences of childhood adversity and toxic stress." --Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris was already known as a crusading physician delivering targeted care to vulnerable children. But it was Diego--a boy who had stopped growing after a sexual assault--who galvanized her journey to uncover the connections between toxic stress and lifelong illnesses.

The stunning news of Burke Harris's research is just how deeply our bodies can be imprinted by ACEs--adverse childhood experiences like abuse, neglect, parental addiction, mental illness, and divorce. Childhood adversity changes our biological systems, and lasts a lifetime. For anyone who has faced a difficult childhood, or who cares about the millions of children who do, the fascinating scientific insight and innovative, acclaimed health interventions in The Deepest Well represent vitally important hope for preventing lifelong illness for those we love and for generations to come?.

"Nadine Burke Harris . . . offers a new set of tools, based in science, that can help each of us heal ourselves, our children, and our world."--Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed

"A powerful--even indispensable--frame to both understand and respond more effectively to our most serious social ills."--New York Times

ISBN-13: 9781328502667

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Publication Date: 12-14-2021

Pages: 272

Product Dimensions: 5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

NADINE BURKE HARRIS, M.D., founder of the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point, was recently named Surgeon General of California. She is the recipient of the prestigious Heinz Award in 2016, and lives in San Francisco with her husband and their four boys.

Table of Contents

Authors Note ix

Introduction xi

I Discovery

1 Somethings Just Not Right 3

2 To Go Forward, Go Back 17

3 Forty Pounds 27

II Diagnosis

4 The Drive-By and the Bear 45

5 Dynamic Disruption 57

6 Lick Your Pups! 77

III Prescription

7 The ACE Antidote 97

8 Stop the Massacre! 117

9 Sexiest Man Alive 135

10 Maximum - Strength Bufferin' 155

IV Revolution

11 The Rising Tide 175

12 Listerine 197

13 In the Rearview 213

Epilogue 223

Appendix 1 What's My ACE Score? 227

Appendix 2 CYW Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire 229

Acknowledgments 231

Notes 235

Index 243