CCC 27-3

NEWS & NOTES

physically and emotionally close to their mothers, their primary attachment figures. And what that does is it helps them to incrementally learn how to tolerate stress.” Komisar says that if these young children are put in day cares where they are subjected to strangers, their levels of cortisol are elevated, which causes great stress that is extremely bad for an infant’s brain. She continues, “So we know when we raise those cortisol levels, the babies go into a sort of hyper-vigilant state of stress, and they stay that way. It leads to things like anxiety, early signs of aggression, ADHD, and depression later on in the school years.” There are longitudinal studies that illustrate that the majority of children who do not have a proper paren tal attachment by the time they are one year old also experience a similar insecure attachment and have high er rates of anxiety, depression, ADHD, and behavioral issues even 20 years later. 2 HIGHER RATES OF SUICIDE ATTEMPTS FOR POST-ABORTIVE WOMEN A new study of American women between the ages of 41-45, published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology , found those who had abortions or natural pregnancy loss were twice as likely to attempt suicide. The study endeavored to determine “whether post-abortive suicide attempts are ‘entirely incidental and most likely fully explained by preexisting mental illness’ or directly related to the loss of life in the womb. To garner unbiased results, the respondents were com pletely in the dark as to what the purpose of the research was.” Thirty-five percent of women with a history of abortion had attempted suicide, while 30% of women who had lost their babies as a result of a miscarriage or difficult pregnancy but never had an abortion had attempted suicide. “Notably, the research found that women who were coerced into having abortions had the highest rates; 46% of whom tried to end their own lives. Only 13% of women who had successful deliveries with no abortions, miscarriages, or problems within the preg nancies were found to have made suicide attempts—the lowest rates among all surveyed women.” The study con cluded, “Aborting women, especially those who under went coerced or unwanted abortions, were significantly

more likely to say their pregnancy outcomes directly contributed to suicidal thoughts and behaviors com pared to women in all other groups.” It added that “these findings should be used to improve both pre-abortion screening and counseling and post-abortion care.” 3 LIFETIME CANNABIS USE COULD IMPAIR MEMORY New research from the University of Colorado address es the harmful side effects of taking too much canna bis. Published in the JAMA Open Network Journal , the study found that “63% of heavy lifetime cannabis users demonstrated reduced brain activity while completing a working memory task. Meanwhile, 68% of recent can nabis users exhibited a similar impact.” According to the researchers, “cannabis had a ‘statistically significant effect’ on brain function during working memory tasks, but was less significant in other tasks.” Significant cogni tive functions, like decision-making, memory, attention, and emotional processing, exhibited decreased brain activity. 4 AMERICA’S DISTURBED AND CHALLENGED CHILDREN A compilation of CDC statistics in 2022 cited studies from 2016-19 that found the rate of suicide has signifi cantly intensified in every children’s age group. Consider the following: “1 in 6 children in the U.S. aged 2-8 years had a diagnosed mental, behavioral, or developmental disorder. ADHD, anxiety problems, behavior problems, and depression are the most commonly diagnosed mental disorders in children. Estimates for ever hav ing a diagnosis among children 3-17 years, in 2016-19, are ADHD 9.8% (approximately 6.0 million), Anxiety 9.4% (approximately 5.8 million), Behavior problems 8.9% (approximately 5.5 million) and Depression 4.4% (approximately 2.7 million). Often, these conditions com monly occur together. Adolescents aged 12-17 years have major depressive episodes, substance abuse and rapidly increasing suicides.” These statistics are all prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, those numbers have rapidly increased, and it is common to see children in psychiat ric hospitals. 5

Christian Counseling Connection 31