BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
IN THE CASE of Wilson, he grew up in poverty. His mother suffered malnutrition and likely he did also. That malnutrition caused a failure of Wilson’s brain to develop, resulting in weak understanding and an inability to control emotions. Then he suffered the pain of being abandoned and abused that caused more aggressive anger.
One thing we know for sure is that every act of sexual, physical and verbal abuse is recorded in memory, buried deep inside the person and added to the pool of pain and hurt, to be carried within for the rest of their lives. That is how children are scarred and damaged for life. It cannot be healed until removed by reliving the abuse and freely expressed in tantrum-like sessions of release by shouting and punching the cushions in the therapy room, as if hitting the abuser again and again. This is done in the Preda Emotional Release Therapy. It is a healing process that frees the child from the pain of the buried memories of abuse. It empowers the child to live a more normal life, having confronted the abuser in therapy and helped to release her or his feelings.
Maria, also suffered malnutrition, and carried its effects in her genes and expressed in extreme teenage hardship. That deprivation and injustice likely contributed to feelings of anger and aggressive behavior. The well-off college students are more likely victims of peer group control by fear to inculcate slave-like loyalty to the group and their desire to belong and be accepted in the group.
Another equally serious down side of malnutrition in the womb and out of it is underdevelopment of the brain. The unfortunate children grow with low IQ, learning disabilities and short attention span. These are the conditions that lead to aggression in children like Wilson and Maria. An acclaimed study in the island of Mauritius showed that children malnourished at three years old showed signs of elevated aggression at eight years old. By the time they were eleven years of age, like Pedro, outbursts of violent behavior were seen.
These behaviors were kicking other children, biting, lying, stealing and punching others. By the age of 17, they were expressing severe aggressive destructive behaviors. Malnutrition in Maria and Wilson contributes to their aggressive behavior. The violence they see and experience on social media and television exasperates it.
It is what we eat, or fail to eat, that causes our brains to develop or not, our heart and organs to be healthy or not. Sadly, the food industry has captured the taste of so many that junk food malnutrition will continue and there will be more aggressive and violent children, teenagers and adults. We urgently need to teach healthy food choice.
Intelligent legislators and government officials must pass laws to curb advertising by the junk food industry. Otherwise we are heading for a more violent future for our children and society than we already have. (Google: Infant malnutrition predicts conduct problems in adolescents BBC.com/Reel (preda.org)/PN
