Episode 204: Long-Term Effects of Child Abuse (with Kate Russell)

Suffer the Little Children

Suffer the Little Children Pod

True Crime, Social Sciences, Science, Society & Culture

4.6 • 937 Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Research has long shown that child abuse and neglect can and often do lead to a wide range of negative effects on a person’s life, including mental, physical, and behavioral problems. This kind of treatment during childhood causes stress that alters the way the child’s brain develops, affects gene expression, and changes the body’s stress response system.

Kate Russell is the author of three memoirs about her life, describing her painful experiences in detail, from living with a schizoaffective sister to suffering addiction and subsequently recovering. Her most recent book, Ironing Out My Life: Child Abuse and How It Affected Everything Thereafter, is the third in the series and tells the story of her parents’ upbringing, then hers, and the impact their abusive behavior had on her life.

Kate is a strong, intelligent, highly resilient survivor, and it was my honor to speak with her for this episode.

Links related to this episode:
Kate Russell’s Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0878ZJK7Q
Portrait of a Dysfunctional Family series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPY4BFCY
Down the Rabbit Hole: A Memoir of Abuse, Addiction, and Recovery (first book): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08785R8S6
Voicemails from My Sister: Stories of a Schizoaffective Sibling (second book): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B099Y8HF5Q
Ironing Out My Life: Child Abuse and How It Affected Everything Thereafter (third book): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DPM92KW9

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This podcast contains descriptions of violence against children and adult language and is not suitable for all audiences.
0:06.9	Listener discretion is advised.
0:30.5	Hi everyone and welcome to suffer the little children, the podcast giving voices back to the victims of child abuse murder and their families.
0:38.4	I'm your host, Lane, and this is episode 204, long-term effects of child abuse with Kate Russell.
0:49.8	Research has long shown that child abuse and neglect can and often do lead to a wide range of negative effects on a person's life, including mental, physical, and behavioral problems.
0:55.6	This kind of treatment during childhood causes stress that alters the way the child's brain develops,
0:59.6	affects gene expression, and changes the body's stress response system.
1:03.9	Kate Russell is the author of three memoirs about her life,
1:06.7	describing her painful experiences in detail,
1:11.4	from living with a schizoaffective sister to suffering addiction and subsequently recovering.
1:17.7	Her most recent book, Ironing Out My Life, Child Abuse and How It Effected Everything Thereafter,
1:22.4	is the third in the series and tells the story of her parents' upbringing, then hers,
1:25.6	and the impact their abusive behavior had on her life.
1:29.9	Kate is a strong, intelligent, highly resilient survivor,
1:32.8	and it was my honor to speak with her for this episode.
1:37.8	Here is my recent conversation with survivor and author, Kate Russell.
1:43.4	Hi, I'm Kate Russell.
2:03.0	I'm the author of three memoirs, down the rabbit hole, a memoir of abuse, addiction, and recovery, voicemails from my sister, stories of a schizoaffective sibling, and my latest memoir, ironing out my life, child abuse and how it affected everything thereafter, which is mainly what I'm here to talk about. It's really a trilogy. I tried to package it all, like a
2:08.5	box set, if you will, titled A Portrait of a Dysfunctional Family. That's interesting. I love
2:14.2	the way you did that. Yeah. The first book is about me. The second is about my
2:18.5	sister. And the third is about my parents, but really about my relationship with my parents and how
2:24.0	their parenting went on to affect my relationship with everything and everyone. Sure, of course.
	...

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