Marty Deeks: Childhood Trauma
Marty Deeks is a complicated man of contradictions and extremes. We don’t know a lot about his early life, but what we do know is far from a fairytale. He had an incredibly difficult childhood filled with trauma. How did Marty Brandel’s childhood influence the man he grew to become? This question has always intrigued me, so I set out to answer it by learning about childhood trauma and its effects on adult survivors. Warning: A lot of science, and even more speculation, ahead.
One drink away from disaster
When I was 11 years old, my dad was one drink away from killing my mom and me…
- Marty Deeks in “Plan B”
We don’t know a lot of details about little Marty’s childhood, but we do have a basic outline of events. We know his dad was an abusive alcoholic. I’m assuming that Gordon Brandel was regularly physically abusive to both of Marty and his mother Roberta. We know that when Marty was 11, he shot his dad in self defense when …show more content…
The list of potential effects is seemingly endless, and includes a greater risk for substance abuse, unintended pregnancies, mental illness, problems in school and work, becoming a criminal, and many other health problems.
There are many factors that determine how impacted any particular child might be. One is the number of adverse experiences they’ve suffered. The higher the ACE score, the greater the intensity of the impacts on health and well-being. Marty scored a 6 out of 10, but it’s actually possible that he might have a truly terrifying score of 8 of 10. When it comes to child abuse specifically, the younger the child, the more severe the abuse, the longer lasting the abuse, and whether the victim experiences feelings of self-blame or shame, the more likely they are to experience problems later in
One drink away from disaster
When I was 11 years old, my dad was one drink away from killing my mom and me…
- Marty Deeks in “Plan B”
We don’t know a lot of details about little Marty’s childhood, but we do have a basic outline of events. We know his dad was an abusive alcoholic. I’m assuming that Gordon Brandel was regularly physically abusive to both of Marty and his mother Roberta. We know that when Marty was 11, he shot his dad in self defense when …show more content…
The list of potential effects is seemingly endless, and includes a greater risk for substance abuse, unintended pregnancies, mental illness, problems in school and work, becoming a criminal, and many other health problems.
There are many factors that determine how impacted any particular child might be. One is the number of adverse experiences they’ve suffered. The higher the ACE score, the greater the intensity of the impacts on health and well-being. Marty scored a 6 out of 10, but it’s actually possible that he might have a truly terrifying score of 8 of 10. When it comes to child abuse specifically, the younger the child, the more severe the abuse, the longer lasting the abuse, and whether the victim experiences feelings of self-blame or shame, the more likely they are to experience problems later in