Do you know your ACE Score? The science of childhood trauma.
Do you know your ACE score?
The ACE Score or Adverse Childhood Experiences Survey was conducted in the mind-90 by Dr. Vincent Felitte and Dr. Robert Anda along with the CDC and Kaiser Permanente. Their work has since been extrapolated on and shared by doctors across the world including Dr. Nadine Burke Harris whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Portland as she tour her newly released book The Deepest Well.
The ACE Score survey was created to find causation and correlation between childhood trauma and abuse and mental, physical, and emotional distress as an adult. The results of the survey were so incredibly profound that it has become the cornerstone for understanding the truth cost and impact of trauma. When I discovered this study in the fall of 2015 it changed my life.
What is trauma?
In essence, trauma is the physiological, emotional, and physical response and manifestation of adverse experiences that have occurred in the course a person's life. These experiences can come from abuse as a child, the death of a close friend or family member, an accident, events like rape, physical and mental abuse, illness, divorce, or a multitude of other types of distress.
Trauma can manifest itself in the human body through unexplained illness, fatigue, sores, gastric issues, headaches and migraines, muscle spasms, and sleep issues. The way trauma manifests in the human psyche is through PTSD and C-(Complex)PTSD, anxiety, depression, mood swings, triggering, anger, flashbacks, guilt, shame, isolation, eating disorders, and suicidal thoughts.
Trauma has no boundaries and affects people around the world regardless of race, gender, socioeconomic standing, or sexual preference. It is estimated that 70% of the world's population has suffered at least one traumatic experience. In the U.S.A. it is estimated that approximately 1 in 5 adults —43.8 million people experiences mental illness in a given year. (1Any Mental Illness (AMI) Among Adults. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2015)
Trauma Survivors are:
●15 times more likely to attempt suicide
●4 times more likely to become an alcoholic
●4 times more likely to develop a sexually transmitted disease
●4 times more likely to inject drugs
●3 times more likely to use antidepressant medication
●3 times more likely to be absent from work
●3 times more likely to experience depression
●3 times more likely to have serious job problems
●2.5 times more likely to smoke
●2 times more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
●2 times more likely to have a serious financial problems
(https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention)
Below are the ten questions that are a part of the original ACE Study. For each item that you answer yes to you get 1 point. Tally your score.
What is my ACE Score?
Did a parent or other adult swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you?
Did a parent or other adult push, grab, slap, or throw something or injure you?
Did an adult ever touch or fondle you or attempt or have oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse with you?
Did you often or very often feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special?
Did you ever feel that you didn't have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you, were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it?
Were your parents divorced or separated?
Were one of your parents hit, bit, slapped, pushed or punched by the other?
Did you live with anyone who was a drug addict or alcoholic?
Was a household member depressed, mentally ill, or suicidal?
Was a household member arrested or go to prison?
On average if you answer yes to one of these questions, there is an 86% chance that you answered yes to two or more.
If you answered yes to 4 or more, you are at increased risk for physical health issues including random and frequent sickness, bedwetting, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, asthma, allergies, IBS, Chrons, Early Onset Alzheimers, obesity, and multiple types of cancer. You are also more susceptible to mental health diagnoses including bipolar, depression, anxiety, and suicide. There is an increased chance that you will smoke, become an alcoholic, and have unsafe sex. In some case scenarios these rates increase up to 2200% versus someone who did not experience traumatic events. There is also up to a 5200% increased chance of suicide associated with the number of questions you answered yes to.
My score is 10.
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