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Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
There isn’t a person alive that isn’t fighting their own war, beating down their own dragons, and overcoming their own fears. What seems like an easy life to you is another person’s personal battleground.
Ram Dass has been heard saying that we all are born to complete a curriculum. This is a very euphemistic way of referring to the pain and suffering we go through as we grow emotionally, spiritually, and all of this even while we grow physically. The things that happen during our formative years have been proven to have a hefty price later in life.
What are examples of ACEs?
What your mind perceived as traumatic is unique to you. A few readily identifiable adverse experiences would be:
- Physical abuse or neglect
- Emotional abuse or neglect
- Sexual abuse
- Mental illness and/or suicide in the family
- Divorce
- Substance abuse in the family
- Violence against a guardian
- Having a relative who has been sent to jail or prison
This list is not exhaustive. Children’s experiences are unique and very real in terms of the impact it will have on their physiology for the rest of their lives.
What is the price?
Children who experience ACEs and toxic stress may:
- Have difficulty feeling like they belong somewhere
- Have difficulty with managing their finances
- Experience depression and anxiety, and have a higher risk of suicidal tendencies
- Be more likely to expose their children to ACEs
- Have a higher risk of alcohol or substance abuse
- Have a higher risk of health issues such as fibromyalgia, autoimmune disease, heart disease, cancer, lung disease, and liver disease
How to heal
Even though life is hard, none of us should do it alone. Seeking help from a qualified life coach and engaging in healthier habits can immediately improve your experience of life. Some of us need a little more help. Find a psychiatrist who practices integrative health who will help you treat the root cause of your symptoms.
The major pillars of optimal health will always stay true:
- Eating healthily: colorful, nutritious meals.
- Sleeping well: applying good sleep hygiene.
- Moving with intent: find an exercise you enjoy and engage in it regularly (dancing, running, cycling, swimming, hiking, yoga, pilates to name a few)
- Dealing with your stress: a life coach can help you discover healthy coping mechanisms.
- Finding meaningful connection: Finding a place where you can contribute and be accepted.
It starts with love
The prerequisite to healing from any trauma is finding the root of the anger, the bitterness, the fear, the sadness, questioning it until the true reason for the core belief is clear and then wrapping it in love until it doesn’t hurt anymore.
Does it sound fuzzy? Okay, try this:
Most of the suffering we experience is because of core beliefs we hold of ourselves and others. Becoming aware of them, looking at them, questioning them and understanding them will allow us to forgive, and replace the resulting impulse or emotion that this belief has caused with love and compassion.
Trauma can’t be healed while it is being held at arm’s length, avoided, hidden, or denied. We must turn to it, face it, feel it, talk to it, write about it until the truth distills from the pain. Then, when we finally accept it and assimilate that injured part of ourselves back into ourselves with love and compassion, can our inner child stop screaming and start healing.
If you are looking for the number of a integrative health psychiatrist or life coach, contact us today so we can put you in contact with a professional close to you.
Extra resources
- Very Well Mind - What Are Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)?
- Cleveland Clinic - Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
- Harvard University: Center on the Developing Child - ACEs and Toxic Stress
- NPR - Take The ACE Quiz — And Learn What It Does And Doesn't Mean
