ACEs: Adverse Childhood Experiences and Why They Are Important
The ACEs assessment is a tool that is useful in helping us understand the impact of childhood (up to age 18) trauma on our functioning. It asks questions about emotional/psychological abuse, neglect and/or scarcity, physical abuse and/or witnessing physical abuse in the home, divorce, mental illness and substance use in the family, and incarceration.
From 1995-1997 a California health care organization developed and used the ACEs quiz to see how traumatic events in childhood effected physical and mental health outcomes in adults. What they determined was that the above-mentioned traumas increase the likelihood of significant medical and mental health issues as adults. The higher the score on the ACEs assessment (10 is the highest), the more likely an adult is to have a chronic physical and/or mental illness.
I find that administering the ACEs assessment to my clients helps me to provide trauma informed care. Often we are quick to compare our trauma to that of others and negate or minimize our own trauma. Seeing it in black and white on the page may help us accept that there is a reason we don’t feel well physically or emotionally.
How ACEs Can Help
I recall when the ACEs assessment first came out wondering how it would be helpful for my clients, as it just sounded like bad news that would make people feel hopeless. However, there are many things that we can do to decrease the negative impacts of childhood trauma.
Stress Busters is one of many online programs that helps people see what things we can add to our lives to decrease the negative impacts of childhood trauma on our bodies and minds, providing hope.
Balanced mindful eating, exercise, using a support system, receiving mental health and/or substance use assistance, getting good sleep, being in nature, and mindfulness practices can all help decrease the amount of physical and emotional stress that we carry with us on a daily basis.
Start Small, Work Your Way Up
I know that those of us with trauma often have a hard time with self-care, putting the needs of others before our own, and that this is a hard habit to break. Looking at the above paragraph may sound difficult or even impossible. But what if we made one small change at a time? What if we experimented with putting some of these practices in our daily routines to see what the outcome may be?
Emotional Regulation
Emotional regulation is a skill that helps us calm down emotions that may seem very big. Most people who score high on the ACE assessment did not have caretakers who taught us how to emotionally regulate as they never learned that skill. Emotion regulation skills can help us be less reactive, which may help us heal some relationships with others as well as the important relationship we have with ourselves.
There are many things that we can do for emotional regulation and most of them are free and do not take too much time. My favorite activity is breath work. When we are stressed we tend to take shallow, rapid breaths, this makes us feel dizzy and not so great. Belly breaths, breathing in deeply through our nose so that we see our belly expand, stopping for a moment, and then slowly exhaling through our mouth is a great practice. You may find that it’s difficult to do this as you’ve been constricting your breathing for so long; if so, go slowly and be patient with yourself. Try doing this for three minutes and see if you feel any differently. Most people find that their body relaxes when they do breath work. When you get comfortable with it, increase it to five minutes, and then maybe try 10.
Consistency Is Key
As with everything, consistency is the key. Do this practice daily and see what results you notice. Do you feel calmer? Does your body feel less tense? What do you notice? Doing this is a small investment in yourself that can pay off in a big way. Remember, making new habits, starting new things can be difficult, be kind to yourself if this is the case.
Wishing you much happiness!
Mechele
Mechele de Avila Evans, LCSW