New research reveals that trauma experienced in childhood has long-term damaging effects on quality of life and lifespan. But the same research shows that adults play a critical role in helping children overcome this damage.
READ:
The Body Remembers | On Being
Here’s a quick experiment about your past that will tell you a vast amount about your future.
Check all that apply:
- Did you experience recurrent emotional abuse as a kid?
- Physical?
- Sexual?
- Did you experience physical neglect?
- Emotional neglect?
- Did anyone in your childhood home have substance abuse issues?
- Did anyone struggle with mental illness?
- Did anyone participate in criminal behavior and/or go to jail?
- Was your mother ever treated violently?
- Did you experience divorce or parental separation?
How many checks do you have? This is what clinicians call your ACE score. It stands for “
adverse childhood experiences”
and study after study has confirmed that it has a huge influence on
your lifetime health. For starters: The life expectancy of individuals
with ACE scores of six or more is twenty years shorter than it is for
people with no ACEs. And a person with four or more ACEs is twice as
likely to develop heart disease and cancer.
Editor Note: Being adopted is high stress, too. We have posted about ACE on this blog - use the search bar.
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