Childhood trauma isn’t like an old t-shirt. It’s not something that can be tossed aside or outgrown.
A woman who grew up with her father’s substance abuse, her mother’s incarceration, and the resulting physical and emotional neglect is 12 times more likely to attempt suicide. She’s at three times the risk for heart disease and cancer. If she’s also ever suffered emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, her life expectancy will be 20 years shorter.
Doctors can measure a patient’s ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) score and make these and other predictions about their future health. Each ACE is one point, and each point is part of a larger physiological impact.
Pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris first popularized this method at her clinic, Center for Youth Wellness, in San Francisco. Using a report published by the CDC and Kaiser Permanente, the center examines diagnosis and treatment through a broader lens, recognizing the relationship between physical and mental health. Burke says it best in her TED talk on ACEs and toxic stress:
“Imagine you’re walking in the forest, and you see a bear. Immediately, your hypothalamus sends a signal to your pituitary, which sends a signal to your adrenal gland that says ‘Release stress hormones. Adrenaline. Cortisol.’ And so your heart starts to pound, your pupils dilate, your airways open up, and you are ready to either fight that bear, or run from the bear. And that is wonderful — if you’re in a forest, and there’s a bear. But, the problem is what happens when the bear comes home every night, and this system is activated over and over and over again, and it goes from being adaptive, or lifesaving, to maladaptive, or health damaging.”
[For more of this story, written by Lauren Sega, go to http://www.columbusunderground...ental-healthcare-ls1]
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