Video | The ACE Study findings. ~ Nadine Burke Harris, MD

[Our abuse recovery guide]

I came across an article on the net that referenced a study done by  the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente's Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego.  They looked at the long term affects of abuse, family dysfunction and neglect across a persons' lifetime and found:  The ACE Study findings suggest that certain experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life in the United States. It is critical to understand how some of the worst health and social problems in our nation can arise as a consequence of adverse childhood experiences. Realizing these connections is likely to improve efforts towards prevention and recovery.

Here is a link to information regarding the study at the CDC website: www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/index.html

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Date: Feb. 2015Minutes: 16:02
How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

Some highlights from the TedTalk are (though really, watch the video, it is only 16 minutes long):

• 64% of people had at least one trauma as defined by ACE (See questions below).

• Childhood trauma causes not just changes in our brain structure and function but also in our immune and hormonal systems and can cause changes at a DNA level.

• Those 17,000 people who participated in the survey were, for the most part from middle to upper middle class families and neighborhoods where parents had college education, etc.  So the usual dismissive attitude of "that does not happen in my life, neighborhood, class, etc is totally obliterated".

• Another point that I agree with is that Dr. Harris (in the Ted Talk) asked why this is happening and why nobody is really grabbing the results of the study and running with it to help stop the social crisis due to childhood trauma that we have in our world today.  She concluded that those in position to help and change things would have to first recognize and come to grips with their own issues and what happened in their childhood or is going on in their life right now.  

[Harri]

I came across an article on the net that referenced a study done by  the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente's Health Appraisal Clinic in San Diego.  They looked at the long term affects of abuse, family dysfunction and neglect across a persons' lifetime and found:  The ACE Study findings suggest that certain experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life in the United States. It is critical to understand how some of the worst health and social problems in our nation can arise as a consequence of adverse childhood experiences. Realizing these connections is likely to improve efforts towards prevention and recovery.

Here is a link to information regarding the study at the CDC website: www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/index.html

Take the test here:
         



Date: Feb. 2015Minutes: 16:02
How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime

Some highlights from the TedTalk are (though really, watch the video, it is only 16 minutes long):

• 64% of people had at least one trauma as defined by ACE (See questions below).

• Childhood trauma causes not just changes in our brain structure and function but also in our immune and hormonal systems and can cause changes at a DNA level.

• Those 17,000 people who participated in the survey were, for the most part from middle to upper middle class families and neighborhoods where parents had college education, etc.  So the usual dismissive attitude of "that does not happen in my life, neighborhood, class, etc is totally obliterated".

• Another point that I agree with is that Dr. Harris (in the Ted Talk) asked why this is happening and why nobody is really grabbing the results of the study and running with it to help stop the social crisis due to childhood trauma that we have in our world today.  She concluded that those in position to help and change things would have to first recognize and come to grips with their own issues and what happened in their childhood or is going on in their life right now.  

[HappyChappy]

It is helpful to get a measure, but more helpful to get a cure. I’ve also been aware of many stress related aliments over the years. I did laugh when I read this test question “Was your mother or stepmother often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her” what about Dad’s ? When the movie “The house of the flying daggers” came out, I thought they’d stole the idea from my BPD mom.  Also I’m not sure I’m doing this test right I scored 13 out of 10.  

[Harri]

One use I can think of is to use the findings to educate people who continue to dismiss abuse in various ways.  Did you notice that 6 of the 10 ACEs do not involve physical or sexual abuse at all?  They would, I think, be classified as emotional abuse which is so often dismissed or considered to be less abusive than physical or sexual abuse?   How many times do we hear things like "my kids are okay because all of her/his rage is directed towards me" or, as recently said by a friend of mine who is soon to begin divorce proceedings "my husband is a high functioning alcoholic and neglectful of the kids but he is not a bad parent because he does not hit the kids".  Or "she/he is a good parent because she/he dotes on the kids" said by people who do not have a clue about what a good parent or good, nurturing and safe environment really is.  Educate parents or potential parents that the high levels of stress in these types of environments have actual physiological consequences to kids and they are putting their kids at a huge disadvantage in life.  How do you protect kids at the cellular level?  You can't.  Stop marginalizing emotional abuse. 

Did you watch the TedTalk by Dr. Burke-Harris?  Educating doctors and teachers is vital and I think she is on the right track.  Get the word out there.  Educate care takers and care providers to change the way we look at the issues and how we intervene.  Early detection and intervention for those who are at risk.  

A huge stumbling block that I see is that so many people define abuse differently.  So many people are completely unaware of their own abuse as a kid and how they are carrying on the same thing with their own kids.  My friend that I mentioned above has her doctorate and works in the Health Services field.  I said neglect is abuse and she quickly shot a glance to her mother (who was with us) and shut down any further commentary from me by saying "it's not abuse abuse".  I  quickly realized that I was caught quite literally in the typical familial enabling that happens so frequently when I was reminded that my friends own father was a high functioning alcoholic but she (and her mother) still believes that her father was a good parent because he was not falling down drunk and was able to stay employed in a good paying job.  Never mind that he spent his time at home sitting in his chair drinking and did so for decades until he died of alcoholic liver disease 10 years ago.  My friends mother passed her beliefs on to my friend and my friend will undoubtedly pass that same belief onto her own two kids.

How do we combat that?  I don't know but I think talking about it is a start.  Why not start some buzz about it here?  Include information on the ACE study in the lessons sections of the various boards on this site.  Have a link to the ACE score test here on this site and offer it as a resource when responding to various posts.  When I think of the issues, I am overwhelmed at the scope and complexity of the problem.  ACE seems to be a great first step though.

Edited to add:  why not use it to point out to parents/partners/family members here that if they feel overwhelmed and stressed when dealing with PDs as adults, that it is so much worse for children, even infants?

[Turkish]

Take a look at this.  Emotional Abuse Can Be As Damaging As Sexual Abuse

I wasn't sexually abused, so I have trouble agreeing with the article,  but it gives me pause to think. 

When my ex picked up the kids last Friday,  S7 said,  "I like it better at daddy's house because I don't get into trouble as much." His mom noted it.  Neither of us said anything much. 

Yesterday,  we had a clinic meeting with the therapy tech, her manager,  and the case director.  Mommy wasn't there. S7 has ASD1 (what they used to call Asperger's).  I commented that I'd only seen him to the head slapping thing once in months.  8 had chastised him for something he'd done to D5. I said,  "why are you slapping your head? I'm just telling you something.  I'm not mad at you,  buddy." He stopped. The manager said that this was one of his mother's concerns: the head or face slapping of himself.  It denotes anxiety. Apparently he does it a lot more in the other home, his coping mechanisms.

I like to believe that things are better,  and that her anxiety-based behaviors aren't "abuse," but I find it hard to know what to do other than provide a more stable home environment while trying to balance necessary discipline and boundaries.  His mom is clinically diagnosed with depression and anxiety (the BPD is my arm-chair Dx). I'm finding that the anxiety may be harder to deal with at this point. 

[Harri]

Hi Turkish.  I agree that emotional abuse can be more damaging than sexual abuse.  I have far more damage from the emotional abuse I experienced than I did from the mother daughter incest I also experienced.  It is the emotional messages, both subtle and obvious that I heard, felt and absorbed that haunt me today.  The way it felt to be caught up in and raised in an environment of emotional incest are what haunt me the most.  Once I was able to identify the actual sexual abuse as abuse, it is relatively(!) 'easy' for me move beyond labeling and begin working on me.  It is the emotional covert almost subliminal messages that accompanied the sexual acts that are hard to identify, understand and process and that continue to drive my beliefs about who i am and what I deserve and then carry on to relationships that I have today... .10 years after my primary abuser died.

I don't think that one has to experience sexual abuse to see this.  I do think that one has to work through their own tendencies to minimize, excuse and deny the emotional damage that occurred and that still exists even decades later to be able to see and acknowledge it.  It is the point that Dr. Burke makes where she says the people in a position to make a change have to first recognize and label their own abuse and work through that rather than continue on in denial and pass along those behaviors and beliefs to the next generation.

Awareness/identifying the ACEs in ones life does nothing to heal a person nor does it stop the generational patterns as seen between your son and his mother.  Her anxiety based behaviors are drawing your son into her world of anxiety and he is definitely showing that it is affecting him.  You handled the situation in the best possible way.  ':)isciplining' and setting boundaries with him in an accepting understanding and loving way while letting him know he has an alternative way to behave and respond while under your watch.  Well done Turkish.  I am not sure what else you can do to help your little guy when he is with his mother but I think you are doing quite well.  keep validating him.  It must be incredibly confining to him to get in trouble so often for things that are most likely normal little boy behaviors that you ex can not handle because she is incapable of seeing outside of herself (one of the hallmarks of emotional incest I think).

[HappyChappy]

Hey Harri, Turk,

Been a while.  What a great post. Funny how your post jumped out at me again, 2 years on. Harri, we should go for the world’s slowest conversation, that might give ACE the PR push it needs. Now if you could also pretend you're Prince Dianna's lover child, I could get this in British tabloid. Just saying.

I would totally agree with both your posts on the topic of physical vs mental abuse.  One thing I didn’t pick up (dyslexia maybe) is the significance of our scores on the resilience. I scored highly on both ACE and resilience, do they cancel each other out ? If so that would help kids with BPD mothers (thinking of Turks post here).

So many people are completely unaware of their own abuse as a kid... .How do we combat that?  I don't know

I share your frustration, but I see progress all around us, it’s just slower than we would both want.

Also I have a friend who’s a senior manager in the social services, her daughter was clearly BPD, yet the penny didn’t drop until recently. Apparently they didn’t teach that stuff back when she trained, my Therapist said something similar, but they do now. So that will feed back and slowly change things, as you allure to in your post.

Building healthcare awareness is expensive and hence a not for profit affair. To turbo charge this you need your government behind it.  But these days governments plan for their term of 4/5 years , but ACE needs longer financial planning, meaning some other Administration will yield the benefit, and people tend to vote on what they see in their hands today. The other issue is NPD are over represented in Politics and will have no empathy for this. In the UK the mental health adjenda has been primarily pushed by the left and shouted down by the right. But it has been pushed by leading entertainers, especially comedians (Ruby Wax, Stephen Fry etc... .) Entertainment is one of the few professions where this sort of thing is almost a badge of honour. We are all familiar with the fact artists and entertainers are a volatile bunch, prone to dugs problems.  Probably the kiss of death in most other (UK) job applications.

Just out of interest, did Obama or Trump show an interest in this ? Have either pushed awareness of mental health or child abuse ? When we had a left leaning government they implemented quiet a bit. They even made “withholding love to a child.” a prosecutable crime. I wonder how you prove that though ?

Anyway Harri & Turk let’s set up an Action group called “Puppy Power”.  The name’s all I’ve got so far.