#ace study

So apparently there's this massive study of over 17,000 people that found if you had 4 or more traumatic experiences as a kid, you're 12 times more likely to attempt suicide, develop depression, or struggle with substance abuse as an adult. and it can knock up to 20 years off your life expectancy.

but here's the part that actually got me. childhood trauma doesn't just leave emotional scars, it literally, physically rewires your brain's architecture. your amygdala, the part that detects threats, gets stuck on high alert and starts treating a weird tone of voice or a loud noise like a life-threatening emergency. meanwhile your prefrontal cortex, the part that's supposed to pump the brakes on all that panic, never fully develops because your brain was too busy building survival circuits instead.

and your hippocampus, the thing that's supposed to file memories away neatly with timestamps? trauma shrinks it. so traumatic memories don't get stored as "something bad that happened in the past," they stay fragmented and timeless, which is why a random smell can make your body react like it's happening right now.

the wildly hopeful part though is that the same neuroplasticity that let trauma reshape your brain means it can be reshaped again. your brain is literally ready whenever you are.

"The first time I heard Robert Anda present the results of the ACE study, he could not hold back his tears. In his career at the CDC he had previously worked in several major risk areas, including tobacco research and cardiovascular health. But when the ACE study data started to appear on his computer screen, he realised that they had stumbled upon the gravest and most costly public health issue in the United States: child abuse. He had calculated that its overall costs exceeded those of cancer and heart disease and that eradicating child abuse in America would reduce the overall rate of depression by more than half, alcoholism by two-thirds, and suicide, IV drug use, and domestic violence by three-quarters. It would also have a dramatic effect on workplace performance and vastly decrease the need for incarceration.

When the surgeon general’s report on smoking and health was published in 1964, it unleashed a decades-long legal and medical campaign that has changed daily life and long-term health prospects for millions. The number of American smokers fell from 42% of adults in 1965 to 19 percent in 2010, and it is estimated that nearly 800,000 deaths from lung cancer were prevented between 1975 and 2000.

The ACE study, however, has had no such effect. Follow-up studies and papers are still appearing around the world, but the day-to-day reality of children like Marilyn and children in outpatient clinics and residential treatment centers around the country remains virtually the same. Only now they receive high doses of psychotropic agents, which makes them more tractable, but which also impairs their ability to feel pleasure and curiosity, to grow and develop emotionally and intellectually, and to become contributing members of society."

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From: The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk

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As long as we feel safely held in the hearts and minds of the people who love us, we will climb mountains and cross deserts and stay up all night to finish projects. Children and adults will do anything for people they trust and whose opinion they value. But if we feel abandoned, worthless, or invisible, nothing seems to matter. Fear destroys curiosity and playfulness. In order to have a healthy society we must raise children who can safely play and learn. There can be no growth without curiosity and no adaptability without being able to explore, through trial and error, who you are and what matters to you. Currently more than 50 percent of the children served by Head Start have had three or more adverse childhood experiences like those included in the ACE study: incarcerated family members, depression, violence, abuse, or drug use in the home, or periods of homelessness. People who feel safe and meaningfully connected with others have little reason to squander their lives doing drugs or staring numbly at television; they don’t feel compelled to stuff themselves with carbohydrates or assault their fellow human beings. However, if nothing they do seems to make a difference, they feel trapped and become susceptible to the lure of pills, gang leaders, extremist religions, or violent political movements - anybody and anything that promises relief. As the ACE study has shown, child abuse and neglect is the single most preventable cause of mental illness, the single most common cause of drug and alcohol abuse, and a significant contributor to leading causes of death such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, stroke, and suicide.

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I’m conducting a research study focused on exploring the opinions and experiences of individuals who identify on the asexual spectrum. My study aims to help correct a current lack of academic research focused specifically on the asexual spectrum, and raise awareness about the legitimacy of the sexual orientation.

Video chat interviews will last approximately one hour, while individuals who choose to answer the questions via email will have until April 4, 2017. The interview will focus on your experience living with an asexual spectrum identity, and how you believe others who do not identify on the asexual spectrum perceive your identity.

Addiction Is Not The Drugs, It’s The ACEs

Addiction Is Not The Drugs, It’s The ACEs. As we learn more and more about addiction, its causes, and recovery, it is not what we thought it was, or at least it is not only what we thought it was. We now know that many addicts experienced trauma(s) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), adolescent trauma, or multiple traumas resulting in PTSD or complex PTSD (cPTSD). Thanks to the research and…

This is What It Feels Like When Your Brain is Dysregulated From Childhood PTSD

People who had a rough childhood often go through life feeling — knowing — that they are a little different than most people. It’s common sense that early exposure to violence, addiction, abuse or neglect can have a lifelong effect on mental health and behavior.

Until recently, researchers understood these effects to be mostly a) psychological or b) learned from dysfunctional parents. And while…