Did you have a rough childhood or did you have a ROUGH childhood?

Either way, you’re welcome here. The truth is that most of us have experienced some level of childhood trauma. In our opinion, it isn’t helpful to view trauma as a competition. We honor everyone’s unique experiences and healing journeys.

The ACE Score barely scratches the surface. Developed by the CDC, the Adverse Childhood Events (ACE) Score provides a way to assess a person's exposure to adverse experiences in childhood, such as:

• Physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
• Neglect
• Household dysfunction
• Substance abuse
• Loss of a loved one

Taking the ACE Quiz

The ACE score is based on a scale of 0 to 10, with higher scores indicating a greater number of adverse childhood events. If you’re curious, you can take the ACE Quiz here. As you can see, the original test is pretty simplistic. Variations of the test offered by mental health professionals may include other factors such as:

• Bullying
• Racism
• Witnessing traumatic events
• Injuries, illnesses and other medical-types of trauma
• Whether you had love and support

Do you really need a score to validate that your childhood was messed up? Probably not.

Your ACEs and Your Well-Being

What we do need to recognize is that trauma can manifest as physical and mental health problems. People with ACE Scores of 4+ face a significantly increased risk for 7 out of 10 leading adult causes of death, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, COPD, diabetes, Alzheimers and suicide.

Not to mention the toll these experiences take on our mental health. Many of us have spent years beating ourselves up, dealing with depression, anxiety, loneliness, abandonment, guilt, shame, rage, addiction… and the list goes on.

Let’s Talk About It!

You’re not alone. Our community is a safe space to talk about what has worked for our healing journeys. We’re NOT medical or mental health professionals. We’re grown-up ACE kids sharing what’s worked (and what hasn’t) in our healing journeys.