Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Quiz

What are adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)?

• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic experiences that children experience before the age of 18 that can have lasting impacts on their mental health, physical health, and general well-being. Many kinds of traumas in childhood can be ACEs.

How do adverse childhood experiences affect adults?

• Adverse childhood experiences and the effects of trauma, can impact adults years after the traumatic event happened. It can impact your health, quality of life and access to opportunities like your career and education. Conditions that occur as a result of an adverse childhood experience could include: Anxiety. Depression. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Phobias.

Why assess adverse childhood experiences?

• The study of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) is helpful in demonstrating how adversity is often associated with negative outcomes. The ACE questionnaire measures traumatic events in childhood, like abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction, that present a risk for future medical, academic, and social problems. It can help bring awareness to trauma & mental health.

ADVERSE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES CHECKLIST:

Prior to your 18th birthday:

1. Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often… Swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you? or Act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt?
   No___If Yes, enter 1 __
2. Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often… Push, grab, slap, or throw something at you? or Ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?
   No___If Yes, enter 1 __
3. Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever… Touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way? or Attempt or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse with you?
   No___If Yes, enter 1 __
4. Did you often or very often feel that … No one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special? or Your family didn’t look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other?
   No___If Yes, enter 1 __
5. Did you often or very often feel that … You didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you? or Your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it?
   No___If Yes, enter 1 __
6. Were your parents ever separated or divorced?
   No___If Yes, enter 1 __
7. Was your mother or stepmother:
   Often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her? or Sometimes, often, or very often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard? or Ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife?
   No___If Yes, enter 1 __
8. Did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic, or who used street drugs?
   No___If Yes, enter 1 __
9. Was a household member depressed or mentally ill, or did a household member attempt suicide?                        No___If Yes, enter 1 __
10. Did a household member go to prison?
    No___If Yes, enter 1 __

How many did you check ‘yes” to?

How do you think these experiences have impacted your development into adulthood?

• Physical abuse (being beat up, hit, spanked too hard)
• Emotional abuse (being blamed for someone else’s doing; being made to feel guilty or shameful, being told your feelings are wrong)
• Mental abuse (being called names and told you are responsible for someone’s well-being)
• Witnessing a trauma (Dad beating Mom)
• Hearing a trauma (parents arguing)
• Imagining what a trauma must have felt like (seeing Mom bruised and wondering what she went through)
• Imagining how a trauma occurred (thinking about your best friend dying in a traumatic car crash)
• Abuse: physical, emotional, mental, sexual
• Natural disasters: fire, flood, weather, earthquakes

The effects of trauma get stored mentally, emotionally, physically, physiologically. Trauma & mental health affect the way we think, feel and function.

• Easily overwhelmed
• Losing enthusiasm for their job
• Change in sleeping patterns
• Change in eating habits
• Use of drugs & alcohol to help manage stress
• Use of prescription drugs
• Use of process additions: gambling, shopping, sex
• Flashbacks of an event
• Pictures that show up in your mind even when you aren’t thinking about the event
• Pervasive negative thoughts
• Persistent negative beliefs about yourself
• Difficulty focusing /  concentrating
• Anxiety and/or panic
• Increased heart rate for no apparent reason
• Difficulty breathing and constriction in your chest for no apparent reason
• Easily agitated
• Brain fog or head pressure
• Dizzy
• Chills
• Memory lapses
• Nightmares / night terrors
• Loss of joy
• Loss of interest in regular activities
• Lack of motivation / inspiration
• Isolating & avoiding people
• Unusually aggressive
• Difficulty finishing tasks
• Hyper vigilant: always on guard
• Feeling jumpy or easily startled
• Avoid people or places or things that remind you of an event
• Insomnia: difficulty falling or staying asleep
• Frequent headaches
• Disease & disorder
• Nausea / vomiting
• Lack of appetite
• Over-eating
• Unwanted emotions & feelings (pent-up energy)
• Compulsions
• Obsessions
• Destructive behaviours
• Addictions (drug, gambling, sex)
• Alcohol abuse
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Sleeping problems
• Eating disorders
• Weight problems 
• Various other health concerns
• Development of PTSD: flashbacks of the traumatic incident, ruminating a past event, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, suicide ideation, short-tempered, lack of memory, not being in the present moment, highly reactive / irritable, depersonalization, lowered empathy.

Take an inventory of your adverse childhood experiences and link them to your current state of being.

VIEWING involves addressing an issue that was not fully resolved. When we have an experience that is too painful or too overwhelming at the time, our natural defence system protects us by storing  the memory fully or partially in a part of our mind (the subconscious) that is not as accessible as our conscious mind (active memory).
The painful memory may not be available in active memory, yet the effects can continue to affect us. The energy required for the memory to be suppressed can contribute to fatigue,  irritability, lack of alertness and clarity and an inability to remain fully present.
In an attempt to avoid situations that “trigger” the memory of unresolved distressing events, a person can become limited in living to one’s full potential!

RESOLUTION versus MANAGEMENT

Resolving an incident has a person gently confront and view, several times, a distressful incident until the person is aware of all the details and there are no unwanted emotions or feelings or negative beliefs attached to the incident; the incident becomes neutral.  Managing an incident is coping with the symptoms of unresolved material because one avoids looking at pieces or all of an incident 

• Have a support system: talk to someone about your adverse childhood experiences: debrief the situation
• Express vulnerability
• Know ahead of time the signs of burn-out so as to prevent the development of it
• Become aware of the symptoms & effects of trauma so you can heal your trauma & mental health
• Exercise
• Breathe deeply
• Listen to and/or play music
• Meditate
• Eat healthy food
• Self-reflect on how the impact of the incident
• Reduce stressors in your life
• Create downtime
• Avoid cramming so much into one day
• Some medications may help
• Avoid eating foods that cause inflammation in the body
• Process & resolve any traumatic incidents that may still be affecting you (contributing to stress)

BENEFITS OF RESOLVING TRAUMA

• More energy
• Increased mental alertness
• Improved memory
• Sense of clarity about topics
• Improved decision making
• Better sleeping patterns
• Renewed sense of living life to the fullest
• Increased sense of joy and hope
• Reduced fear / anxiety / panic / phobias
• Improved communication
• Improved relationships

Resolving trauma brings great benefits

• EXAMINE your adverse childhood experiences
• ASSESS the effects of trauma
• RETELL: regain control of the story (rather than let the anxiety take over)
• RETHINK: see the incident from a different angle / perspective
• DECONSTRUCT:  see individual components of the incident and mentally tackle it piece by piece
• FIND HUMOUR is there any part of the story that could be seen as humorous?
• CHANGE: re-evaluate the impact of the incident and think of it from an angle of success (“I am strong – I survived”) 

“Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, to rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless.”