All about ACEs

Exploring our ACE history is a powerful first step to understanding our personal story, and how childhood trauma can affect our health and well-being as adults.  Adverse Childhood Experiences, our ACE history, counts experiences of abuse, neglect and household challenges that happened to us as children. We can have a total ACE number of 0 to 10.

We know that traumatic childhood experiences are very common, in fact, two-thirds of us have lived through at least one ACE. The higher our ACEs number, the greater the chance we will experience harmful health effects that we will carry into adulthood. ACEs are strongly associated with over 40 common health conditions, and 9 of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States. But we don’t often talk about our childhood trauma, even with our doctor. 

It’s important to remember that our ACEs number does not define us. It is simply a piece of your personal story. Where it leads is up to you.  Sharing your ACEs number with your medical provider can help them better support your medical needs, help you heal yourself and help break generational cycles of trauma for the children in your lives..