{"id":4766,"date":"2018-03-31T13:00:17","date_gmt":"2018-03-31T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healwritenow.com\/?p=4766"},"modified":"2018-03-31T16:37:43","modified_gmt":"2018-03-31T20:37:43","slug":"ace-study-scared-sick-donna-jackson-nakazawa-announces-femaleadversity-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healwritenow.com\/ace-study-scared-sick-donna-jackson-nakazawa-announces-femaleadversity-series\/","title":{"rendered":"ACE Study, Scared Sick & Donna Jackson Nakazawa Announces #FemaleAdversity Series"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was reading over an essay co-written by Dr. Robert Anda and Dr. Vincent Felitti. I found some quotes I love. They are simple, short and clear.\u00a0They are all from this book, The Impact of Early Life Trauma on Health and Disease: The Hidden\u00a0Epidemic.<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

It was published in 2010 and is edited by Ruth Lanius, Eric Vermetten,\u00a0and Clare Pain.<\/p>\n

It’s not exactly a beach book or before bed reading. It is great research though and articles which explain research done by many different scholars.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The overview of the ACE study and what the co-principals consider to be the key findings is fantastic. Who better than the source to go to for consideration of a study’s importance? I’ve learned lots about ACEs since the study first came out in the late 1990’s but hadn’t read much by Dr. Robert Anda and Dr. Vincent Felitti which was co-written.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are just a few quotes.<\/p>\n

ACEs Impact Health\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This seemingly obvious statement (left) was not obvious to all or always known. It is still not understood or believed to be true by many. What-the-what?<\/p>\n

Despite DECADES of data and BOATLOADS of research to back up what many have always and intuitively known – this stuff is not common knowledge.<\/p>\n

Children are not snakes who shed the past like skin when we turn 18.\u00a0The past is carried in our bones, our blood and our ways of being. We are not doomed but we are shaped in ways that we have to acknowledge, understand and address.<\/h3>\n

We can heal, recover, protect ourselves, kids, and each other. We can prevent ACEs from being a horrible heirloom. But many of us need to learn that what we thought was parenting that protects and toughens our kids up to survive a harsh world is what might indeed endanger. I used to think I needed to get better at enduring danger instead of understanding I should learn to stalk safety, joy and play instead – and make it so that my daughter can have these for her whole life which will help her be healthier, happier and live longer.<\/p>\n

More about the basics of ACEs for the lay person.<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

ACEs Impact Lifelong Health<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This point, also rather obvious, is proof that the impacts last and are not felt only during childhood.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It is a little hard to believe that doctors doing health history and intakes with patients didn’t deduce this from forever ago. But, the medical model often looks at symptoms, and present issues, not cause and effect, prevention, or whole health.<\/p>\n

More on this can be found in the book Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease<\/a>\u00a0which is really good\u00a0\u00a0(though also not beach reading). It’s by Robin Kara-Morse and Meredith S. Wiley. It gets at the stats and the science but also the practical application and how it actually works in our lives.\u00a0A quote I starred and underlined from Scared Sick when I read it the first time is:<\/p>\n

“When our first love is erratic and unreliable or inseparable from pain, our expectations of other loves and our sense of self in relation to the other are likely to be skewed accordingly. This is the legacy of neglect or abuse and of insecure or anxious attachment the sense of trust in a relationship – and trigger troublesome genes that may activate diseases that might otherwise have remained dormant. The loss of secure attachment is the loss of our best protection against illness – our security blanket.” (pg. 147)<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the same book, on page 12, the authors quote Dr. Vincent Felitti. He said:<\/p>\n

“Most physicians would far rather deal with traditional organic disease. Certainly, it is easier to do so, but that approach also leads to troubling treatment failure and to the frustration of expensive diagnostic quandaries where everything is ruled out but nothing is ruled in. We have limited ourselves to the smallest part of the problem-the part where we are comfortable as mere prescribers of medication. Which diagnostic choice shall we make? Who shall make it? and if not now, when?”<\/p>\n

Medicating\/Self-Medicating are Major Ways People\/Prescribers Deal with ACEs<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The ACE study has done a lot to help us think differently about addiction but also to understand how what we once thought of us as the self-destructive behaviors causing long-term symptoms in adults after childhood issues, are often, ways to regulate, soothe, survive traumatic stress.<\/p>\n

Many of us have seen the shocking stat that cites a “boy with an ACE score of 6 has a 4,600 percent increase in the likelihood of abusing intravenous drugs later,” (pg. 11).<\/p>\n

But it’s not just “street drugs” which are common to those of us with high ACEs but also pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n

Consider this: Of those in the ACE study, 9 out of 10 people with an ACE score over 6 have been prescribed anti-depressant\/anti-anxiety medications. That’s almost all of us. That means, that for the 17,000 people in the ACE study, the range of approaches by doctors with lots of education and degrees was remarkably predictable and consistent. It did not vary tons.<\/p>\n

I don’t know what the rate of prescriptions is for the same drugs for those with ACE scores of 5 or less, but I’m guessing it’s a lot less.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Those with\u00a0lots of childhood adversity, are often turning to drugs and self-soothing\/self-regulating approaches and that’s true whether we are on a DIY coping plan or have insurance and access to doctors.<\/p>\n

Medical management of moods is often via drugs, in or outside of traditional settings and so those of us without degrees, high income, and expertise in the field of medicine are often doing exactly the same as doctors.<\/p>\n

It makes sense to me when we understand how many of us with ACE have trouble with regulating the basics of being human.<\/p>\n