According to Wikipedia, “The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study) is a research study conducted by the U.S. health maintenance organization Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Participants were recruited to the study between 1995 and 1997 and have been in long-term follow up for health outcomes. The study has demonstrated an association of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) (aka childhood trauma) with health and social problems across the lifespan. ”

Examples of Adverse childhood experiences include

• Physical abuse.
• Sexual abuse.
• Emotional abuse.
• Physical neglect.
• Emotional neglect.
• Exposure to domestic violence.
• Household substance abuse.
• Household mental illness.

As researchers followed participants over time, they discovered that a person’s cumulative ACE score has a strong, graded relationship to numerous health, social, and behavioral problems throughout their lifespan, including substance use disorders. Higher ACE scores demonstrate increased adverse childhood experiences as rated by participants. 

High Adverse Childhood Experience scores have been shown to correlate with

• Alcoholism
• Depression
• Illicit drug use
• Financial stress
• Suicide attempts
• Unintended pregnancies
• Sexual violence

• Resiliency is thought to be a protective factor against Adverse Childhood Experiences.  Factors that contribute to resiliency include:
  • Having the capacity to make realistic plans.
  • Being able to carry out those plans.
  • Being able to effectively manage your feelings and impulses in a healthy manner.
  • Having good communication skills.
  • Having confidence in your strengths and abilities.
  • Having good problem-solving skills.

  If you would like more information about how childhood experiences may affect you or someone you know and how resiliency factors can affect your life feel free to contact me today for further information or follow the links listed below.

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, September 24). Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:40, October 16, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adverse_Childhood_Experiences_Study&oldid=917630334

Riopel, L (2019, January)Resilience Skills, Factors and Strategies of the Resilient Person (Blog Post) Retrieved from https://positivepsychology.com/resilience-skills/

American psychological association. 2018. The Road to Resilience. [Online]. [18 December 2018]. Available from: https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, October 13). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:10, October 16, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Centers_for_Disease_Control_and_Prevention&oldid=921094460

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, October 15). Childhood trauma. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:37, October 16, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Childhood_trauma&oldid=921307878

Some common anxiety symptoms include shortness of breath, increased heart rate, shaking, sweating and dizziness. Since anxiety manifests in the body many common treatments for anxiety include things such as meditating, relaxation breathing, yoga and practicing calming visualization or mindfulness techniques. You may wonder how cognitive therapy or talk therapy in general can help with decreasing anxiety given these physiological symptoms and emotional feelings caused by anxiety. Edmund J. Bourne PhD and author of the Anxiety and Phobia Workbook Sixth edition offers some examples of self talk that contributes to anxiety. According to Bourne, these thought patterns include such things as overestimating a negative outcome, catastrophic thinking or making something bigger than it actually is and underestimating your ability to cope with a feared or real outcome. Looking at anxiety producing thoughts and asking ourselves what evidence these thoughts contain is another strategy for dealing with anxiety. Sometimes anxiety producing thoughts are about future outcomes or what if thinking. We may fear something will go wrong but we do not know that it will happen or we may predict that we will not be able to cope when it does happen. By looking at the evidence of our thoughts or predictions we may come to the conclusion that our fears are exaggerated. One reason that talk therapy may help with anxiety is that our emotions and experiences can be triggers for anxiety. Being in a situation that reminds us of something unpleasant can cause our anxiety to resurface without our awareness of why we are feeling anxious. Talking about our experiences in therapy can help us to reprocess events so we are less triggered by these events without our awareness. Talking with a therapist about your anxiety concerns can help because of the individualized treatment provided through therapy and the ability to address what you are feeling directly as it applies to your individual situation.