Your Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) score can serve as a useful tool to help you better understand how your past experiences may be impacting your present well-being. The ACEs score is a numerical reflection of the adversity and trauma you may have encountered during childhood, including experiences such as abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. Understanding your ACEs score can be key to achieving personal growth and a healthy mindset, as it sheds light on the profound impact of early experiences on mental and emotional resilience.
Today, we explore how to determine and interpret your ACEs score and shed light on what it may mean for your well-being.
The Benefits of Uncovering Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and applying the ACEs score methodology have become important components of a critical framework to better understand the impact of childhood trauma. Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Kaiser Permanente, the ACEs study demonstrated the long-term effects that traumatic experiences can have on both physical and mental health.
Illuminating experiences from earlier in life can often help us uncover drivers of our adult behaviors and health issues.
Viewing them in the light, sometimes for the very first time, can also help us to diffuse the power some experiences may have over our state of mind, self-esteem, and more.
As a result of this, understanding your ACEs score can feel like cracking a secret code to your past.
Suddenly, things that you have struggled to understand about yourself make perfect sense.
So, what is an ACEs score? How can you figure out your own score and use the knowledge to improve your own mental and physical well-being? Let’s start with the definition of ACEs.
What is an ACEs Score?
ACEs stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. The term refers to difficult situations or stressful events that happened early in your life. It may help to visualize this concept as a backpack filled with rocks. Each rock represents a difficult experience, like abuse, neglect, or family struggles. The more rocks you have in your backpack, the heavier it weighs you down.
Your ACEs score helps you understand how your early experiences may shape your life today and may impact your future health, too.
Often, experiences that we may discount from early in life can have a profound impact on our mental and physical health, relationships, and more.
Determining your ACEs score may give you a clearer picture of your emotional landscape and help you to better understand your own behaviors as well as other patterns in your life.
The experience of uncovering your ACEs can feel like turning on a bright light to help guide your self-discovery. As a result of the process, you begin to see not only where you have been, but the way ahead, more clearly.
Get the Therapist Recommended ACEs Recovery Workbook
How Is Your ACEs Score Calculated?
Your ACEs score is a measurement that represents the cumulative impact of adverse childhood experiences you may have encountered before the age of 18. The ACEs study comprised evaluation of the impact of ten types of adverse experiences. Each category is assigned a score of one. The higher your total score, the greater the potential impact on your health.
The method to determine your ACEs score is straightforward.
While your score can help you to understand how significant the impact of your childhood life may be on your future well-being, the value of the exercise may be less about the score you come out with than the memories you may unearth and begin to process.
Review the list of 10 specific types of experiences you may have had as a child.
For each type of experience that you experienced, record one point:
- Emotional Abuse: Were you often criticized, insulted, or humiliated?
- Physical Abuse: Did you experience hitting or physical violence?
- Sexual Abuse: Were you ever touched in a way that made you uncomfortable?
- Emotional Neglect: Did you feel unloved or that your feelings didn’t matter?
- Physical Neglect: Were your basic needs (like food and shelter) not met?
- Parental Separation: Did your parents ever divorce or separate?
- Domestic Violence: Did you witness violence in your home?
- Substance Abuse: Did anyone in your household struggle with drugs or alcohol?
- Mental Illness: Was a family member diagnosed with a mental health issue?
- Incarceration: Did anyone in your household go to jail?
Tally up your points, and you have your ACEs score.
Categories of ACEs Scores
Scores range from 0 to 10. A higher score indicates you’ve weathered challenges in your early life that may warrant further exploration. It may also mean you are at higher risk for certain mental and physical health issues.
- 0–3: You might have had a relatively smooth childhood. This doesn’t mean there were no challenges, but overall, you’ve handled stress well.
- 4–6: You’ve likely faced a good number of challenges. It’s important to look for support, as these experiences could play a role in your current health and relationships.
- 7 and above: You might have faced significant hardships. Awareness and understanding are critical. Consider seeking resources that can help you navigate your feelings and experiences.
This information can help you to better understand your past, how you behave now, and help you to adopt more healthy behaviors and thought patterns in the future.
Get Your Own ACEs Guided Journal
What Does a High ACEs Score Mean?
With a higher ACEs score, the risks for developing various physical and mental health conditions increase.
These may include heart disease, obesity, diabetes, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other chronic illnesses.
The process of determining your ACEs score can help shed light on potential connections between past traumatic experiences and current challenges you may face.
Adverse childhood experiences can negatively affect brain development, ultimately influencing cognitive and emotional functioning.
Understanding your ACEs score may also help explain certain difficulties you may face in processing emotions, managing stress, or forming healthy relationships.
Recognizing and interpreting your ACEs score can be a powerful step toward breaking the cycle of trauma, as it provides an opportunity to seek appropriate support, interventions, and resources for healing and resilience.
Understanding the potential impact of ACEs on your well-being can motivate you to seek professional help, build a strong support system, and engage in self-care practices that promote healing and growth.
Find More Resources to Help You Recover from Adverse Childhood Experiences
Moving Forward: Mitigation Measures for a High ACEs Score
Now that you know your ACEs score, what’s next?
Knowledge is power. Recognizing your past can help you make choices that lead to healing.
It’s like seeing a signpost at a crossroad road. The additional information can help you make better choices about which route to take.
While an ACEs score indicates exposure to adverse experiences, it does not determine your future.
Resilience plays a key role in mitigating the impacts of ACEs.
By incorporating certain strategies in your life, you can foster resilience and promote well-being:
- Seek Support: Reach out to trusted friends, family, or professionals who can provide a supportive and understanding environment.
- Practice Self-Care: Engage in activities that promote self-care, such as exercise, mindfulness, hobbies, and nurturing relationships.
- Therapy and Counseling: Consider therapy or counseling to address and heal from past traumas, develop coping mechanisms, and enhance resilience.
- Community Involvement: Engage in community initiatives that support education, awareness, and prevention of ACEs. Your experiences can provide valuable insights and help others facing similar challenges.
- Education and Awareness: Stay informed about the lasting impact of childhood trauma and its effects on both individuals and society. Advocating for trauma-informed practices can help create a more supportive and compassionate world.
Understanding your ACEs score is a key step in navigating the road to healing and resilience. Know that you are not defined by your childhood experiences; resilience, support, and self-care can pave the way for a brighter and healthier future.
The Bottom Line
Determining your ACEs score is a simple yet powerful step in understanding yourself better.
By reflecting on your childhood experiences, you can start to unpack the weight of those memories.
The process is not about surfacing shame, or about finding someone to blame. It’s about self-awareness and growth.
Keep an open mind as you explore your ACEs score and see how it can guide you in creating a healthier, happier future.
Thank you as always for reading.
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Joan Senio is the founder of KindCompassCoach. Her career includes 20+ years as a private sector corporate executive and 15 years as a consultant. The common thread through her professional life has been a commitment to compassionate coaching and leadership, including mentoring early and mid-career professionals as well as current and future executives and leaders. KindCompassCoach articles are backed by research and include facts and advice from relevant experts. Joan is a member of the International Organization of Life Coaches, serves as a thought-leader for KuelLife.com and is a regular contributor to PsychReg and Sixty and Me.
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