Childhood Trauma Changes Everything

We're using a lot of terms that are familiar to people in this world.

Like I'm part social worker, also familiar with the judicial process and as a lawyer.

But I want to make sure we define some of these things when we talk about reunification or when we talk about co-parenting.

A lot of people think they understand what that means.

But in terms of policy issues, informing how those decisions are made or how the judiciary treats those, those terms, I think is what we need to explore a little bit more.

Tell me less.

First of all, just what is an ACE event? I keep hearing things called ACE events.

I believe those are out adverse childhood incidences or events.

Experiences.

Tell us what it is and why that matters.

Yes, it started, there was a physician and he had a weight loss clinic and these women were, you know, weighed 400 pounds or whatever, and they would lose 100 pounds and then they would gain it back.

And he's like, you know, how can this be? And he talked to one woman.

She said, well, I started gaining weight when my grandfather started, you know, molesting me.

And I thought if I was overweight, then, you know, it would stop the abuse.

He says, well, this can't be true, you know, for everybody.

So he did a study with the CDC, the Center for Disease Control of, you know, 30,000 people and was shocked and had a list of 10 things, you know.

emotional abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, living in a family with parents with an addiction, you know, parents being separated.

So there were 10 items.

And they were shocked to find that two-thirds of, you know, this huge sample of middle-class people had one or more adverse childhood experiences or ACEs.

So we replicated that study in Florida in the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Guess how many kids in juvenile justice have at least one adverse childhood experience?

100% of them.

Yeah, all of them do.

And what's even more frightening is 50% have four or more.

So what's happened is that these kids are abused and neglected, and they either internalize their rage and start self-cutting or doing drugs to medicate themselves, or they hurt other people.

We're using a lot of terms that are familiar to people in this world.

Like I'm part social worker, also familiar with the judicial process and as a lawyer.

But I want to make sure we define some of these things when we talk about reunification or when we talk about co-parenting.

A lot of people think they understand what that means.

But in terms of policy issues, informing how those decisions are made or how the judiciary treats those, those terms, I think is what we need to explore a little bit more.

Tell me less.

First of all, just what is an ACE event? I keep hearing things called ACE events.

I believe those are out adverse childhood incidences or events.

Experiences.

Tell us what it is and why that matters.

Yes, it started, there was a physician and he had a weight loss clinic and these women were, you know, weighed 400 pounds or whatever, and they would lose 100 pounds and then they would gain it back.

And he's like, you know, how can this be? And he talked to one woman.

She said, well, I started gaining weight when my grandfather started, you know, molesting me.

And I thought if I was overweight, then, you know, it would stop the abuse.

He says, well, this can't be true, you know, for everybody.

So he did a study with the CDC, the Center for Disease Control of, you know, 30,000 people and was shocked and had a list of 10 things, you know.

emotional abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, living in a family with parents with an addiction, you know, parents being separated.

So there were 10 items.

And they were shocked to find that two-thirds of, you know, this huge sample of middle-class people had one or more adverse childhood experiences or ACEs.

So we replicated that study in Florida in the Department of Juvenile Justice.

Guess how many kids in juvenile justice have at least one adverse childhood experience?

100% of them.

Yeah, all of them do.

And what's even more frightening is 50% have four or more.

So what's happened is that these kids are abused and neglected, and they either internalize their rage and start self-cutting or doing drugs to medicate themselves, or they hurt other people.