Introduction to ACEs

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are traumatic events that occur in childhood, such as having a loved one pass away, having parents who have a substance abuse problem, experiencing physical or mental abuse in your household, or even having a family member who has gone to prison. 

During trauma, the amygdala, the part of your brain that controls emotion, stores events in mini picture fragments and sounds, rather than like a story. This dramatically increases the likelihood of simple images triggering emotions from past events, invoking your fight or flight response. This leads to your prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for impulse control and rational thinking, to slowly shut down. Thus, the more trauma you have experienced, the more your brain is impaired, and the more likely you are to make irrational decisions. 

This has proven itself within the criminal justice system; over 50% of Florida’s juvenile offenders have experienced four or more ACEs, over 20% have experienced three, and around 15% have experienced two. Additionally, children who have experienced more than three aces are 7.4x as likely to struggle with substance abuse, and have a decreased life expectancy of 20 years. 

Research has also discovered links between high ACE scores and educational outcomes, social outcomes, and even disease. As you can see, ACEs affect individuals at all stages of life. If we do not implement proper rehabilitative and preventative programs, ACEs will continue to lead to a major decrease in quality of life for many, but also negative outcomes that affect society as a whole. 

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