ACE test, did events of your childhood, compromise your health as an adult? Ten questions Quiz.

Take the ACE test and read on to see what your score means.

1.  Before your 18th birthday, did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often swear at you, put you down, or humiliate you? OR act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt?

 

2.  Before your 18th birthday, did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often push, grab, slap, or throw something at you?   OR ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?

 

3.  Before your 18th birthday, did an adult or person at least five year older than you ever touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way?   OR attempt or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse with you?

 

4.  Before your 18th birthday, did you often or very often feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special?   OR your family didn’t look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other?

 

5.  Before your 18th birthday, did you often or very often feel that you didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you?   OR your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it?

 

6.  Before your 18th birthday, was a biological parent ever lost to you through divorce, abandonment, or other reason?

 

7.  Before your 18th birthday, was your mother or stepmother often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped or had something thrown at her?   OR sometimes, often, or very often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard?   OR ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife?

 

8.  Before your 18th birthday, did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic, or who used street drugs?

 

9.  Before your 18th birthday, was a household member depressed or mentally ill, or did a household member attempt suicide?

 

10. Before your 18th birthday, did a household member go to prison?

 


Adults who have an ACE score above 4 are twice as likely to have heart disease as adults who had scores of 0;
women with an ACE score of 5 or higher were four times more likely to experience depression than their peers who had a score of 0.

 
Elevated ACE scores have been shown to significantly increase the risk of alcoholism, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), depression, fetal death, illicit drug use, ischemic heart disease (IHD), liver disease,
risk for intimate partner violence,
multiple sexual partners, sexually transmitted diseases, smoking, suicide attempts, unintended pregnancies, early initiation of smoking, early initiation of sexual activity, and adolescent pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

“Significant trauma in childhood can have lasting effects in part because children are still learning about the way the world works,” he says,
 
“Children have to be trusting of adults (even evil adults), because that is the only way that they can learn.
 
When children experience negative events associated with the adults in their lives, it creates long-term stress, because they come to believe that is the way the world works.
 
In addition, because the memories people have of their early and middle childhood are often fragmented, they may not remember a lot of the details of the trauma.  If they are drugged or poisoned, so that they won't remember details or hit from behind so they won't know who did it, they will never heal and there will never be closure.    They will be left with a lasting anxiety without a clear memory of the source and anxiety negatively affects the immune system and overall health.
 
That kind of anxiety can never be treated because there is very little or no recall, the severity if the anxiety will never be reduced and the person will never heal, instead they will die.”