When you first hear about it, it sounds unlikely, fact that something that happened to someone in utero, at the age of two months, or four years, or any time in childhood, is what is killing them as an adult, or making them want to die, or making them want to hurt themselves or others.

Yet the connection between childhood trauma and adult disease, mental illness, addiction, suicide, violence – most all of society’s ills – is as irrefutable as the myriad truths revealed about it in the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study). The groundbreaking research shows that the more childhood trauma you experience, the greater your likelihood of having serious illness, social and emotional problems — a life punctuated with trauma and drama.

Gregory Williams learned about the ACE Study around the same time he started telling people about his childhood trauma. That he learned about it as he began speaking his truth is no accident. That the science explained so much about his life and touches so many aspects of it – personally and professionally – has made him passionate about spreading the word about ACEs science. His passion is, for many reasons, an incredible gift to the world.

A little background on ACEs science

The original ACE Study queried more than 17,000 people in San Diego in the mid 1990s. The participants — mostly white, college-educated, all with jobs and great health care — completed a questionnaire of nearly 200 questions about their health and wellbeing. Researchers distilled the results of those questions to 10 types of childhood trauma that most people had experienced as children in their families, up to age 18. Five questions asked about physical, emotional or sexual abuse, and emotional or physical neglect. Five more asked about family dysfunction – violence against the mother, parental separation, mental illness, alcoholism or other addiction, and incarceration of a family member.

The study showed that 64% of the respondents had at least one ACE (adverse childhood experience), and that ACEs usually did not occur alone; if you have one ACE, there’s an 87% chance you have two or more. For the 12% of respondents with an ACE score of four, the consequences proved serious and expensive: The likelihood of chronic pulmonary lung disease increases 390 percent; hepatitis, 240 percent; depression 460 percent; alcoholism, 700 percent; attempted suicide, 1,220 percent. For people with an ACE score of 6 or higher, the risks are grave, literally. Their lifespan is shortened by 20 years.

The ACE Study produced 70 research papers and led to 37 US states doing their own ACE surveys, which produced similar results. Several nations and cities, as well as hundreds of organizations, have also done ACE surveys. The ACE Study has led to more than 1,000 research publications that show the link between ACEs and all types of disease, including auto-immune diseases, skin cancer, diseases of the eye, etc. — each supporting the original finding that childhood trauma causes adult disease and dysfunction.

There are many reasons why this is the case. A big part of it, though, can be explained by brain science and physiology. Toxic stress harms the structure and function of the brains of children. Basically, children with high ACE scores become “wired” for “flight, fight, freeze” behavior, and their lives – with higher incidence of illness, violence, drama, risky behavior, and trauma – are the living proof.

In addition to the fact that the wiring — the connections of brain cells (synapses) – becomes more developed in the parts of the brain that deal with survival than the parts of the brain that deal with long-term planning, the stress hormones of cortisol and adrenaline flooding a stressed body cause, over time, increased inflammation of all organ systems. At the cellular level, constant stress is like an ongoing chemical boil in the body. Kids who are constantly exposed to toxic stress are likely to grow into teens and adults whose brains and bodies are set to react to everyday challenges with fight, flight, or freeze fear. Think of an engine constantly revved at the highest revolution per minute. Such an engine is likely to break down more frequently and burn out more quickly.

The ACE Study was developed by two visionary physicians courageous enough to risk their reputations to make the connection between toxic stress and adult health issues. The life work of Drs. Vincent Felitti and Robert Anda, the study helps make sense of some of what has happened to Gregory in the decades since the day, as a 17-year-old with strength and a voice, he looked his father in the eye and told him to STOP the horrific sexual abuse he had experienced daily for 13 years.

Childhood trauma makes some people sick; it makes others want to die. Gregory helps get this point across by sharing the truths of his resulting heart condition, surgery, and challenges with suicidality, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), insomnia, and perfectionism.

Borrowed time, buffering factors, resilience, hope.

Gregory, with an ACE score of 8, also knows he would be living on borrowed time, and would most likely be dead, were it not for his also being an example of another aspect of the science: how buffering factors – in his case, caring relatives – helped offset some of the negative physiological consequences of the abuse, helping him become somewhat resilient, which he will share more about in subsequent work.

How Gregory survived the pain, shame, guilt, fear, and the physical manifestations of those emotions – the toxic stew of stress hormones that eat away at every cell in the body – can be explained, in part, perhaps, by research on resilience, another part of ACEs science.

Resilience research shows what helps people build the ability to respond to adversity and survive. We know from these studies what a profoundly positive impact that one consistently caring adult can have on a child who is being abused.

That Gregory survived is a miracle. That he had caring adults in his life, I believe, made all the difference. Even though, perhaps, they didn’t know what was going on, an aunt and uncle whom Gregory saw several times a week from the ages of four through about age eight, provided a home base of safety and stability, love and some joy in the midst of the terror you’ll read about soon.

I tell you this because despite Gregory’s story being so horrific, it is because of who he is as a person who somehow maintained optimism, that this is also a story of hope and triumph over adversity. His recognition of the people who loved him as a child is to me one of the most important parts of his story. It is also a call to action to all of us to look for opportunities to be that caring adult for a child, and to be the caring adult to question why a child is upset, is acting out, or is not thriving.

Explanations, divine timing, how speaking his truth is saving Gregory’s life, and will help save the lives of others.

For Greg, discovering ACEs science – information shared with him by a close friend and physician at Baylor College of Medicine – was a life-changing moment. ACEs science might explain why a valve in his heart had given way and needed to be repaired when he was 48. It certainly explained why he suffered from OCD. The science helped make sense of why he could not sleep – his hypervigilance – even though it’s been 38 years since the last time his father abused him. Even after his father’s death in 2002.

Yes, darkness had always brought fear, but Gregory’s new understanding of the physical effects of that fear – the impact of cortisol, adrenaline, and other stress hormones — helped him make sense of his health and mental health issues, and also inspired him to speak the truth about what happened to him to anyone who would listen, and especially to physicians. That Gregory works with and hires physicians is one more amazing aspect of his remarkable and profoundly important story.

For Gregory, speaking his truth is saving his life. When abuse survivors cannot tell the truth, cannot share their stories, or when their stories are not believed, the results can be toxic. The stress of trauma builds up in the body. There is much science to support the statement best summed up as the title of a best-selling book on toxic stress and trauma: The Body Keeps The Score.*  Gregory’s failing heart valve is an anecdotal case in point.

Out of respect to his mother, Gregory did not share his story publicly, until her passing in 2017. It was when he was able to share his story without fear of harming his mother that this next phase of Gregory’s life’s work was revealed, and began in earnest.

Though I’ve not met Gregory in person, and have only known him for a few months, I know we share a bond that covers lifetimes and a faith that is as deep and wide, as we are both abuse survivors and know, without a lot of elaboration, much about what comes with that experience.

We both know that it is remarkable that we’ve survived into our fifties and sixties. It is fair to say that we both believe our meeting, and my connecting Gregory to his publisher, is no accident.

And then there is the way Gregory and I met, which is as the result of my being offered the dream position of opening up the southeastern United States to help build communities for an organization that advances ACEs science. I’d hoped for that opportunity for five years before the funding came for me to be hired by ACEs Connection, an international social network dedicated to advancing ACEs science, preventing and healing childhood trauma, and building resilience. It was through his research and finding ACEs Connection that Gregory found my address and included me in a mass emailing about his book. I was one of a handful of people who answered the email.

I answered his request for ideas about how to help him get the word out about his book because I wanted to help, and I because wanted to know more about someone who would share the most intimate, sad, dark corners of his life with others, yet who looked so happy about doing it.

Speaking with Gregory, I immediately understood: After having the story bottled up for decades, his being able to speak and write about his abuse is cathartic, healing, and again, is literally saving his life.

 It is nothing short of incredible to me though, that in less than seven months since I answered Gregory’s introductory email, Gregory’s self-published book sold more than 100,000 copies, his book is now being published and distributed by a major publishing house (Health Communications, which published a book of mine 11 years ago), he is working on his own radio show (Breaking the Silence), and he is creating, via the book, radio show, his website, and his work with me to take ACEs science into medical schools, an important space for others to be heard, believed, and affirmed.

Further, Gregory is playing an important role in his own community by managing the Baylor College of Medicine ACEs Connection community site. That site is one of more than 170 geographic community sites supporting ACEs initiatives in those communities. Among the sectors represented are pediatrics, education, justice, social work and more. Their members meet and look for ways to bring ACEs science and trauma-informed practices into their communities. Doing so helps communities in many ways, as evidence shows improved school attendance and grades, decreased crime, improved health outcomes and more in areas communities that have been keeping track of the effects of this work. ACEs Connection would welcome your community group into our growing community of communities which includes neighborhoods, cities, regions, states, and nations dedicated to preventing and healing trauma.

Gregory’s work, and the work of ACEs Connection, is creating the space for millions of people – and thousands of physicians – to be educated, engaged, and offered the chance to become activists to help prevent childhood trauma and its devastating lifelong impacts.

That Gregory has the trust, respect, and attention of physicians can change medicine, and more.

Gregory’s experiences are likely to have special impact on the lives of the one in four girls and one in five boys who are victims of sexual abuse. For millions upon millions of adult men and women survivors, Gregory’s story and awareness of ACEs science will help explain the “why” of so many of their lifelong physical and mental health challenges, and why their lives – our lives – have seemed, or been, harder than most. For many of us who experienced a high load of toxic stress, our brains were literally wired to create and be attracted to more toxic stress. This revelation will, I hope, inspire a tremendous amount of self-empathy, and empathy from and for others. Yes, the old saw is true: Hurt people do hurt people. Understanding the why behind the hurts, the addiction, the impulsivity, the violence, can help stop the pain, shame, guilt, and hurt.

My hope is that Gregory’s story will help prevent sexual abuse and other childhood traumas, and I know that is his greatest hope, too.

That Gregory speaks to physicians, has their respect, trust, and attention, and has the complete backing of his employer, the Baylor College of Medicine, is especially heartening to me, and to others who advocate for medical professionals to recognize childhood trauma as the root cause of most all adult disease, most all social ills.

I know we both want to

• see the science of childhood trauma and resilience research taught in medical schools, so physicians can better understand why a patient is suffering from a stress-related illness, and, in addition to prescribing traditional medical interventions, can also offer recommendations and supports that may help reverse the damage done by years of toxic stress. Imagine a prescription to “spend a day in nature” or “go help coach a little league baseball team” or “join a choral group”? Physicians who are prescribing just such “therapies” are seeing success in programs to prevent opioid addiction relapse, depression, and more.
• see physicians ask what’s going on “at home,” and ask, even if informally, questions about their patients’ trauma history, even if it is on an ACE survey that only shows the total score and is not included in a medical record,
• see obstetricians, gynecologists, pediatricians, and family practice physicians ask pregnant women about their own childhood trauma, as studies show that pregnant women who are aware of their own childhood traumas, and of the impact of childhood trauma, are less likely to experience post-natal depression or to abuse their children.
• see kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools become places where children aren’t shamed and blamed for acting out and asked, “What’s wrong with you?” but are instead asked, “What’s happened to you? How can I help?” and where their parents are not shamed or blamed, either. When parents understand more about the lifelong health consequences of trauma, the likelihood of children being traumatized decreases; children who feel safer at home do better in school.
• help people learn that the body is resilient, our brains and bodies want to heal. Given understanding, acceptance, community, and information about resilience research, people with high ACEs scores can develop greater resilience as individuals, and in their families, workplaces, and communities.
• see communities foster groups of laypeople and professionals from all sectors, including education, medicine, justice, the arts, mental health, and housing, to identify and prevent trauma including structural racism and income, health, and education inequality, as racism and poverty are as every bit as stressful and toxic to a child as any other type of abuse.

Though we didn’t know each other through our years of parenting – Gregory has two adult sons and three grandchildren, and I have a son and a daughter – we both vowed to stop the cycles of abuse with our own children. We are both grateful to have relatively healthy, happy adult children, and worked hard and mindfully to prevent cycles of addiction and abuse.

That Gregory works for a leading medical institution that supports his promulgating ACEs science is no accident. That I work for an organization that is all about preventing and healing childhood trauma; building resilience, creating a trauma-informed world, is no accident. Again, our faith is affirmed as we marvel at the timing!

I hope that helping to bring this book into the light, and Gregory’s using his radio show, prodigious talents as a writer, speaker, and interviewer, as well as his leadership position at Baylor College of Medicine, will raise awareness among doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, teachers, law enforcement officers and policymakers of the need to learn and teach all professions about the devastating consequences of childhood trauma. I hope policymakers will hear the alarm to understand that policies that punish people for the addictions and behaviors that are the direct result of childhood trauma do not help, but instead further traumatize already traumatized people.

I hope Gregory’s audience is wide, loyal, accepting, and encouraging.

I truly believe Gregory will change the world by taking this book into medical schools and teaching physicians and nurses about the root cause of most adult illness: childhood trauma. He understands and makes clear that while the sexual abuse was the most dramatic part of his trauma, that the secrecy, isolation, neglect, verbal, and other physical abuse was deadly as well. This is, indeed, important information to share as policymakers learn about creating schools, hospitals, businesses, cities, states, nations that are about preventing and healing childhood trauma, and building resilience. As we face, in our communities, adverse community experiences including structural racism, bullying, income inequality, and, in our world, increasing numbers of adverse climate experiences – the loss of homes, livelihood, a way of life – as the result of wildfires, storms, floods and other natural disasters, I hope we will become gentler with each other and more mindful of protecting our environment, our natural resources.

I look forward to Gregory’s subsequent books about how he is continuing to heal, as I believe he will shed light on childhood trauma and its impact across the lifespan. He will educate a new generation of physicians and allied health professionals about ACEs science and resilience research and findings, and share ways patients can use their own agency to find life solutions that do not include addiction and risky behaviors to handle their fears.

ACEs scores and “obits” and hopes

In the effort to demystify, remove stigma, and help prevent AIDs some 30 years ago, families started sharing that their loved ones had died of acquired immune deficiency (AIDS). Some shame was lifted. Acceptance was more widespread. Empathy helped spur funding research into cures, and campaigns to raise awareness. Education, and prevention, helped slow the spread of the disease.

As suicide has become epidemic, many families of loved ones are choosing to share, in obituaries, the cause of death as suicide, in hopes of raising awareness, reducing the stigma, encouraging others to get help.

Someday perhaps ACEs scores will be listed in obituaries, in hopes of people understanding the direct correlation between childhood trauma and adult disease and premature death. As a woman in my early sixties, I’ve lost many friends who had high ACE scores, and am watching others suffer from chronic diseases that are, no doubt, related to their ACEs. I know I want my ACE score listed in my obituary, not as a point of shame or pride, but in hopes of its being a “teachable moment.” I also want to include information about resilience research, as in, “despite having an ACE score of 8, Sipp credited her long life to the exercise, diet, community work, and other healthy endeavors that were part of resilience research, an evidence-based way of helping to reduce the impact of ACEs, which she practiced and promoted as a part of her work.”

That Gregory and I have both been able to share our truths, learn about ACEs science and resilience research, and find joy and purpose in helping to prevent childhood trauma will, I hope, prevent our obituaries from being published any time soon! I hope that is true, too, for the millions who will experience “aha moments” as they learn the truths about the importance of our preventing trauma in the lives of others, be it by preventing blame, shame, bullying, racism, and violence, or by our promoting health, acceptance, empathy and love, especially toward children and their families. As families and communities heal, I believe we will heal the earth. Learning and teaching ourselves how to be kinder and gentler to ourselves, each other, our earth? There is nothing more sacred; no work more vitally important.

*The Body Keeps the Score Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van der Kolk, MD, 2014

 “I want to see as many troubled families and individuals as possible – especially people such as I, who have experienced multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) –  have access to neurofeedback. It has changed my life by changing my brain. I grew up in a horrific situation, never able to trust being safe. Stress would take me back to that childhood place of feeling terrified. Neurofeedback helped me become more rational, as my brain was trained to function with less stress. Now that I am not in constant panic, I can see the parts of our lives that are not going the way we want them to go and can look at these challenges with clarity and openness instead of fear and blame, shame, or guilt,” says Stacey Breitmann, trauma survivor, mom, military wife, and neurofeedback advocate.

Stacey Breitmann, trauma survivor, mom, military wife, neurofeedback advocate and coach.

Todd Breitmann, USAF retired, prepares for a neurofeedback session with daughter Hailey in the family’s brain training room. 

For the Breitmann family in North Georgia, the last few years have been intensely stressful. Todd, a Lt. Col. in the Air Force for 24 years, retired in 2012, and fell into depression and anxiety when his military career came to an end. In an attempt to change the mood by changing the focus and location, the family bought a farm, sold it, tried life in a Winnebago for a couple of years while homeschooling their daughters on the road. Finally, when they settled in North Georgia in 2016, family stresses and Todd’s depression became so crippling that he became suicidal. Residential treatment seemed to be the best option.

In Todd’s absence, his wife Stacey did what good military wives do: She ran the household – as the mom and the dad. But the stress of being left behind this time were life-threatening for her too. Her fears that Todd might take his life during treatment drove Stacey beyond depression into being suicidal, too.

“His being in treatment 30 miles away was harder than his being deployed overseas. I was worried on so many levels, about our marriage, his depression, his suicidality. I worried about our daughters and how all of this was affecting them. It was as though I always had way, way too many tabs open on my brain. It was a computer that was freezing up and crashing as I tried to do homeschooling, care for a big house and property, figure out what was happening with my husband and my marriage,” said Stacey.

The Breitmann’s 16-year-old daughter Hailey carried a heavy load of stress as well. At an early age Hailey was diagnosed with Asperger’s, which is on the autism spectrum. Homeschooling had helped, but her wanting to be around other young people was creating social anxiety. She had fallen behind in school and was taking three medications to help with depression and anxiety.

Meanwhile Breitmann’s older teenage daughter was clashing with her parents over wanting more and more freedom. She was also on antidepressants. She knew she had deeply disappointed her parents by moving out and walking away from school, her church, and her family. Stacey worried about the relationship this daughter had with an older man. The hostility between Todd and his firstborn was palpable, sparking her decision to move out, which added to his sense of loss, depression, and hopelessness.

A break in the family tension came when Stacey decided to take Hailey for neurofeedback training in a nearby town. “I spent a fortune, but I knew after 10 sessions she was better,” said Stacey.

Hailey continued the training and completed 20 sessions. By the time she was finished, she was off of all medication.

Stacey wanted to learn more about neurofeedback and consulted a physician friend who told her about the neurofeedback system she was checking out for home use. As soon as Stacey learned about the system, she ordered the hardware and software package herself.

“I bought our system when Hailey was almost finished with her sessions. Her improvement had been miraculous. She was back at grade level. I decided it was time for me to give neurofeedback a try, so I began training on myself with the Brain-Trainer system in April of 2018. Within nine sessions I could tell a major difference.

“It was as though all the obsessive thoughts and anxieties that had been swirling around in my brain slowed down, drove into a garage, found a place to park, turned off the engine, came inside, and relaxed in a warm bath while I listened to spa music. It wasn’t that I quit being concerned about the challenges. It was that I was able to come out of being overwhelmed. With the anxiety and depression gone, I started to think clearly. I could tackle tasks without dreading them. My mood brightened. I felt better about myself. I was not terrified about what would happen when Todd came home, because I knew that if neurofeedback could help Hailey and me, it could also help him, and our older daughter,” said Stacey.

By the time Todd was home to stay, the family was in a completely different place emotionally. Their older daughter had also started neurofeedback, and was enjoying her visits home for the training. She, too, was tapering off of antidepressants.

“Coming into a happier family, after having been gone for almost nine months, was an incredible relief,” said Todd. “I had done a lot of healing on my journey. And the work Stacey had done, with her own counseling and the neurofeedback, helped her to be more open to my coming home, to our being on the same team. Now she doesn’t assume the worst. Together we can process the facts and if things get a little tense, we can take a break instead of hurting each other. The differences in her, in her confidence and problem-solving abilities, are miraculous.

“Seeing Hailey literally blossom into a happy teenager who doesn’t have to take medication for anxiety is an answered prayer. It used to be that we would need to push her out the door. Now she is engaged in what she loves; seeing her interact with people – with so much less fear – is wonderful,” continued Todd.

It didn’t hurt that Todd, too, had started neurofeedback. And that he was soon hired for a job helping other veterans with securing healthcare benefits.

Stacey has become a strong advocate for educating people about ACEs science, and for neurofeedback, which she says literally helps the brain build new connections at a higher level of functioning.

“This is the brain helping the brain,” she says with conviction.

Having invested hundreds of hours into research and her own training, seeing neurofeedback help transform her family, Stacey now has what she would call “a healthy obsession with the brain and neurofeedback.”

“There is nothing going into the brain,” she explains. “Neurofeedback simply measures brainwaves while the brain is engaged in processing what is seen and heard on a computer monitor. When brainwaves measured are not fluctuating wildly, or in a ramped-up zone where anxiety is likely, music and visuals on the computer screen during training continue. If the brainwaves become erratic, or too fast or too slow, the music and the visuals stop. In this way, for the brain to receive what it wants – the visuals and the music (which can even be a movie, something from Netflix, or cat videos, as the person receiving therapy chooses) – the brain trains itself to function at a more efficient, less erratic level,” she said.

Brain waves are measured by sensors on the scalp, in sessions that are planned with the help of a QEEG (quantitative electroencephalography) exam, the standard for use in measuring brainwave activity and planning a neurofeedback protocol.

Stacey explained that the program she is using is more than traditional neurofeedback, because it uses another training modality.

“We are also using training to help increase blood flow to the prefrontal cortex of the brain,” she said. “That’s the planning, decision-making, follow-through area of the brain that is overridden in importance and function when the brain goes into the survival ‘flight-flight-freeze’ mode. Increasing blood flow to the prefrontal cortex seems to be helping with ‘executive function.’ It helps us slow down and express ourselves more clearly and appropriately.”

Stacey has become such an advocate of neurofeedback that she has written a training manual she believes can be used by anyone, and recently gave a talk about her experience with neurofeedback to a group of women in Florida.

“I want to see as many troubled families and individuals as possible – especially people such as I, who have experienced several Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) –  have access to neurofeedback. It has changed my life by changing my brain. I grew up in a horrific situation, never able to trust being safe. Stress would take me back to that childhood place of feeling terrified. Neurofeedback helped be become more rational, as my brain was trained to function with less stress. Now that I am not in constant panic, I can see the parts of our lives that are not going the way we want them to go, and can look at these challenges with clarity and openness instead of fear and blame, shame, or guilt,” she explained.

From military wife, homeschooling mom, and Sunday school teacher to ACEs Science and neurofeedback advocate isn’t a far stretch, Stacey explains: “When our brains are functioning better, we function better. It is that simple. There is so much stress and negativity in the world, it is little wonder that so many people feel anxiety and depression; that’s why so many people also contemplate suicide.

“ACEs science explains why some people are so much more stressed, depressed. Neurofeedback is a solution that lasts. It helps people get off of costly medications that also come with unpleasant side effects. Neurofeedback has been around for 50 years. It’s been proven safe and effective. I found that I didn’t have to know anything about neuroscience to do this. The training plan that comes with the equipment we chose tells you exactly what to do. It is like following a recipe. I trained myself and it was miraculous,” said Stacey.

Todd continues the praise for neurofeedback, saying, “I cannot say enough about what neurofeedback has done to help our family. I look forward to continuing my training. I am as excited about this as Stacey is, and am eager to see other military families dealing with depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide have access to this miracle, too.”

While Todd and Stacey used to guard their privacy, they now welcome the opportunity to tell others about neurofeedback. In the months since interviews for this story began, Stacey opened a business to help other parents secure neurofeedback equipment. She also coaches people as to how to learn how to follow the recommended protocols to train themselves and their family members. She welcomes questions via email at pathwaysnfb@gmail.com

The system they use is called Brain-Trainer.

According to Noelani Viloria, a biofeedback specialist at the Center for Youth Wellness in San Francisco, CA, other systems in use at treatment centers across the U.S. include˚:

Eeger.com https://www.eegstore.com/node

BrainPaint http://brainpaint.com/

Mightier https://mightier.com/

Viloria is enthusiastic about the results of NFB done with family involvement. “More often than not, the child is the identified patient and the primary participant in treatment. However, we know that a key factor in protecting against or reversing the effects of toxic stress on a child’s developing brain and body is by having a responsive, buffering caregiver,” she explained. “Neurofeedback can help children and teens learn how to better self-regulate by gently nudging the brain out of old habits and teaching it new patterns and ‘tricks’. However, it is also important that these new patterns and tricks are reinforced in the home. We cannot only depend on the newly regulated brain of a child to hold strong if he/she then returns to a dysregulated household or family system. Engaging both child and caregiver in multidisciplinary services will have the most impact. Brain training for the family opens up the possibility for co-regulation, as well as a shared language and understanding of brain function.

“Research has predominantly focused on the effectiveness of neurofeedback in the treatment of ADHD, epilepsy, and substance abuse,” Viloria continued. “There is now a growing body of evidence supporting the effectiveness of neurofeedback with anxiety, depression, and PTSD. In my experience, neurofeedback can also be a helpful way to engage the child or teen who is not ready or open to therapy.”

I almost felt slapped in the face – a wakeup slap; not a punishment – when I read Cissy White’s groundbreaking post describing her joy in finding out her “ACE score.”

Her elation at learning about the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study and questionnaire was an unintentional throw-down on her part. As I read her post I was compelled to reframe my shame, fear, and overall sense of dread about my own high ACE score. (Cissy has given me permission to use her name and to mention her writing.)

For Cissy, learning her score helped explain her depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Prior to reading about her happiness in learning about ACEs science, I had run from my own ACE score of 7+. (The score represents the number of “yes” answers one has on a 10-question survey. Most Americans have a score of 2, representing two “childhood traumas.” The greater the number of childhood traumas experienced, the higher the score.) The survey was used and reported on in a groundbreaking study of more than 17,000 Americans done by the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente. Among the big takeaways from the study? The correlation between a higher ACE score and the increased likelihood one has for chronic illness, addiction, divorce, and premature death.)(acestoohigh.com) CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study

Perhaps I ran from my score because I didn’t want it to become an excuse. Or I didn’t want to own it. Or I didn’t want to think about what my adult children would say their scores were, despite my dedication to giving them what I hope will be viewed as a pretty stable childhood.

On a call with Cissy several days after reading and marinating on her post and what it meant to me, we shared a bit about our respective lives, and Cissy said something that hit me hard. She said financial instability was a factor in her experiences, and that her mom had started borrowing money from her when Cissy was just 12 years old. The alarm bells went off in my head.

Cissy said that her mom, who had a high ACE score, had never managed money well. I heard empathy and love in Cissy’s voice when she said her mom grew up in a lot of chaos and trauma and didn’t really have a childhood.

I’ve been around long enough to know: Most of us who didn’t have much of a childhood as children do some childish things as adults.  I felt my cheeks get hot with shame as Cissy shared more. Some of what she said was information about “adult children of alcoholics” and trauma survivors that I’d read and written about for years. Yet this time there was a bigger “aha.”

“Do you think, possibly, that people with high scores who have money issues could be spending money quickly because we think, on some deep level, we might not live to see the next day?” I asked.

I heard the words come out of my mouth, and realized I was not asking about Cissy’s opinion of ALL high ACE scorers with money issues. I was asking about myself.

It was a soul-searing moment, as I let what I had asked sink in. The resulting pain and my awareness of it led to the realization that I needed to do more work on my trauma issues and start managing my finances in a “trauma-informed” way, as I realized, on a deep level, that I have been a fear-based spender and under-earner most of my life.  How to get to the solution? Sometimes we have to look backward to go forward.

I was born into a lot of trauma. My dad could have easily been prosecuted for a violent act he committed just before I was born had his family not had a bit of power in my hometown: more power than the man he’d almost killed. In pictures of my mother and me when I was a newborn, my mother looks completely shell-shocked. She is thin, almost gaunt. She is far from being a happy young mother.

I didn’t learn until I was an adult that her mother had died just six weeks after I was born. My grandmother had come to help take care of me, gotten sick, and died of endocarditis. I recently pieced together the fact that mother had gone back to work just six weeks after having me. So here she was, in fear of her hard-drinking and violent husband, trying to care for and arrange care for a colicky infant, and having to go back to work just after losing her mother, whom she absolutely adored. That she lost her mom and went back to work in the same week was stunning, especially since she was not only terrified of my father. She was terrified of her boss, a man for whom she worked for more than 30 years!

It is an understatement to say my mom was stressed, tense, and fearful a lot of the time when I was growing up. She might have been able to breathe at choir practice and when she was gardening.  But having brought my brother and me into a violent world left her terrified and riddled with guilt and shame. She worked hard, saved her money, and contributed to her community, all the while secretly enduring violence and humiliation at the hand of my father. Finally, when I was 14 and threatened to leave home if she didn’t make him leave, mother divorced my father. That brought more shocks when my brother left to live with my father, causing mother to be even more depressed, and to lash out at me with even more intense anger. So she and I were depressed together. And we were clueless as to how to connect and heal in the face of so much anger and despair.

I believe she was afraid of my depression, afraid that I might hurt myself or end up “running with the wrong crowd.” So instead of allowing met to hit bottom or learn to deal with my own pain, she often bought me something to “cheer” me up. Or gave me a “little something” so I could “go get something new.” Or bailed me out financially. She did it out of love, fear, and pride, and probably self-protection. It started when I was just a little kid at the checkout line at the grocery store, and escalated when we were both in that post-divorce dark place. I believe she would have died of shame, pain, and embarrassment had I gone off the deep end. And I know she was doing the absolute best she could do. This is no indictment of her; she and I talked through a lot of this before she died. And those talks helped me take a look at the root cause of my money mismanagement (spending, debting, underearning, hoarding). Using money as a drug helped me avoid pain. The deep pain of not being enough.

Some people might have been able to accept the gifts my mom shared and not become wired to need some type of “buy high” to avoid the pain of loss or disappointment. Others of us learned to use a little “money fix” the way some people use food or sex or alcohol to achieve a chemical change in our bodies. Her gift or bail out would calm me for a while. But then when the calm wore off, there was usually more damage to deal with than there was before, as I almost always spent more than I had. And the need to soothe myself with externals instead of learning how to accept disappointment just made that wiring stronger and harder to break.

I am not alone. I’d love to compare the percentage of people with an ACE score of four or more who have severe stress around money management with the same criteria for the general population. I know the percentage of “four-plus ACEs” having issues with unemployment is 2.5 times higher than that of the general population, and that 90 percent of us are on antidepressants. If I wonder how many of us are compulsive spenders – spending money to feel better; or under-earners – people who don’t value their skills and talents realistically or have the self-confidence or motivation to secure and keep a job that pays them fair market value for their skills and experience?

As an under-earner I would supplement a low salary – and avoid looking for another job if I didn’t get anticipated raises – by using money I’d inherited to make ends meet. Of course I could have lowered my standard of living, but other aspects of having a high ACE score involve depression, denial, and people pleasing. Depression keeps us stuck. Denial is avoiding reality. And people pleasing in the form of spending more on rent so the children were happier and safer? Guilty as charged.

So I am plowing new territory here to use my experience, strength and hope to learn about and help raise awareness of what I will call “trauma-informed money management.”

Trauma-informed money management looks like learning how to be, and being proactive and prepared. If and when there is the urge to react to negative input of some type, this kind of money management requires being able to feel the discomfort of disappointment and disruption, rebalance the nervous system using breath work, consciousness, mediation, and prayer to endure the upset, and setting some boundaries with ourselves and others about not hurting ourselves financially. In fact, I believe overspending is kind of like cutting oneself with money instead of a blade. Psychically, living in a constant state of lack and stress cuts the soul. It is not the vibration that attracts joy and prosperity.

I cut myself for years, wasting thousands of dollars on fees and high interest rates and paying for things that could have been free. The emotional costs of this form of cutting include living through two failed marriages (both failing, in large part, due to different financial issues with the same root cause of financial insecurity) and walking away from one very special and dear relationship which failed in large part because I was afraid to share my financial flaws. The problem with finances also led me to try to save money ($300 a month!) by switching from the brand to a generic antidepressant. The consequences of that switch affected me slowly but searingly. It was the equivalent of my brain being hit by a slow-motion chemical busload of fear and depression. I didn’t have the chemical buffer of the antidepressant on board; didn’t know why I was so depressed, and didn’t want to reveal how far down I had gone to him as I didn’t want to cause him pain, or risk being rejected. So I ran. I couldn’t accept myself in that state, so I didn’t believe anyone else could either. Trauma survivors, I have learned, will do anything to try and control a situation. Even if it means destroying themselves and something they hold dear. Even if the pain almost kills them. In avoiding pain, we oftentimes create more pain.

My solitude forced me to deal with the reality of multiple losses I’d glossed over during the previous 36 months by being busy with children (they’d grown into adults and moved) my ailing mother (she’d passed away) a failing marriage (the divorce had been final three years earlier) a job layoff from a job I’d loved (no guarantees) the death of two long-time friends and mentors (women I adored) a failed business (I jumped into it way too quickly) running out of savings (BAM: that was a huge trigger) the election (the win by someone who traumatized people at every turn, and got away with it, was a constant zap to my fragile psyche, on some level reminding me of my father’s ability to cut one minute and charm the next) and the loss of a beloved canine companion of almost 15 years. On top of all of it was the self-imposed loss of this relationship, a bright spot I’d treasured.

I am grateful I made it through those dark months. And to have pushed the hell out of my doctor to get the brand anti-depressant approved for me when I finally found out, online, that many other people have had a similar experience when switching from brand medication to generic. (I will write more about this soon.)

In the depths of the depression I joined a recovery program with multiple tools and structure to help plan and track spending. Coming out of vagueness did help with the depression, as did following the daily disciplines to manage money. I gained a sense of greater personal efficacy, something else that had been sorely lacking.

The depression also sent me back to ACEs literature, to see if there were clues there to help me feel better. That is where I found Cissy’s post, and had the idea that if Cissy could feel better by knowing her ACE score and using the information to become a healthier human and a better parent, so could I.

In this round of exploring ACEs resources, I realized that there is a need for more information about trauma-informed money management. We high ACEs scorers need solutions that will help us know when we are spending from a place of fear and people pleasing, or from a place of debting ourselves because of a sense of inadequacy. We need a place and a way to connect on this topic.

The ACEs and other communities dedicated to truth and healing are vitally important to people who’ve survived trauma and are recovering from addictions. The spiritual aspect of our collective courage is restorative. It is healthy for us to connect. Even if our connections are “virtual,” there is still communion, the chance to be fed and not eat alone.

At age 61, I know my a high ACE score makes me, and others who join me in having a high score, likely to die 20 years earlier than people with lower scores. I may already be on borrowed time. So to help myself heal and be of service to others committed to having a great Third Act, I am going to do what Cissy says to do and “write to heal.”  I wrote my first book on parenting to teach myself what I needed to learn to re-parent myself, to be able to model self care for my children. While there was a chapter in that book on spending money, time, and energy wisely, I believe a deeper dive into trauma-informed money management will be a help for me, and I hope it will be helpful for you.

In short, a new layer of my lifelong challenges with managing – or not managing – money has been revealed. Stress and grief have propelled me into greater awareness, honesty, openness and willingness to track my spending and breathe through the fog of past overcommitting, most often to pay tuition and medical bills. With help I can be realistic about the losses and pain caused by my stress-induced spending. And I can plow my way back to solvency, as I know millions have: one day at a time.

I know this today: building the resilience that will afford us a Third Act does take a village. It takes our being checked into the collective energy of a group of people who are dedicated to truth, self-care, and healing.

Without this help we may well die early due to stress and the resulting disease states.

With this help we may remember to breathe, eat healthy food, exercise, sleep eight hours, pay our bills, connect with others, and have some fun.

Without this support we may end up in a deeper mess than the one we were born into. And we may take some people we love down with us.

With this help we can reframe almost anything, turning problems into challenges and opportunities to connect and succeed, instead of problems leading to blood pressure spikes leading to heart attack and stroke.

I might have been born of trauma and into it, lived in it through childhood, and created it for myself in myriad ways. But today a new level of healing begins by claiming my ACE score, truly joining this ACEs Connection “village” of people dedicated to helping prevent and heal trauma, and practicing a new level of financial, emotional, spiritual, and physical self care. I hope I’ll open a path for others to share about their challenges and solutions, to see if we can’t save younger ACEs some of our pain. And help heal ourselves in the process.

How has trauma affected you and your finances? Have you been triggered to spend and regretted it? Would you like to know more about “trauma-informed money management”?  Please post your comments in the comment box or email them to me at csipp@me.com

Resources:

https://www.centerforhealthjournalism.org/2017/03/17/how-facing-aces-makes-us-happier-healthier-and-more-hopeful

Continue reading Trauma-Informed Money Management: ACE Score of 7+; Gaining Clarity in My Third Act →

NOTE: REPOSTED. I DID NOT WRITE THIS PIECE. C.  Unless there is an explanation such as this preceding a post, you are safe to assume the material are reading is original content by Carey Sipp.  This is the second of two pieces I posted on this site, but did not write. Thanks!

 

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