How Adverse Childhood Experiences Affect You As An Adult

None of us have any control over the situations we are born in. However, an auspicious beginning doesn’t necessarily mean a successful ending, and having challenges early on doesn’t mean things won’t turn out well. Adverse childhood experiences can have a significant impact on a child and continue to reverberate throughout their life. Healing and hope can be found, and the negative effects of these childhood experiences can be mitigated.

What are “Adverse Childhood Experiences”?

The term “Adverse Childhood Experiences” (ACEs) refers to a broad range of negative experiences that a child has or that they are exposed to while they are growing up. These stressful and traumatic experiences happen between the ages of 1 and 17 years, and some of these experiences include:

• Emotional or physical neglect.
• Emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.
• Witnessing domestic violence.
• Witnessing violence in one’s community.
• Having family members with serious mental health disorders.
• Parental separation or divorce.
• Having a parent or caregiver with a substance abuse disorder.
• Living in a household with an incarcerated family member.
• Having a family member attempt or die by suicide.

These experiences affect a child’s sense of safety, and they can significantly disrupt their development. The unfortunate reality is that ACEs are common. Nearly 1 in 6 (17.3%) U.S. adults reported that they had experienced four or more types of ACEs, and around 64% reported they had experienced at least one type of ACE before they turned 18.

By strengthening families, providing greater community access to resources such as those addressing homelessness, addiction, or maternity services, and by encouraging wider awareness about ACEs and their impact in childhood and into adulthood, they can be responded to much earlier and hopefully reduced as well.

The impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences in adulthood.

When a child experiences trauma or other negative experiences, the impact of those experiences radiates outward and across their life. It affects how they perceive themselves, their world, and how they navigate the world. As such, these ACEs can have lasting negative effects on a person’s overall well-being in childhood as well as into adulthood.

ACEs can affect a person’s life opportunities such as their education and career potential, and adults who have experienced ACEs are more likely to participate in high-risk behaviors. Some of these high-risk behaviors include the following:

• Attempting suicide or self-harm.
• Using tobacco products.
• Experimenting with drugs or addictive substances.
• Abusing prescription medications.
• Participating in high-risk sexual behaviors.

As a result of these high-risk behaviors, one is at greater risk of injury, sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse disorders, addiction, and teen pregnancy, to name a few. Some of the conditions that can occur and are associated with ACEs include anxiety, depression, insomnia, mood disorders, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, heart disease, high blood pressure, and cancer.

ACEs can decrease a person’s overall life expectancy significantly when compared to a person who hasn’t gone through any ACEs. Taking steps to prevent ACEs has the potential to reduce many health conditions.

Finding healing through Christian counseling.

Your past has an impact on you; that’s for sure. But your past doesn’t have to define you by limiting your opportunities or trapping you in unhealthy patterns of thought and behavior. One of the things Jesus promised was to give us abundant life (John 10:10), and through Him, the new creation has come, and we are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Healing from the effects of ACEs is possible, but it takes a lot of work. Part of the work is being able to acknowledge one’s past and seeking help for its possible effects. Through Christian counseling and making use of medication to treat underlying conditions as well as practices such as journaling, mindfulness meditation, and taking your self-care seriously, it’s possible to overcome ACEs and embrace a brighter future.