7 Triggers of Childhood Toxic Stress

andrea schulz posted:

Caveat to the triggers of mental illness and separation/divorce I suggest would be untreated mental illness and conflictual and alienating separation/divorce.  Having parents with the disability of mental illness who seek treatment for themselves, or who handle divorce/separation in a caring and compassionate manner towards each other can be a source of resiliency for children rather than a source toxic stress. Parents can be role models of strength in the face of life challenges in these circumstances.

Absolutely Andrea. The idea of awareness is twofold really. Many people with a high level of ACE's have not had strong role models and very often get to adulthood having spent their life diverting and isolating. When we aren't given tools, then we find ways to cope and often dissociate and lose track of the emotions we are having or how to process them. There are varying degrees of ACE's also. Your point is well taken. 

Nancy Sommers, your rationale for only posting seven triggers makes perfect sense, in that context.

I amended my original post, after considering a recent news report of a [now] Canadian woman attorney, who as a child, [if my recall is accurate] in Zimbabwe, had her clitoral hood removed without anesthesia .... reportedly by tribal women ....  

Thank You for validating my "surgical experience", as the subsequent surgery took place in a prison infirmary/hospital, and the lead physician [also County Coroner] had a "bedside manner" that C. Everett Koop's post-Surgeon General teaching at Dartmouth/Geisel Medical School 'bedside manner' course thirty years later, was intended to address. The lead physician did not do the operation, but as a result of his insistence on using only dry gauze to bandage an initial excision of the wound/scar, the wood chips did not come out. The inmate 'nurse' who regularly bandaged the excision wound, left the [ordinarily locked] dressing cabinet open to answer a phone call at the nurse's desk in an adjacent corridor, and I used the opportunity to put the drawing salve on the gauze, .... and the lead physician later threatened to send me to solitary confinement for doing so, even though the wood chips finally came out [He saw the salve on the gauze-with the wood chips, ...asked me how it got on there, and I 'fessed-up' to it, so the inmate 'nurse' didn't get in trouble]. The other, more compassionate physician did the surgery to remove the deteriorated /rotted tendons/muscles using the only anesthetic [local] available at that infirmary/hospital.

I concur we need to consider Post-Traumatic Stress or Complex Childhood Traumatic Stress rather than quickly only considering ADD or ADHD, with "distractible child that has trouble focusing". An epidemiologist who presented at a "Grand Rounds" continuing education I attended in 2000, noted 52% of Detroit Metropolitan Area Schoolchildren met the [then] DSM-IV criteria for PTSD. Similar numbers among schoolchildren have more recently been reported in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.

Andrea Schulz, I think Parents who've resolved/healed any of their own ACEs, if any, can be a source of resilience. When I worked for an OEO Legal Services project, as an Investigator/ later VISTA Paralegal, an attorney gave me a divorce case to do the preparatory [before trial] work. ... I also concur with you about untreated mental illness, and conflictual/alienating separation/divorce.

Caveat to the triggers of mental illness and separation/divorce I suggest would be untreated mental illness and conflictual and alienating separation/divorce.  Having parents with the disability of mental illness who seek treatment for themselves, or who handle divorce/separation in a caring and compassionate manner towards each other can be a source of resiliency for children rather than a source toxic stress. Parents can be role models of strength in the face of life challenges in these circumstances.

Robert Olcott posted:

I have ACEs in my history.....

I donated a copy of Susan Lawrence, M.D.'s book: "Creating A Healing Society: ... [how untreated ACEs...] ", to my local library. I found some of the trigger markers [other than the seven trigger markers you note] from the World Health Organization's ACE International Questionaire, and others noted here on ACEs Connection.com,  to be particularly relevant to me.

Surgery to suture a major puncture wound in the back of my upper thigh, from a tree cut about three feet high, beneath the window I fell from, as a teenager, left substantial wood chips embedded....which later caused the scar to swell when bending to milk cows on a dairy farm about five years later, then required additional surgery, using only local anesthetic, where [remaining wood chip proximity] deteriorated muscles/tendons had to be torn....  As Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. noted in his book: "The Body Keeps the Score:..."

Thank you Robert for commenting. Yes there are more ACE's and there are also a couple of new markers that other groups have added since the original. I gave 7 basic markers to get the attention of those new to the idea and that don't choose to read at length. I actually have more myself. I believe we need to consider Post Traumatic Stress with a distractible child that has trouble focusing rather than a quick assessment of ADD or ADHD. It sounds like quite a surgical experience you had....

I have ACEs in my history.....

I donated a copy of Susan Lawrence, M.D.'s book: "Creating A Healing Society: ... [how untreated ACEs...] ", to my local library. I found some of the trigger markers [other than the seven trigger markers you note] from the World Health Organization's ACE International Questionaire, and others noted here on ACEs Connection.com,  to be particularly relevant to me.

Surgery to suture a major puncture wound in the back of my upper thigh/lower buttock, from a tree cut [on an angle/rather than perpendicular-with wood chips atop it] about three feet high, beneath the window I fell from, as a teenager, which left substantial wood chips embedded....[and no "drawing salve" was used on my bandages, at that time] ... which later caused the scar to swell when bending to milk cows on a dairy farm about five years later, then required additional surgery, using only local anesthetic, where [remaining wood chip proximity] deteriorated muscles/tendons had to be torn....  As Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. noted in his book: "The Body Keeps the Score:..."

P.S. I had heard that "wood chips" were a major contributor to infection among our Civil War soldiers, as trees, fence posts and rails hit by bullets which also hit soldiers, were more difficult to remove than the bullets, and the wood chips later deteriorated if not also removed.