How child trauma can haunt us as adults [DesMoinesRegister.com]

Great points, Patrick. There are so many examples of how knowledge contributes to healing that I'm still surprised when people say they're reluctant to ask clients, patients, students, prisoners, customers -- whomever they're serving -- the 10 ACE questions (not to mention other types of ACEs appropriate to the population they're serving).

And, I'm surprised at the number of courses, webinars, and training about trauma-informed care that doesn't even mention ACEs science (the epidemiology of ACE surveys, the neurobiology of toxic stress, the biomedical and epigenetic consequences of toxic stress and resilience research). Some trauma-informed training does a good job of including neuroscience and some resilience research, but doesn't include the other parts of ACEs science.

That's not providing the complete story about this new knowledge of human development, and is keeping useful information from people who could well use it on their path to healing.

The people who put together the NEAR@Home toolkit go so far as to say that educating parents about ACEs science is a social justice issue.

While listening a number of times to Dr. Felitti speak during his visit to Juneau in February, 2016, he made it abundantly clear that "Knowledge" contributes to healing. This article is a perfect example of that. We are not broken as ACE survivors. When you reframe Yolanda's story, she was seeking the help that was available to her. Cigarettes work almost immediately when you take that first puff. Alcohol takes away some of the Toxic Stress (and can add a lot more to it if something bad happens while your are drinking). And getting pregnant at 14 is seeking the love and affection that it is difficult to find inside a Toxic Household. 

The video of interviews with participants in the Kaiser Permanente ACE Study is amazing. Middle aged men and women talk about the problems they faced, DESPITE BEING SUCCESSFUL AND RELATIVELY WELL OFF (sorry for the yelling, but I want to emphasize this observation), and the healing it helped to start. As a result, Knowledge is the first step in the Restoration to Health Protocol I envision. We need to know that what happens to us is a byproduct of Toxic Stress. 

Most of us can heal. As we move on from knowledge, I encourage you to examine your nutrition, exercise and use self healing protocols like meditation, mindfulness, EMDR (need help on this one), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Ericksonian Hypnosis (learned about this one from Dr. Felitti as well). 

But I want to caution readers that even successful people are damaged by Toxic Stress. We can't assume that they don't need the Knowledge or healing that can happen.