The Stockade Paradox says that we must accept the brutal realities of our existence, yet maintaining enduring hope that we will prevail in the end. I have applied the Paradox to my study of ACE's which began in 2008. I was an early advocate for addressing ACEs in Alaska. In 2013 I wrote a resolution for a Representative in Alaska that called for considering ACEs in health and other policies in Alaska. It took years, but the Representative and other allies improved the resolution I submitted and made consideration of ACEs a requirement to consider in adopting certain policies. ACEs are discussed more frequently in Alaska today that when I started in 2008.
But the brutal reality is that we are not better off today than we were in 2008. While we wish it were true, it is not. And I don't believe we are any closer to finding solutions to the problems driven by childhood inflicted trauma. One hopeful concept that has been advanced for the years I have been working in the ACE world is Resilience. As currently developed, Resilience is a weak concept focused on an End with a fully developed Means to get there.
I understand that I am taking on one of the 3 goals of PACEs, and please understand that this is done intentionally, but without malice. I enter this discussion based on a different theory, one based on a deeper assessment of a Root Cause for the outcomes experienced by those who suffered ACEs as a child. My explanation is not a simple one. I will argue for an alternative view of resilience. Phrases I use include the following. Emotion: I use Simon Sinek's observation that Emotion has no capacity for language; Behaviors: ways of being that are altered by experience and depth of Stress (Normal, Tolerable, Toxic); Fear Response: a Feedback Loop starting with a reaction of fear and ending when the physical response ends; Gap: what occurs when the Feedback Loop cannot be completed by a return to homeostasis; Stacking: what occurs when different behaviors are used by the brain to help close the Gap by adopting multiple behaviors; Positive, Neutral & Negative: how behaviors used to fill the Gap are categorized by society; and Healing: a 5 step process for use by adults to reduce of eliminate the Gap and diminish the need for Stacked behaviors.
If you read this far, thank you for your curiosity. I am not writing for a general audience. My goal is to reach those who believe they are Innovators or Early Adopters. Both are defined in the Rogers Innovation Curve, popularized some time ago by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, The Tipping Point.
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