After a difficult childhood, many effective strategies can facilitate recovery and elevate mood and brain health.

Shame is common to the human condition but ACEs heighten shame in many harmful ways. Denying shame prevents us from healing it. The solution lies in bringing shame out into the light of day and making it an ally.

Although the challenges can be greater for survivors of ACEs, developing emotional intelligence is vital for successful, satisfying living. Emotional intelligence begins with self-awareness and understanding eight key principles.

If perfectionism is the enemy of good, compassionate, flexible striving for excellence may be the wiser approach.

To read more of Dr. Glenn Schiraldi's article, please click here, Breaking the Cycle of Adverse Childhood Experiences | Psychology Today . Image: Source Key points Effective parenting is a learned skill. Those who didn't see effective parenting modeled at home can nevertheless become very effective parents. The consistent application of effective parenting practices promotes healthy adjustment in children. Congratulations! You’ve worked hard to heal the inner wounds from childhood adversity...

Michael J. Menard’s fascinating book recounts how fourteen children faced uncommon challenges. Yet most of them found the way to overcome their struggles and thrive.

The rigid pursuit of perfection poses a high risk to health and performance. A kinder, more flexible approach to pursuing high standards leads to better health and performance. Perfectionism, which is motivated by fear and self-doubt, is often rooted in adverse childhood experiences.

The body often tells the real story of trauma better than the thinking mind. Before one can verbalize and complete the trauma story, one typically must return to physical equilibrium. Trauma expert Levine explains ways to calm physical and emotional responses to trauma and regain a sense of wholeness.

The Mr. Nice Guy syndrome's dysfunctional thought patterns are common in survivors of adverse childhood experiences. Uprooting these patterns can improve self-esteem and relationships.

The Mr. Nice Guy Syndrome is a curious mixture of appealing strengths, insecurities, and problematic behaviors rooted in adverse childhood experiences. Mr. Nice Guy compensates for hidden childhood wounds by struggling to do everything right, but the syndrome's limited gains come at a cost. The syndrome suggests strategies for a more satisfying adulthood and better relationships.

Time and willpower alone will not typically alter overwhelming, disturbing memories from childhood. Seven deadly thoughts can keep survivors of adverse childhood experiences from utilizing effective paths to healing. Disputing these thoughts can open one up to finally heal.

Often overlooked, intelligent self-care is vital during and after the recovery process. Tending to important needs optimizes mood, mental health, and the ability to handle everyday stress. These keys say, "I matter," and sustain you in your recovery journey.

A difficult past need not define you, nor determine your future. We explore three paths to building a satisfying life after hardship in childhood.

Pretending is the imposter’s exhausting attempt to conceal hidden wounds that often trace back to childhood. Most people relate to at lease some aspects of the syndrome. We discuss ways to drop the mask, counter insecurities, and live authentically.

Wounds of the heart may persist after troubling memories from childhood adversity have been rewired. Fortunately, pain from childhood adversities can spur us to create a peaceful heart of forgiving, kindness, calm, and purpose.

Worry rooted in adverse childhood experiences can rob you of energy and joy, and cause a variety of anxiety symptoms. This post explains the ACEs/worry connection and the principles for managing worry.

Three burdensome happens learned in trying to cope with adverse childhood experiences can be changed. Efforts to drop and replace these troubling habits can be extremely liberating.

Anxiety rooted in the hidden wounds from childhood need not be a lifelong sentence. A combination of effective strategies offer hope and help to alleviate anxious conditions, including excessive worry and panic attacks, that originate in childhood.

For moving past hidden wounds from childhood, mindset matters. These important attitudes undergird the process of healing from adverse childhood experiences.

Disturbing thought patterns linked to shame are learned. They can be challenged and replaced.

Country music artist Allen Karl (Sterner) endured unspeakable childhood cruelty and chaos, yet turned into a caring, competent adult. His story provides many useful insights that can help and inspire others who have endured multiple ACEs.

Shame-based memories imprint primarily in the non-verbal right brain, largely beneath conscious awareness. When our usual attempts to cope with the inner turmoil of shame fail, mindfulness can help. Bringing the various aspects of a disturbing memory to awareness gives the brain a chance to change the memory.

Attachment disruptions and other hidden wounds from ACEs can render one more vulnerable to drug addiction. Genuine, mature love from others, and for oneself, can change the course of one's life. A recent book highlights the path from childhood trauma to addiction to recovery.

Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) is an emerging trauma therapy for the hidden wounds resulting from Adverse Childhood Experiences. Research to date shows ART for traumatized adults is quick, effective, safe, and well-tolerated. Consistent with new understanding of the brain and body-centered treatment approaches, ART primarily targets trauma images and associated physical and emotional sensations, creatively and efficiently using eye movements and strategies from other trauma treatments.

Once the healing of hidden wounds from adverse childhood experiences has sufficiently progressed, attention can turn to developing a richly satisfying future. Your innate inner strengths, experiences, and acquired skills will help rewire your brain for a brighter future.

Adverse childhood experiences understandably can numb feelings, including feelings of joy, happiness, and pleasure. Making time to be joyful rewires the wounded brain. Once healing has progressed, the capacity for joy can usually be expanded through the repeated application of proven joy strategies.

Strengthening the wounded soul can improve psychological and physical wellbeing and help to complete the recovery process. Although ACEs, understandably, can numb feelings, including spiritual feelings, once healing has progressed, spiritual feelings can often be successfully cultivated.

While the process of forgiving painful offenses from childhood can be very difficult, efforts to forgive bring great rewards. The process begins with acknowledging the pain, applying self-compassion, and taking even small and faltering steps to get the forgiveness ball rolling.

The well-timed choice to forgive deep injuries from childhood, though difficult, can greatly improve psychological wellbeing and free us to move ahead. Four keys to forgiveness lay the foundation for cultivating healing forgiveness skills.

Once the suffering resulting from adverse childhood experiences is managed, we can turn toward creating a more satisfying life. Pursuing the honorable life leads to self-respect and inner peace. Compassion for mistakes, understanding their reasons, and applying integrity skills starts us on the path to flourishing.

These three cognitive countermeasures round out the skills for neutralizing shame imprinted in the first 18 years of life. They complement the right brain strategies described in recent articles.

Deep-rooted shame resulting from adverse childhood experiences can weigh you down. These skills can help.

Deeply rooted shame from childhood adversities can lurk beneath conscious awareness, even after early memories are reworked. New understanding of the brain provides hope for breaking the painful grip of shame that’s imprinted in childhood. Traditional therapeutic strategies might not be the best starting point. This blog introduces the first of several healing strategies.

New understanding of the brain provides hope for breaking the painful grip of shame that’s imprinted in childhood and continues to affect adults. Rewiring shame calls for more than the traditional left brain approaches.

What is emotional intelligence? How does it help us cope in the present and heal the hidden wounds from childhood that continue to disturb us?

The disturbing neural imprints from adverse childhood experiences need not be a life sentence. Imagery is an extremely helpful tool to modify the circuitry of the brain, utilizing the principle of neuroplasticity. Imagery strengthens and stabilizes the brain, while laying down alternative neural pathways.

Beyond the main pillars of sleep, exercise, and nutrition, these six practices optimize brain health and functioning in the present, while preparing the brain to adaptively rewire the hidden wounds from toxic childhood stress.

Recurring nightmares lead to much needless suffering for survivors of adverse childhood experiences—suffering that goes well beyond disturbed sleep. Five steps help take back the night.

Sufficient, good quality sleep strengthens the brain wounded by ACEs in many ways. Intelligent sleep strategies improve mood, brain (and medical) health, brain function, and the capacity to rewire negative neural pathways imprinted in childhood.

Even small amounts of exercise can quickly and dramatically improve mood, brain health, brain function, and the ability to cope with stress, while preparing the brain to rewire the hidden wounds from childhood.

The right mix of nutrients revitalizes the brain that's been wounded by ACEs. Good nutrition can quickly improve mood and functioning in the present, while improving the potential to rewire disturbing memories imprinted in childhood.

Glenn R. Schiraldi, Ph.D. Psychology Today blog post, November 16, 2021 Strong, distressing emotions are disturbing enough. They also trigger and maintain the dysregulated stress that causes so much suffering in adults affected by ACEs. Regulating intense unpleasant emotions is the second step to healing.

Dysregulated stress is central to the ACEs/health outcomes link. The healing journey starts with regulating stress arousal that is stuck on too high or too low.

It’s not time, but an integrated recovery plan that heals.

Shame imprinted in the early years of life typically plays out in the background, yet it affects adult quality of life in significant ways.

The Lingering Effects of Attachment Disruptions

How does toxic stress in the first eighteen years of life cause such suffering in adulthood? Understanding promotes recovery.

Why is toxic stress in the first eighteen years of life being called our number one unaddressed public health problem? The suffering and costs associated with ACEs are largely preventable and treatable.