+Two scales in combo absolutely needed! Adult attachment and ACEs

A senior expert and I have jointly written a long draft article combining these two scales precisely, because of course unless we do this, we're missing the big picture.

We can't post the article on the web as that would make it unacceptable for publication in news magazines where we're trying to publish it  (they'd want it first).  Here is my blog on the Adult Attachment Interview: http://attachmentdisorderheali...rview-aai-mary-main/

Here is my blog on Dr. Allan Schore and the core of Attachment Theory: http://attachmentdisorderhealing.com/allan-schore/

Here is how the draft article begins:

Shifting the Paradigm for Medicine and Psychiatry:
The ACE Study, the Adult Attachment Interview, and Child Trauma

“Maybe the problem is the specialists or the system -- not the patients.  Maybe we need a new approach.”

 The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is a medical study of 17,337 ordinary adult patients, starting in 1995-1997, with continual follow-up since at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego...  Subjects were asked if they’d had any of ten types of adverse childhood experiences, physical or emotional. The results, published in over 75 medical articles to date, revealed staggering evidence of the health, social, and economic risks that result from childhood trauma.

Two-thirds of this largely middle class group reported one or more types of ACEs, with untold numbers of incidents of that type; 42% had two or more types, and likely larger numbers of incidents. Eleven percent experienced five or more types. A true national average of all economic groups would almost certainly show that roughly half or more of Americans suffer significant trauma from adverse childhood experiences.

Next, responses were compared to whether the 17,337 subjects later, as adults, developed life-threatening bio-medical conditions, major emotional disturbances, and/or potentially fatal addictions. The study showed that this childhood trauma produced in them, as adults, the risk factors underlying the top ten causes of death in the U.S. including heart disease, stroke, cancer, lung disease, diabetes and liver disease.

It could easily be about your family; the numbers are large. Very large. But there’s no outcry for action by medical leaders, so you never heard of the ACE Study. What if the "experts," are in denial?

Meanwhile, a totally different psychological study you never heard of reached surprisingly similar conclusions.

Only 55% of Americans have “secure attachment,” shows research on over 2,000 infant-parent pairs done in1970-1996 – and the level of attachment we have as infants continues all our adult lives in our relationships. That’s the amazing finding of Dr. Mary Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation” study of babies, and Dr. Mary Main’s follow-up Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) study of the same babies’ adult parents.

The math says the other 45% of us suffer “insecure attachment.” That means as of 1996, 45% of us couldn’t handle a committed, stable relationship, from childhood through the rest of our lives. We felt enough anxiety as infants that it’s hard for us as adults to be emotionally close – and we pass the anxiety on to our kids, who turn out similarly.  [FN5 Benoit NIH article] Today, many specialists believe this “insecure” number is up to 50% or higher.

Compare that to America’s 50% divorce rate, and again the numbers are huge.

Such insecure attachment is also a major cause of child trauma. [FN van der Kolk, Perry, Siegel]  It can build up enough stress chemicals in an infant to signal the vagus nerve to “freeze” key bodily functions. It’s a major cause of heart disease, hypertension, cancer, digestive, pulmonary, immune and endocrine (thyroid) disease, as well as migraines, eye, ear, jaw, neck and back problems. [FN Levine, Heller, Porges, Karr-Morse]  

These are many of the same life-threatening conditions seen in the ACE Study which lead to premature death.

However we slice it, 45%, 50% or higher: the numbers are large. Very large. But there’s no outcry from leaders in the field, so you and your health care pros don’t know.  Again: what if the experts are in denial?

This is the story of what happened when Expert X and attachment researcher Kathy Brous sat down and compared notes...

If you want to shift away from the disease model paradigm, look up the Open Paradigm project on You Tube and you can maybe use some of their stories if you ask.

We use a couple scales in assessment, but an ACE score already tells me that the likelihood of secure attachment is almost nil. That informs me as to what to expect in client treatment, though it is never discussed. 

I use a somatic modality (self-induced and self-regulated) that allows the body to release trauma and stress without having to talk about it, or bring it to mind. The body sets the agenda, and in my experience, it isn't linear. Also in my experience, is the healing of development trauma and attachment issues. 

I am glad to see that our eyes are finally opening to the level of traumatic destruction on our planet. It's always the first step to healing.