The Connection Between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) and Chronic Illness

If you are someone who has a history of childhood trauma and chronic illness, you may have already made the significant connection between adverse childhood experiences and chronic health conditions.

Many of the clients I work with who experience chronic health conditions report a high ACES score and intuitively know that an important step in their healing journey oftentimes includes working through their history of trauma by learning how to reconnect mind and body and re-regulate their nervous system.

The interesting thing is that we know the impact stress can have on the mind and body as the connection between stress and chronic health conditions have been documented for decades. We know that stress can exert various actions on the body ranging from acute nervous system dysregulation to chronic health conditions or death (Yaribeygi et al., 2017).

If you are someone who is reading this and you are on a journey toward healing, my hope is that this provides you with some context as to why your body might be stuck in a homeostasis that is no longer serving you or stuck in a dis-ease state.

What are ACES?

 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are single or compounded events or circumstances that may be traumatic to children or adolescents during the first 18 years of life.

*It is important to note that adults can have traumatic experiences too, which of course can also lead to nervous system dysregulation and chronic health conditions. This post in particular focuses on ACES and the incidence of chronic health conditions but common sense, and research also suggests that chronic and prolonged nervous system dysregulation is a major contributor in chronic health conditions.*

Examples of ACEs include:

1.     Any types of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse

2.     Physical or emotional neglect. This can include primary caregivers requiring children to act as if they are adults (parentification), belittling, rejecting, ridiculing, blaming, gaslighting, threatening, isolating, restricting social interactions, denying the child an emotional response, withholding love and/or affection in an effort to punish

3.     Witnessing abuse, neglect, or intimate partner violence

4.     Living with family members with mental health or substance abuse problems 

5.     Instability in relationships through parental separation or incarceration

6.     Chronic and prolonged nervous system dysregulation due to primary caretakers who were unable to co-regulate with their children, leading to a chronic sense of overwhelm

7.     Poverty

8.     Experiencing a significant loss such as death of a loved one

Adverse Childhood Experiences and Chronic Illness

Longstanding research suggests that children who experience ACES are at much greater risk of several negative health outcomes in later in life (Monnat & Chandler, 2015) such as poor self-rated health, chronic diseases, functional limitations, premature mortality, poor mental health (Kelly-Irving et al., 2013) and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation (Kalmakis et al., 2015).

Crandall et al (2019) found that some of the long term effects (ACES) include an increased incidence of all types of cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart and lung diseases, autoimmune diseases of all kinds, liver disease, skeletal fractures and more.

Other studies have also found a significantly higher incidence of childhood trauma in people who experience chronic fatigue (Heim et al., 2006),  and fibromyalgia (Olivieri et al., 2012; Varinen et al., 2017).

In short, research supports the idea that ACES are highly related to adult symptoms of chronic health issues of all kinds.

Is it possible to improve the outcomes of chronic illnesses by healing trauma?

Yes!

What can we do if we have a high ACES score and we are suffering from chronic health issues?

The first thing to do is remind yourself that trauma changes the mind and body, AND SO DOES HEALING. We can heal from childhood trauma and we can create a new homeostasis that works for our body in this new season of life. If you are suffering, it is important to remember that you are not alone and there are people who want to help. If you are suffering from ACES and chronic health conditions, it is important to find the right support system to join you on your journey to healing.

The second thing to do is work on re-engaging the mind body connection so that healing can take place.

Here at Well Mind Body, we take into account the entire person, not just your mental health. We understand that the messages that go between the mind and body are bi-directional and that the mind and body are in constant communication. Our goal is to help our clients heal their mind and body through nervous system re-regulation and compassion focused trauma recovery so that they may live a fuller and more grounded life that is is alignment with their goals and values.

Resources

Crandall, A., Miller, J. R., Cheung, A., Novilla, L. K., Glade, R., Novilla, M. L. B., Magnusson, B. M., Leavitt, B. L., Barnes, M. D., & Hanson, C. L. (2019). ACEs and counter-ACEs: How positive and negative childhood experiences influence adult health. Child Abuse & Neglect, 96, 104089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.104089

Heim, C., Wagner, D., Maloney, E., Papanicolaou, D. A., Solomon, L., Jones, J. F., Unger, E. R., & Reeves, W. C. (2006). Early Adverse Experience and Risk for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Results From a Population-Based Study. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63(11), 1258. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.63.11.1258

Kalmakis, K. A., Meyer, J. S., Chiodo, L., & Leung, K. (2015). Adverse childhood experiences and chronic hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal activity. Stress, 18(4), 446–450. https://doi.org/10.3109/10253890.2015.1023791

Kelly-Irving, M., Mabile, L., Grosclaude, P., Lang, T., & Delpierre, C. (2013). The embodiment of adverse childhood experiences and cancer development: Potential biological mechanisms and pathways across the life course. International Journal of Public Health, 58(1), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-012-0370-0

Monnat, S. M., & Chandler, R. F. (2015). Long-Term Physical Health Consequences of Adverse Childhood Experiences. The Sociological Quarterly, 56(4), 723–752. https://doi.org/10.1111/tsq.12107

Olivieri, P., Solitar, B., & Dubois, M. (2012). Childhood risk factors for developing fibromyalgia. Open Access Rheumatology: Research and Reviews, 4, 109–114. https://doi.org/10.2147/OARRR.S36086

Varinen, A., Kosunen, E., Mattila, K., Koskela, T., & Sumanen, M. (2017). The relationship between childhood adversities and fibromyalgia in the general population. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 99, 137–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2017.06.011

Yaribeygi, H., Panahi, Y., Sahraei, H., Johnston, T. P., & Sahebkar, A. (2017). The impact of stress on body function: A review. EXCLI Journal; 16:Doc1057; ISSN 1611-2156. https://doi.org/10.17179/EXCLI2017-480