Healing from ACEs: a parent’s story
From a blog by ACEs Aware
Linda Baggio, a parent and public health leader, came to the U.S.A. from Nigeria when she was 12, suffering abuse that made her feel that her face was “not worth looking at” and “her voice was not worth being heard”. She ended up developing scoliosis as an adolescent from bending her head down and not looking up. Here is her story:
In Nigeria, abuse was very normalized. I was told that my face was not worth looking at and my voice was not worth being heard. My experiences made it very painful for me to look people in the eye and I was forming scoliosis in my back because I bent my head down and never looked up.
I realized that I was hiding my brokenness because I was just so afraid to show it to the world. You are not broken you are injured - it's a big difference. Injury is something you can heal from.
The term Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) comes from a study that was done now over two decades ago, in which they asked adults about their history of 10 categories of adverse childhood experiences e.g. physical, emotional or sexual abuse. What they found was that, for someone with four or more ACEs, their risk of heart disease was double. For stroke, cancer, liver disease, diabetes, autoimmune disease, there's a direct relationship between adverse childhood experiences and some of the most significant and serious health conditions.
I wish my healthcare provider knew when I was 14 going to the pediatrician office, what's really happening to this girl. I would have had a different outcome. Early detection and early intervention improves outcomes.
I watched my father fight his ACEs. He didn't have the time to be vulnerable or the resources to support these battles that he was fighting in his head - the battles that I was fighting for a while until I had access to resources such as therapy. His trauma was transferred over to me - intergenerational transmission of ACEs. My understanding of that gives me more power to ensure that my son doesn't have the same ACEs that I do.
It's never too late to begin healing from ACEs.
Watch this 4 min video:
To find out your ACE score and access resources, visit My ACE Story.
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From a blog by ACEs Aware, 04/10/2023