 Today we're going to be talking about how childhood trauma can affect your mental health later on in life as an adult. Today we're going to be using the adverse childhood experiences test so make sure that you stay tuned as I go through it. What is up everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. So the first thing I want to talk about is childhood trauma. So trauma is very relative and subjective. It depends on who you are. So basically I've already done a video that I will link up in the info card about how the ACEs test was created. I did a video about weight loss and depression so go check that video out if you want some more background on where ACEs came from. But anyways it's mental health month so we need to start talking about how your childhood can affect your mental health later on in life. So when talking about trauma it doesn't necessarily have to be physical or sexual abuse or it doesn't have to be something like insanely big. Like it can be but it depends on the person. So what they do with this test when you end up working with a therapist and you go through this ACEs test they're gonna basically ask you after you take this test how do you think these things affected you in life okay? So this test was actually conducted on like over 17,000 people and it's a correlational test. So what this means is based on your childhood experiences they have very strong evidence that it is linked with the issues that you're dealing with as an adult but it means there's a correlation not a causation. So what does that mean? All right so some of these questions in this test might say like were either of your parents a drug addict or an alcoholic and let's say you became a drug addict or an alcoholic. Yes there's a good possibility that that's why but it doesn't mean that every child of an alcoholic or an addict is going to become an alcoholic or an addict all right? If you're experiencing depression anxiety symptoms like that as an adult and you have a very high ACEs score it means that there's a strong possibility about how you coped with these things as a child has affected your mental health later on in life but it doesn't mean that every child who went through this as a child is automatically going to have depression anxiety or other symptoms of mental illness as a dog. I hope that makes sense all right? So I've been very interested in this and make sure you stay until the end of this video because I'm gonna provide some resources and some other information so make sure that you stay until the end. And also please share this video because a lot of people may not understand why they have poor mental health as an adult and this might be the reason why. So I've actually never taken the ACEs test I heard about it a while back when I read the book Lost Connections and recently it's come up again all right? So I decided to take this test so apparently the the higher your score is the higher the chance is that you're gonna have issues later on in life. I ended up having a lot of issues anxiety depression addiction all sorts of stuff right? Fear of abandonment like it's insane so let's see what my ACEs score is and let's see maybe how that affected me as an adult all right? So let's get started. All right so the test that I'll be taking gets on the NPR website and I'll link it down in the description below. Usually it's like a printed out form they fill out and check it off but for the purpose of this video I was like oh well they made it pretty easy in a website so I'll just take it here all right? So let's see how this thing goes. All right start the quiz. All right so before your 18th birthday did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often swear at you insult you put you down or humiliate you or act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt so I'm going to answer yes on that. So those of you who are new here I'm the child of an alcoholic mom so there was a lot of that going on yelling saying things to me that yeah emotional stuff. Question two before your 18th birthday did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often push grab slap or throw something at you or ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured? I'm gonna say no so part of this test they're looking for physical or sexual abuse physical or emotional neglect like I had a stepdad who spanked me every now and then but like it it's not something I would call any kind of like abuse like spankings I don't know I don't consider that I did some bad stuff as a kid whatevs. All right question number three before your 18th birthday did an adult or person at least five years older than you ever touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way or attempt or actually have oral anal or vaginal intercourse with you uh no I'm very fortunate for that. So real quick so in this test it says before your 18th birthday a lot the reason being the reason being our brains don't fully develop until we're in our mid 20s okay the prefrontal cortex I've talked to you guys about this before so we haven't necessarily developed these coping skills at a young age that's why it can actually rewire the way that your brain works so you can have a lot of trauma responses and anxiety and depression based on triggers later on in life so what they what they talk about is the reason why they use 18 is because before the age of 18 you really can't like physically leave that environment because you're not technically an adult so if you're wondering why it says before your 18th birthday that's why all right I want a question for before your 18th birthday did you often or very often feel that no one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special or your family didn't look out for each other feel close to each other or support each other dang yeah that's that's a that's a big yes um wow that's crazy uh yeah as a kid that was one of my my biggest issues I just I felt that nobody in my family really loved me that's why um you know my grandma's passing a couple years ago really hit me hard like growing up I always felt like she was the only one who truly cared about me um my dad my dad definitely did uh you know he helped raise me he did the best that he could um but I always kind of felt like an outsider in my own family so that is a yes all right question five before your 18th birthday did you often or very often feel that you didn't have enough to eat had to wear dirty clothes and had no one to protect you or your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it um so I'm gonna I'm gonna answer yes to this um yeah drunk and high like that that's something like what we what we talk about especially like in in a therapy session is like you know I I had a lot of fear and that's where a lot of my anxiety um really stemmed from is that I didn't feel like if something if if some stuff were to go down I didn't know if I could rely on someone like my mom to be there for me you know what I'm saying um my dad while he was you know raised me he was gone a lot for work or you know being a single dad trying to find me a new mom and stuff like that um we did have some money issues and things like that too so that is a yes all right question number six before your 18th birthday was a biological parent ever lost to you through divorce abandonment or other reason so that's a yes my parents divorced when I was four and I won't go too into the story right now but um a lot of my fear of abandonment came from that divorce uh I was a mama's boy up until I was four years old and then I ended up living with my dad and four till I was like 17 or 18 maybe even longer like I thought that my mom just didn't want me that that's the narrative I had in my head I thought that she just sent me to my dad's to visit and never wanted me back question seven before your 18th birthday was your mother or stepmother often or very often pushed grab slapped or had something thrown at her or sometimes often or very often kick bitten hit with a fist or hit with something hard or ever repeatedly hit over uh over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife no that is a no my stepdad was a jerk but um as far as I know none of those things happened um so question eight before your 18th birthday did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic or use street drugs like why did why do so many of these have something to do with like man like addiction yeah yeah I've already said that I've already answered that for you question number nine before your 18th birthday was a household member depressed or mentally ill or did a household member attempt suicide so yeah not only was my mom an alcoholic but as a child six seven eight years old nine ten like as a kid um I remember my mom being drunk and locking herself in the bathroom threatening to kill herself and things like that um my mom is also somebody with uh dual diagnosis um she she's the one who's helped me out a lot with my mental health because pretty much every uh issue that she's had I had too that's a whole other video about how mental illness is passed on through genetics and things like that and if I didn't mention it and those of you who don't know my mom is actually 12 years sober now and I actually just got off the phone with her we have an amazing relationship today I just wanted to throw that in there um but she didn't get sober until I was 20 years old before your 18th birthday did I did a household member go to prison nope well no no no household member go to prison your a score is a six all right all right so so yeah um yeah I had some stuff happen to me as a kid uh and and it's really interesting it's it's something that I learned a lot you know um my my therapeutic process came a lot through uh um recovery programs and things like that but I was able to go through and heal through a lot of this stuff um a lot of this stuff was buried down underneath and because I refused to address it for so long I was acting out in different ways you know I turned to drugs and alcohol to cope a lot of anger issues I had a lot of anxiety issues I had a lot of fear of abandonment um like I said these are correlational stuff like one of the reasons I've done videos on borderline personality disorder lately is because it's absolutely intrigued me that a lot of people with bpd have a very high aces score and a high aces score is like you know over like two or three can be high you know what I mean if you think about what the normal household is like two or three on this test like you just went through these questions with me two or three is a lot you know um you know this not only bpd but PTSD and again we're talking about anxiety depression things like that so these things sit underneath the surface and until we address them they're gonna stay there but the good news is the good news is is that there is a way to heal from these things and the best way to do that is through therapy through therapy because therapists when they walk you through this when they take you through the test then it's time to sit down and look at these experiences and say how have they affected you in your life how have have these things affected the way that you deal and manage with life whether that's in relationships um intimate relationships or relationships with friends family members work right they can start to address these things and then the beautiful part about therapy is that they have a slew of evidence-based treatment methods that can help you start to heal through this process right and you work with a therapist and they'll help you figure out which ones are best for you so there's like cognitive behavioral therapy dialectical behavioral therapy all these different things that are proven by science to help rewire your brain to overcome this type of childhood trauma all right so I was actually referred um this podcast that I will also link in the description and I found out about this podcast because my girlfriend has actually signed up through Better Help and her therapist told her about this podcast where they do a more in-depth kind of talk about the adverse childhood experiences test and it was amazing like when my girlfriend sent me that I was like I was like I like your therapist I like your therapist and this is a better help therapist so for those of you who didn't know Better Help supports this channel and all of my beautiful viewers out there so if you feel that you have things from your childhood that haven't been properly dealt with yet please please please check out the description below and try some online therapy work with a therapist it's time for you to start healing and regain control of your mental health as well as your emotions by working through this stuff okay Better Help is extremely extremely affordable my girlfriend is only paying like 25 bucks a week you know that is really not that bad especially when you consider that other therapists you know might be charging you hundreds of dollars per session all right so Better Help gives you a wide variety of therapists have a little questionnaire to see what kind of stuff you need to work on and all sorts of stuff I don't know why I'm talking click the link do the questionnaire and see what's going on but anyways like I said if you think that you know somebody who is struggling because of adverse childhood experiences please please please it's mental health awareness month please do me a favor and share this video with them all right but anyways um you know I enjoyed doing this video if you like me to do more of them leave a comment down below like it was kind of fun taking a test and like I've never done this before so I learned a little bit more about myself as well as the aces test all right but please share it and if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and if you're new here if you just stumbled across this video make sure you click that little round subscribe button I'm always doing videos to help you out with your mental and emotional needs all right and if you want to check out some other videos on this channel you can click or tap on one of those thumbnails okay so thanks again so so much for watching go out start healing and I'll see you next time