Recovering from childhood trauma, now commonly known as adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), can begin at any age. And it can begin when we understand that treating childhood trauma requires identifying the root causes that underly the symptoms of childhood trauma.

In other words, it requires helping children and adults understand there’s a reason they engage in unacceptable or unhealthy behaviors that get them into trouble or harm their health; there’s a reason they may have one or more physical or emotional ailments. These unacceptable/unhealthy behaviors or physical or emotional ailments are not the “real” them; they’re not bad, unworthy of love children/adults; they’re not inherently “sick.”

Rather their unacceptable/unhealthy behaviors or physical or emotional ailments are the symptoms of something far deeper; something often invisible to the outside world; a something known as childhood trauma (adverse childhood experiences/ACEs). In other words, there is a root cause for these symptoms, and that root cause is the way childhood trauma triggers the fight-or-flight stress response system — a triggering that often results in toxic stress.  And it is ACEs-related toxic stress that changes a child’s brain architecture and thereby changes a child/adult’s behaviors and/or physical or emotional health across a lifetime.

In more instances than not, these children/adults have stories similar to Darrell Hammond’s. Darrell is an actor, stand-up comedian, impressionist, and well-know regular on Saturday Night Live’s. His story is featured in the new documentary, Cracked Up, by Michelle Esrick. Darrell’s physical, emotional and behavioral health ailments were misdiagnosed or not effectively treated for years. This is because society and the medical community, as a whole, was not trained to look for the root cause of the symptoms of ACEs-related toxic stress and to understand what a high ACEs score means (explained more fully below).

In other words, they’d not been trained to know that in all likelihood…

• there’s a reason a child and/or an adult develops a substance use disorder
• there’s a reason they’ve been grappling with mental illness and been through several doctors and several treatment regimes
• there’s a reason they were diagnosed as having ADHD as a child
• there’s a reason they experience(d) fits of rage and were diagnosed a behavioral problem
• there’s a reason they are sexually promiscuous
• there’s a reason they look for love in all the wrong places
• there’s a reason they experience headaches and migraines or have difficulty sleeping or have an eating disorder or have been labeled a “cutter”
• there’s a reason they often think about or attempt suicide
• there’s a reason they marry/married a person with an alcohol or other drug use disorder
• there’s even a reason for their cancer, heart disease, obesity, diabetes or smoking
• there’s a reason they enter the juvenile or criminal justice systems and/or end up repeat offenders.

…and the reason is rooted in childhood trauma, now commonly referred to as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

And to be clear, adverse childhood experiences are not always the reason, BUT if a person has been through years of various treatments or refuses treatment or develops new symptoms, it’s time to look at childhood trauma.

And to do that, it’s time to reframe the question.

Thanks to the CDC-Kaiser Study of the late 1990s and the brain, trauma, and toxic stress related research in the recent 10-15 years, the question to be asked IS NOT , “What’s wrong with you?” or “Why did you do that?”

Rather the question to be asked IS, “What happened to you?”

That’s because we now understand the symptom(s) of childhood trauma are problematic behaviors and physical and emotional ailments.

Cracked Up Documentary “Sheds Light on the Impact of Childhood Trauma Over a Lifetime” 

I just watched a 12-minute CNN interview on the new documentary, Cracked Up, by Michelle Esrick, which is what prompted me to write this post. I’ll let this copy and paste from the film’s website describe what it’s about:

In Cracked Up we witness the impact that childhood trauma can have over a lifetime through the incredible story of award-winning actor, comedian, master impressionist and Saturday Night Live star, Darrell Hammond.  Darrell is famous for his impressions of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Sean Connery and more, but few know his true story and the suffering he endured.  Darrell performed brilliantly on live TV, but behind the scenes he struggled with debilitating flashbacks, self injury, alcohol and drugs and once was taken out of SNL in a straight jacket. Darrell was misdiagnosed for 40 years with different mental illnesses and put on a long list of medications. After a suicide attempt, Darrell finally met the doctor who gave him the proper diagnosis of “childhood trauma”.  Courageously transparent, Darrell takes us through his past and present day experiences with incredible resilience, vulnerability, wisdom and humor.

Cracked Up will be a rallying cry to join a movement that is transforming our communities one by one to become trauma informed.  The science is clear – toxic stress in childhood changes the architecture of the developing brain creating ill-health downstream. Darrell’s courageous story of hope will not only move, entertain and inspire, it will break down barriers of stigma and move us all closer to better prevention and treatment with understanding and compassion.

I urge you to see this documentary, as will I. And then I urge you to pass it along to anyone and everyone you know because likely they know someone or they are the someone who has experienced childhood trauma.

Official Trailer of the documentary, “Cracked Up.” Image source: screen shot of website image, www.crackedup.com.

For More Information

About Childhood Trauma – Adverse Childhood Experiences

Kaiser Permanente and the Centers for Disease Control did a huge study in the late 1990s. It’s called the ACE Study. ACEs stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. These are stressful or traumatic events that happen to a child from birth to age 18.

This Study involved 17,000 Kaiser patients who were asked to fill out a 10-question questionnaire asking if they’d been exposed to 1 or more of the 10 adverse childhood experience(s) being measured. The 10 ACEs are: physical, sexual, emotional abuse; physical, emotional neglect; living with a family member who’s addicted to alcohol or other drugs, is depressed, has other mental illness or who’s imprisoned; witnessing a mother’s abuse; divorce or separation.

The 17,000 study participants’ answers were compared to their medical histories. The results showed that experiencing adverse childhood experiences was linked to a variety of health problems across a lifetime.

These health problems included depression, substance abuse or addiction to alcohol or other drugs, anxiety, obesity, diabetes, suicide attempts, heart disease, cancer, STDs, broken bones, smoking, and having a stroke. The more ACEs a person has the more likely they are (or were) to have or to develop one or more of these health problems.

There are many other kinds of adverse childhood experiences that were not measured in the original ACE Study that have these same kinds of impacts on a child. These other ACEs include: racism, bullying, watching a sibling being abused, losing a caregiver (grandmother, mother, grandfather, etc.), homelessness, surviving and recovering from a severe accident, witnessing a father being abused by a mother, witnessing a grandmother abusing a father, involvement with the foster care system, involvement with the juvenile justice system, etc.

To find out your ACEs score, click here.

About the Childhood Trauma – Toxic Stress Connection

My latest book (2019) explains the connection between ACEs, Substance Use Disorders, and Toxic Stress. It’s now available at book stores, libraries, and online retailers – click here for the Amazon link http://bitly.com/2kNoVLz

Brain research in the recent 10-15 years explains what it is about adverse childhood experiences that can cause health problems across a lifetime. It is toxic stress.

Toxic stress happens when ACEs repeatedly trigger a child’s fight-or-flight stress response. Toxic stress is a really big problem for kids because of the developmental processes their brains go through from birth through their early 20s. For more on this, check out my post on ACEs Connection, “The Developing Brain & Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).”

The problem with toxic stress is that it changes how a child’s brain develops and how their brains and body work. These changes are NO FAULT of that child’s. These brain and body changes can cause a child to:

• act out in anger – yelling, throwing things, fighting, saying mean/horrible things
• get in trouble at school
• get labeled a behavioral problem
• get kicked out of school
• have trouble concentrating and learning
• be mistakenly diagnosed with ADHD, as examples.

These behaviors are not the “real” child. Nor do these behaviors make a child a “bad” kid, unworthy of being loved and respected.

Rather these behaviors are the symptoms of what is going on in that child’s life. In other words, it’s the adverse childhood experiences they’ve experienced or are experiencing that are causing them toxic stress. And it is the way toxic stress changes the brain and body that causes a child to do or experience the things described above.

For more about the toxic stress–childhood trauma connection, visit, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, A Guide to Toxic Stress.

About Resilience — ACEs Don’t Have to Rule

Resilience is the way a person who has been (or is being) knocked down by ACEs comes back stronger than ever. Basically having resilience helps a person treat and then prevent future toxic stress outcomes. In other words, resilience helps a child (or adult) not let their ACEs “win.” What helps build resilience?

This recent research shows that having a caring, supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult who provides support and trustworthiness can really help a child build their resilience. In addition to a parent or caregiver, that adult can be a grandparent, aunt or uncle, teacher, school administrator, therapist, or social worker, etc.

For more information about Resilience, visit, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, Resilience.

As for what helps an adult who has a high ACE score build resilience, I’ll let Darrell Hammond’s story and the documentary, Cracked Up, answer this question.

Bottom Line

When a child/adult is struggling with any of the unacceptable/unhealthy behaviors or physical or emotional ailments described above, it’s important to get to the root cause because those are so often the symptom(s) of something deeper, namely childhood trauma (ACEs). And in order to get at the root cause, we must reframe the question:

NOT this, “What’s wrong with you?” or “Why did you do that?”

But THIS, “What happened to you?”

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Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com

Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.

Latest posts by Lisa Frederiksen (see all)

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