Why Treating ACEs Helps With Addiction Recovery
Treating ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) can go a long, long way to helping a person with addiction (aka, with a substance use disorder) succeed in long-term recovery. Why? Because of the role ACEs play in changing a child’s brain wiring and mapping, making that child’s brain more susceptible to the key risk factors for developing a substance use disorder.
ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Explained
ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) refers to traumatic incidents in childhood and were identified in the epidemiological CDC-Kaiser Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study). This groundbreaking study involved 17,000 participants and looked at how 10 types of childhood trauma (ACEs) affect long-term health. These ACEs included: physical, emotional and sexual abuse; physical and emotional neglect; living with a family member who’s addicted to alcohol or other substances, or who’s depressed or has other mental illnesses; experiencing parental divorce or separation; having a family member who’s incarcerated; and witnessing a mother being abused. The Study participants were predominately white, predominately middle to upper-middle class, all had health insurance (all were Kaiser members) and most had jobs – so not society’s typical perception of persons experiencing adverse childhood experiences / childhood trauma.
The Study found that:
- More than 67% of had at least one ACE
- The more ACEs a person had, the more likely they were to experience negative outcomes. For example:
- 4 or more ACEs increases the risk of alcoholism seven times and attempting suicide 12 times
- 4 or more ACEs doubles the risk of heart disease and cancer
- 6 or more ACEs can shorten a lifespan by up to 20 years.
- Because of the way ACEs chronically activates the fight-or-flight stress response, a person can develop toxic stress, and it is toxic stress that connects exposure to ACEs with negative physical and emotional health outcomes, such as: chronic diseases (heart disease, cancer, inflammatory diseases, as examples), developing substance use disorders, mental illnesses, and violence.
To find out your ACE Score and learn more about the Study and study findings, check out ACEs Too High – Got Your ACEs Score?
To learn more about ACEs and the connection to toxic stress, check out The Developing Brain and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).
The ACEs – Addiction Connection
Images showing chemical and structural changes caused by alcohol and other drug use misuse.
ACEs – childhood trauma – is/are one of the key risk factors for developing addiction (substance use disorder). This is because of the way the chemicals in alcohol and other drugs changes the brain’s chemical and structural make up. These chemical and structural changes make the brain more vulnerable to these risk factors
In other words – it takes both misusing drugs and/or alcohol and the presence of these risk factors to develop addiction (aka a severe alcohol or other drug use disorder, aka a severe substance use disorder). This is because addiction is a developmental brain disease.
For more on this, check out NIDA’s “Drugs, Brains, and Behaviors: The Science of Addiction,” and my article, “Alcohol Use Disorder Prevention – Raising Awareness About Brain Development and the Risk Factors | Alcohol Awareness Month.”
As for these risk factors, they include:
- Genetics, which is 40-60% of the puzzle. It is estimated there are some 25 genes that influence a person’s predisposition to developing addiction (substance use disorder), such as lower levels of the liver enzyme that metabolizes alcohol or higher or lower levels of dopamine. Just as we have genetic predispositions to eye or skin color or body type or some cancers, so, too, can a person inherit genetic predispositions that can lead to the developing a substance use disorder.
- Early Use – 90% of persons who develop an alcohol (or other drug) use disorder started their misuse in adolescence. The reason for this profound impact are the developmental processes occurring during adolescence, especially development of the prefrontal cortex and the pruning and strengthening process.
- Social environment – because the brain is wiring from birth (meaning brain cells are talking to one another and to and from other neurons throughout the body via the nervous system) and forming brain maps for the things a child (person) repeatedly does, social environment can have a significant impact on brain development.
- Mental illness, aka Mental Disorders – approximately 40% of persons diagnosed with alcohol and other drug use disorders have also experienced a mental illness (e.g., depression, PTSD, ADHD, bipolar) at some time in their lives. Mental illness causes chemical and structural changes in the brain, as does alcohol or other drug misuse. A person with a mental disorder often uses alcohol (or other drugs) to self-medicate the symptoms of the mental illness. By the same token, alcohol (or other drug misuse) may exacerbate an existing mental illness – for example, alcohol is a depressant which can further depress a person with depression. Some mental disorders can be the result of childhood trauma (ACEs) – PTSD, for example.
- Childhood trauma / Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) – verbal, physical or emotional abuse, neglect, persistent conflict in the family, sexual abuse and other traumatic childhood experiences can shape a child’s brain chemistry and subsequent vulnerability to developing an alcohol (or other drug) use disorder. Check out “ACEs [Adverse Childhood Experiences] Science 101 (FAQs)” and Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child’s “The Impact of Early Adversity on Children’s Development.” It is very common for a person to map the use of a substance as a soother for their untreated trauma / ACEs. That’s because of the way the chemicals in alcohol or other drugs work in the brain. If a person does not treat the profound impacts of their childhood trauma (ACEs), the mapping that occurred between the trauma triggers and their use of alcohol or other drugs as soothers likely cannot change. For more on this, check out my article, “Healing Trauma Takes Time.”
Treating ACEs Helps With Addiction Recovery
As you’ve gathered by now, if ACEs changes brain wiring, mapping and thereby contributes to a person developing addiction, then treating one’s ACEs can help with “unwiring” their addiction-ACEs related brain maps. This is thanks to another key discovery in brain science – neuroplasticity. A person can reorganize – change – their brain at anytime for better brain health. Check out “Understand Brain Maps | Change a Habit | Change Your Life.”
But I share all of the above as background to two examples of what it means to treat one’s ACEs in order to succeed in long-term recovery.
The first is a news clip titled, “Recovery Week: Man Connects His Addiction to Trauma.” Quoting from this article and video clip, “Ray Vigil drank heavily for years but never realized he was drinking to numb the pain of an abusive childhood and other traumas until he hit rock bottom and began seeing a therapist.”
The second is an article titled, “Substance-abuse doc says: Stop chasing the drug! Focus on ACEs.” This post has had 405,879 views as of 5/23/18.
Bottom Line
If you are struggling with a substance use disorder, aka addiction, consider screening for ACEs (the link was shared in the first section, above). If you score high, consider getting help with a medical professional (a doctor who understands ACEs, a therapist who understand ACEs) who can help you unravel the impacts of childhood trauma on your brain and help you un-map your use of alcohol or other drugs to relieve those trauma triggers.
As always, if you have a personal question related to the subject matter of this post, feel free to contact me via email at lisaf@BreakingTheCycles.com to set up a confidential phone conversation at no charge. You might also find my latest book, “10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You’d Stop!” helpful.
©2018 Lisa Frederiksen
Lisa Frederiksen
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