today we're gonna 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 everybody this is Chris from the rewired saw where we talk about the
problem but focus on the solution so the first thing I want to talk about is
childhood trauma okay so trauma is very relative and
subjective it depends on who you are okay 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 of
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 alright so some of these questions in this test might say like
we're either of your parents with drug addict or 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 and alcoholic or an addict all right if you're experiencing depression
any symptoms like that as an adult and you have a very high ASA score it means
that there's a strong possibility about how would you coped with these things as
a child has affected your mental health later on a lot 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 adult 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 alright so I decided to take this
test so apparently the the higher your score is the are the chances that you're
gonna have issues later on in life 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 alright so let's get
started alright so the test that I'll be taking it's on the NPR website and I'll
link it down in the description below usually it's like a printed out form
that you fill out and check it off but for the purpose of this video I was like
oh well they made it pretty easy and a website so I'll just take it here
alright so let's see how this thing goes alright start the quiz alright 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
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 it's not something I would call
any kind of like abuse like did some bad stuff as a kid whatevs
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 touched their
body in a sexual way or attempt or actually have oral anal or vaginal
intercourse with you no I'm very fortunate for that 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 prop develop until we're in our mid-20s okay the
prefrontal cortex I talked to you guys about this before so we haven't
necessarily developed these coping skills 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 I says before your 18th birthday that's why under question 4
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 Wow that's crazy 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
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 my
dad my dad definitely did you know he helped raise me he did the best that he
could but I always kind of felt like an outsider in my own family so that is it
yes 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 so I'm gonna answer yes to this yeah
drunk at high like that that's something like what we what we talk about
especially like an Ana therapy session is like you know 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 my dad while he was you know raised me he was going about for work or
you know being a single dad trying to find me a new bulb and stuff like that
we did have some money issues and things like that too so that is it 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
yes my parents divorced when I was four and I won't go too into the story right
now but a lot of my fear of abandonment came from that divorce 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 slap or had something thrown at her or sometimes often or very often
kicked bitten hit with a fist or hit with something hard or ever repeatedly
hit over over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife no no dad
was a jerk but as far as I know none of those things happened so question eight
before your 18th birthday did you live with anyone who has a problem drinker or
alcoholic or use street drugs so many of these have something to do with like
like addiction yeah answer 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 I remember my mom
being drunk and locking herself in the bathroom threatening to kill herself and
things like that my mom is also somebody with dual diagnosis she's she's the one
who's helped me out a lot with my mental health because pretty much every issue
that she's had I had to that's a whole nother video about how until illness
gets passed on through genetics and things like that and if I didn't mention
it and those of you 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 want to throw that in there but she didn't get sober until I was twenty
years old before your 18th birthday did I did a household member go to prison no
no no no household member go to prison score is a six and it's really
interesting it's something that I learned a lot you know
through recovery programs and things like that but I was able to go through
and heal through a lot of this stuff 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 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 ASA score and high ASA 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
would just whip these through these questions with me two or three is a lot
you know 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 tests then it's time to sit down and
look at these experiences to say how have they affected you in your life how
have these things affected the way that you deal and manage with life whether
that's in relationships intimate relationships 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 a 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 this podcast that I will also link in the description
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 support 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 alright so better help gives you a wide
variety of therapists I have a little question here to see what kind of stuff
you need to work on and also it's just uh I don't know wanna talk and click the
link do the questionnaire and see what's going on anyways like I said if you
think that you know somebody who is struggling because of adverse childhood
experiences please please PLEASE its Mental Health Awareness Month please do
me a favor and share this video with them all right bye anyways um you know I
enjoy doing this video if you'd like me to do more of them leave a comment down
below 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 if
you're new here if you just stumbled across this video make sure you click
that little subscribe button I'm always doing videos to help you out with your
mental and emotional needs alright 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 on