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0 pointsred-iron-pine2mo ago0 comments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverse_childhood_experiences

each ACE you experience ups the likelihood of all sorts of negative outcomes, with crime and addiction being very common.

strong linkages to bad health outcomes, too.

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mothballed2mo ago· 1 in thread

I wonder if there are any benefits of the adaptations made by those with higher ACE scores. Surely the adaptations we've evolved to make can't be entirely maladaptive.

Here's one

   Emotional abuse: verbal threats, swearing at, insulting, or humiliating a child.[1][3]

I'm trying to imagine what someone would be like if they reached 18 without ever having been "sworn at, insulted, or humiliated." Given this is one of the gentlest ways of correcting anti-social behavior, I can only imagine such person would be a maladapted nightmare.

red-iron-pineOP2mo ago

resilience is talked about in the wiki article.

there are strategies that can be taught to increase resilience, and sometimes that may include some tough love.

but there are differences between some tough love to build character vs. years of emotional and verbal abuse. one of the big kids calling you a loser on the playground is not ACE; your mom telling you're worthless and she hates you and you should have never been born for most of your childhood is.

put another way, 8 weeks of military boot camp teaches you to handle some of the stresses you might encounter; it builds resilience. but 18 years of it would create someone deeply screwed up.

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