06/12/2026
We track ACE scores because this is the premise of Shiela's Sanctuary. The majority of people in SUD have an unresolved trauma issue at the core of substance use, homelessness and justice involvement.
The ACE Study followed over seventeen thousand people and found something the medical world could no longer ignore. Childhood trauma is not just a mental health issue. It is a public health crisis hiding in plain sight inside every doctor’s office, emergency room, classroom, and prison in the country.
The study measured ten categories of adverse childhood experiences including abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction. What researchers found was staggering. The more adverse experiences a child had, the higher their risk for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, addiction, su***de, and early death. Not slightly higher. Dramatically higher.
Two thirds of participants reported at least one adverse childhood experience. One in five reported three or more. These are not rare edge cases. This is the quiet background of millions of ordinary lives.
And yet childhood trauma remains one of the least funded, least discussed, and least addressed areas in mainstream healthcare. People are treated for the symptoms while the root cause goes unnamed, unacknowledged, and unhealed.
Every statistic in that study is a person. Possibly someone you know. Possibly you.
The first step toward changing a crisis is naming it. This community exists because naming it matters. 💙
READ AT PMID: 9635069
