Contact Time Wellness Centers to learn more about mental health treatment in Tennessee.

What is a Childhood Trauma Test?

When a child goes through an adverse childhood experience (ACE), they often aren’t sure if they qualify as having been through one. People with trauma in their past can use a childhood trauma test to begin determining the status of their mental health in relation to any painful or devastating events from their youth.

The ACEs test gives people an initial understanding of their experiences and provides an overview to take to a doctor or mental health professional and receive a psychological evaluation and diagnosis.

How Do I Know I Have Childhood Trauma?

Some people can easily identify their childhood trauma, while others frame it as something less severe. To find out if a person has gone through trauma as a child, they can begin by taking our ACES test.

This free test opens the door to framing what they went through now that they are adults and can see things more clearly. People with unresolved trauma typically find it hard to feel peaceful or easily have long-term, healthy relationships. They either spend a great deal of time remembering their trauma or try to block it out so they don’t feel the unresolved pain. 

Understanding Your ACES Score

While taking the ACEs test can help people investigate how they feel, think, and act in relation to past traumatic events, it cannot provide an official diagnosis.

The ACEs test can help you put childhood experiences into context. Oftentimes, when you grow up with trauma, you normalize the experiences. Things like child abuse, neglect, and violence become normal and expected.

However, your mind adapted to these circumstances, causing you to be on the lookout for danger. So, you may be tense, hypervigilant, and anxious. You might even struggle to trust other people, which impacts your ability to form healthy relationships.

Your ACEs score can indicate whether or not you experienced trauma during childhood—and if you can benefit from treatment.

Fortunately, trauma therapy can help to re-wire your brain to be less reactive and heal from the effects of ACEs. In addition, EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) can help you process trauma while healing neural connections in your brain.

After completing the test, discuss your results with your doctor, a mental health counselor, or an admissions staff member of a treatment program for mental health disorders. From there, a diagnosis can be made and a treatment plan created.

How Common is Childhood Trauma?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about three in four high school students in the country say they experienced one or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Approximately one in five said they had been through four or more of them. The groups most likely to endure childhood trauma are females, Alaska Natives, American Indians, multicultural children, and those who identify as LGBTQ.

Causes of Childhood Trauma

Childhood trauma can develop after going through a singular or a series of events. The most common ones include: 

• Physical abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Bullying
• School shootings or other public mass shootings
• Homelessness
• Extreme poverty
• Being neglected
• Living in foster homes
• Military or wartime activities
• Living through a natural disaster
• Witnessing acts of violence or abuse committed against others

Childhood Trauma Test and Mental Health 

People who go through trauma during their childhood often develop mental health disorders as a result, particularly if they don’t get any treatment when they are kids. For example, they may feel anxious or hopeless, or have trouble trusting others. Common mental health disorders that can occur as a result of untreated trauma include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), acute stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and more.

Symptoms of Unresolved Childhood Trauma 

Too often, people who experienced childhood trauma have symptoms that continue into their adulthood, but they don’t recognize them as signs of their past abuse.

Common signs of unresolved childhood trauma include:

• Flashbacks
• Nervousness
• Isolating
• Avoiding specific locations, events, or people
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Easily startled
• Poor sleeping patterns
• Difficulty trusting others
• Nightmares
• Drug or alcohol abuse
• Self-harm
• Cognitive difficulties
• Unexplained medical ailments, such as body aches, headaches, diarrhea, and nausea

How Long Does It Take to Heal from Childhood Trauma?

There isn’t one answer for someone who wonders how long it takes to heal from childhood trauma. Influencing factors include the severity of their trauma, how long ago it happened, and the type of treatment the person receives. Residential treatment centers and outpatient programs run for 30 or more days on average, and the work of healing begins there under the watchful and compassionate eyes of mental health experts. 

The more progress is made in laying the past to rest, the easier the burden becomes. Healing continues after a treatment program concludes, but by that time, the person has healthy coping mechanisms in place. 

How Is Childhood Trauma Treated?

When someone has childhood trauma, there are three avenues for effective treatment. The first is traditional talk therapy, also called psychotherapy. This provides a safe space to speak candidly about how a person feels and work on developing healthy coping skills. Holistic therapy offers many options for activity-based therapies that help people heal their physical, mental, and spiritual selves. Finally, adding a prescription medication, if needed, helps a person feel more in control and makes a real difference.