He says: Addiction shouldn’t be called “addiction”. It should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”.
He says: Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking (what traditionalists call addiction) is a normal response to the adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed.
He says: The solution to changing the illegal or unhealthy ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking behavior of opioid addiction is to address a person’s adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) individually and in group therapy; treat people with respect; provide medication assistance in the form of buprenorphine, an opioid used to treat opioid addiction; and help them find a ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking behavior that won’t kill them or put them in jail.
This “he” isn’t some hippy-dippy new age dreamer. He is Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine. The center is the first to receive the Center of Excellence designation from the Addiction Medicine Foundation, a national organization that accredits physician training in addiction medicine. Sumrok is also one of the first 106 physicians in the U.S. to become board-certified in addiction medicine by the American Board of Medical Specialties.
Sumrok, a family physician and former U.S. Army Green Beret who’s served the rural area around McKenzie, TN, for the last 28 years, combines the latest science of addiction and applies it to his patients, most of whom are addicted to opioids — but also to alcohol, food, sex, gambling, etc. He sees them in the center’s two outpatient clinics: his clinic, which the Center for Addiction Science has taken over as its rural clinic, and another that opened recently in downtown Memphis.
Since he first sat down in the early 1980s to write a research paper (“Public Health Legacy of the Vietnam War: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Implications for Appalachians”) to describe the symptoms of the newly named post-traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam veterans – “problems with the law, having trouble sleeping, anxiety, divorce, sleep troubles, substance use disorders, depression, anxiety, cognitive and chronic pain issues” — Sumrok has pieced together the ingredients for a revolutionary approach to addiction. It’s an approach that’s advocated by many of the leading thinkers in addiction and trauma, including Drs. Gabor Maté, Lance Dodes and Bessel van der Kolk. Surprisingly, it’s a fairly simple formula: Treat people with respect instead of blaming or shaming them. Listen intently to what they have to say. Integrate the healing traditions of the culture in which they live. Use prescription drugs, if necessary. And integrate adverse childhood experiences science: ACEs.
“My patients seem to respond really well to this,” he says.
ACEs understanding changes practice
Learning about ACEs more than two years ago was a big turning point for his understanding of addictions, explains Sumrok. “I was working in an eating disorders clinic and someone told me ‘90 percent of these folks have sexual trauma’. I remember thinking: That can’t be right. But that was exactly right. Since I’ve learned about ACEs, I talk about it every day.”
He also practices it every day, by integrating ACEs assessments for all patients in his clinics. He currently has about 200 patients who are addicted, most to opioids (heroin and prescription pain relievers, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, and fentanyl). “I’ve seen about 1,200 patients who are addicted,” he says. “Of those, more than 1,100 have an ACE score of 3 or more.”
Sumrok knows that score says a lot about their health and ability to cope: ACEs comes from the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACE Study), groundbreaking research that looked at how 10 types of childhood trauma affect long-term health. They include: 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. Subsequent ACE surveys include racism, witnessing violence outside the home, bullying, losing a parent to deportation, living in an unsafe neighborhood, and involvement with the foster care system. Other types of childhood adversity can also include being homeless, living in a war zone, being an immigrant, moving many times, witnessing a sibling being abused, witnessing a father or other caregiver or extended family member being abused, involvement with the criminal justice system, attending a school that enforces a zero-tolerance discipline policy, etc.
The ACE Study is one of five parts of ACEs science, which also includes how toxic stress from ACEs damage children’s developing brains; how toxic stress from ACEs affects health; and how it can affect our genes and be passed from one generation to another (epigenetics); and resilience research, which shows the brain is plastic and the body wants to heal. Resilience research focuses on what happens when individuals, organizations and systems integrate trauma-informed and resilience-building practices, for example in education and in the family court system.
The ACE Study found that the higher someone’s ACE score – the more types of childhood adversity a person experienced – the higher their risk of chronic disease, mental illness, violence, being a victim of violence and a bunch of other consequences. The study found that most people (64%) have at least one ACE; 12% of the population has an ACE score of 4. Having an ACE score of 4 nearly doubles the risk of heart disease and cancer. It increases the likelihood of becoming an alcoholic by 700 percent and the risk of attempted suicide by 1200 percent. (For more information, go to ACEs Science 101. To calculate your ACE and resilience scores, go to: Got Your ACE Score?)
High ACE scores also relate to addiction: Compared with people who have zero ACEs, people with ACE scores are two to four times more likely to use alcohol or other drugs and to start using drugs at an earlier age. People with an ACE score of 5 or higher are seven to 10 times more likely to use illegal drugs, to report addiction and to inject illegal drugs.
The ACE Study also found that it didn’t matter what the types of ACEs were. An ACE score of 4 that includes divorce, physical abuse, an incarcerated family member and a depressed family member has the same statistical health consequences as an ACE score of 4 that includes living with an alcoholic, verbal abuse, emotional neglect and physical neglect.
Subsequent research on the link between childhood adversity and addiction corroborates the findings from the ACE Study, including studies that have found that people who’ve experienced childhood trauma have more chronic pain and use more prescription drugs; people who experienced five or more traumatic events are three times more likely to misuse prescription pain medications.
“ACEs just doesn’t predict substance abuse disorders,” says Sumrok. “All of our major chronic diseases link to substance abuse, so this is too big to ignore.”
Whether you’re talking about obesity, addiction to cigarettes, alcohol or opioids, the cause is the same, he says: “It’s the trauma of childhood that causes neurobiological changes.” And the symptoms he saw 40 years ago in soldiers returning from Vietnam are the same in the people he sees today who are addicted to opioids or other substances or behaviors that help them cope with the anxiety, depression, hopelessness, fear, anger, and/or frustration that continues to be generated from the trauma they experienced as children.
Learning about ACEs helped him understand that the original definition of PTSD, which many people still cling to, is not accurate. In the 1980s, PTSD was defined as a result of trauma that was outside the realm of normal experience.
“That was just wrong,” says Sumrok. “Divorce, living with depressed or addicted family members are very common events for kids. My efforts are around helping people to see the connections, and that their experiences are predictable and normal. And the longer the experiences last, the bigger the effect.”
He also says, “Drop the ‘D’, because PTSD is not a disorder.” It’s what he learned from van der Kolk, who wrote The Body Keeps the Score. “Bessel says we’ve named this thing wrong. Post-traumatic stress is a brain adaptation. It’s not an imagined fear. If one of your feet was bitten off by a lion, you’re going to be on guard for lions,” explains Sumrok. “Hypervigilance is not an imagined fear, if you’ve had one foot bitten off by a lion. It’s a real fear, and you’re going to be on the lookout for that lion. I tell my patients that they’ve had real trauma that’s not imagined. They’re not crazy.”
Patients who learn about their ACEs understand that they can heal
This is what happens when a person sees Sumrok for the first time: They fill out the 10-question ACE survey (Got Your ACE Score?) in the waiting room. “Then when I see them, I go through each question and ask them again,” says Sumrok, who also does a normal physical exam. “Frequently, there’s a difference between the two. For example, this morning, I saw a woman and she reported an ACE score of 1 on the survey. Then, when I asked her the questions, she reported nine out of 10.”
That’s just how I grew up, she told Sumrok. She didn’t think being beaten, humiliated or seeing her mother smoking crack every day was harmful or unusual, especially since most kids she knew were experiencing the same thing.
Sumrok normalizes their addiction, which he explains is the coping behavior they adopted because they weren’t provided with a healthy alternative when they were young. He explains the science of adverse childhood experiences to them, and how their addictions are a normal – and a predictable – result of their childhood trauma. He explains what happens in the brain when they experience toxic stress, how their amygdala is their emotional fuse box. How the thinking part of their brain didn’t develop the way it should have. How it goes offline at the first sign of danger, even if they’re not connecting the trigger with the experience. Drugs like Zoloft don’t really help much, he tells them. Zoloft and other anti-depressants don’t remove the memory triggered by the odor of after shave that was worn by your uncle who sexually abused you when you were eight, or the memory triggered by a voice that sounds just like your mother who used to beat you with a belt, or by a face of a man who looks like your father who used to scream at you about how worthless you were…the examples are infinite. That’s why van der Kolk says, “’The body keeps the score’,” Sumrok says.
“After I explain all this to them, many of them stare at me and say: ‘You mean I’m not crazy?’” says Sumrok. “I tell them, ‘No, you’re not crazy’.” Sometimes he yells out the door to his nurse: ‘Patsy! Where’s my not-crazy stamp? I need to stamp this person’s chart.”
For people who are addicted to opioids, he prescribes buprenorphine (one of the brand names: Suboxone), which helps them to withdraw from opioids and to keep their job, or return to work. For most people, the drug is less addictive than other opioids. Sometimes if people are young, healthy and haven’t been addicted long, they can withdraw from opioids without buprenorphine.
“There’s no buzz associated with buprenorphine,” says Sumrok. “They can concentrate and think. Once they’re free of the continuous distraction of the acquisition and use of substances, they become pretty valuable employees.”
For people who are addicted to alcohol, he prescribes naltrexone (one of the brand names: Revia), because alcoholics have a high risk of death if they aren’t provided medication. And in this current national attention on opioids, Sumrok is careful to point out that although 33,000 people died from opioid overdose in 2015, 88,000 people die annually from alcohol-related causes, and 480,000 from cigarette smoking. The complicating factor — and why policies don’t work when they chase the eradication of one drug, only to focus on eradicating the next popular drug of choice for “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking” — is that many people use opioids and alcohol and cigarettes. And if they receive no help to get at why they’re using legal or illegal substances, they will move on to another, more easily accessible drug when the current drug they’re using becomes more difficult to find.
All patients sign a contract agreeing that they won’t drink alcohol or take other drugs. “We don’t mess around with that,” says Sumrok. “We can’t deal with them being deceptive, because if they drink or do other drugs, it can kill them. If their drug screens aren’t consistent, we ask them to find another doctor.” Just about everybody stays, he says.
They also participate in group therapy. For physicians who prescribe buprenorphine, it’s now required, but Sumrok had seen the research about the effectiveness of group therapy, and had started 12-step groups for his patients about 10 years ago. Talking with others who have the same experiences helps each person normalize their own experiences. Sumrok and the others in the group help each other find “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking behaviors” that won’t kill them or put them in jail, such as coaching their kid’s soccer team or volunteering at a food bank. (Sumrok often quotes Forest Gump: “Helping helps the helper.”). He also encourages them to integrate other rituals into their lives, such as walking 30 minutes a day or other exercise, joining a 12-step group or finding a path to encourage a spiritual awakening.
“Six months into this,” says Sumrok, “they start saying things like, ‘My wife and I are back together’, they’re hanging out with their kids. It’s pretty cool to see how people get their lives back. My favorite word is ‘normal’. When they tell me they feel normal, I know they’re doing okay.”
So, how long does it take before they’re cured? “How long should you take insulin if you have diabetes?” responds Sumrok, making the point that this is a chronic disease, that people should be in treatment for as long as it is necessary, and that some may relapse. His goal is for them to not have to use buprenorphine, but he knows that because of the number and duration of their ACEs, and the paucity of resilience factors provided to them when they were children, many will need continual support. He helps them learn how to integrate that support into their lives.
“When a diabetes patient comes in with a blood sugar level of 300, we don’t say: ‘Give me back that insulin.’ We intensify the treatment to get them back in balance,” explains Sumrok. “Only in addictions do we shame people. We tell them they can’t be part of this recovery anymore. We create a teeny hoop that’s called abstinence, and not too many people can jump through that hoop. If every time we saw a diabetic, we told them that their kidneys were going to fail, they would be blind and we would amputate their extremities, there wouldn’t be many diabetics who got help. I have patients who drop out, and then return a couple of months later, and say, ‘Doc, Christmas came, I saw some of my buddies, and I started using again.’ I tell them, ‘Come on in. Let’s work with you.’ And I remind myself that I’m not saving souls, I’m saving their asses. It’s about getting them so they can function at work, at home, at play. It’s not about making them perfect human beings.
“It has been abundantly clear to me and reinforced over a 40-year career,” continues Sumrok, “that patients desire, and respond better to, sensitive and informed care. From the Navajo Nation to Appalachia to Memphis and from the mountains of Honduras to the jungles of Amazonia, people regard respect as the sine qua non of quality care.”
Stories AND data drive solutions
Although Sumrok thinks his approach benefits his patients, he knows he needs data to prove it. When he saw a recent study that said 43% of people on buprenorphine were using other opioids, he did his own analysis of a sample of his patients, and found that only 8% were using other opioids. After tracking down those who were, most had good reasons, such as a man whose arm and shoulder were in a new cast after surgery repairing an injury, and he was taking a narcotic. Only one did not, and when shown his drug test, he said, “You know what? I slipped.” He talked about it in group, says Sumrok, and everyone in his group hovered around him to make sure he’d continue the program.
Because Sumrok has kept fastidious records of the patients who have done their ACE scores, Dr. Karen Derefinko, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, is starting a research project to examine all 1,200 records in Sumrok’s clinic in McKenzie to look at the relationship between people’s ACE scores and their adherence to treatment and their relapses.
“We think that people with high ACE scores are likely to have more relapses,” she says. “And that may be because people with higher scores have fewer resources and more difficulty associated with adhering to their treatment plans.”
She and her research assistant will de-identify the records, so that all information is anonymous, and then collect the data. Once that data is analyzed — probably within two months — Derefinko and her assistant will conduct focus groups of some of Sumrok’s patients. She’s already been sitting in some of the groups.
“Dan encourages this participatory nature of his groups,” she says. “People are very willing to talk. After the group sessions, they’re often not done talking about why they came to Sumrok and why other programs didn’t work for them.”
Through the records and the focus groups, Derefinko hopes to identify barriers to care, which include basics such as how people can find good care easily (most of Sumrok’s patients find out about him through word of mouth), being wary of the treatment because it isn’t explained to them, or — what Sumrok hears a lot — being judged or talked down to instead of given understanding and respect.
“In Shelby County, people complain about barriers to care, which many people think is because of economics,” she says. “But it may not be just economics that is keeping people from accessing treatment; it may be more about being judged, and not knowing what the treatment looks like.”
Being treated with respect builds trust, trust builds health
One of Sumrok’s patients – I’ll call him John, which is not his real name – has been driving 140 miles from Southeast Missouri to see Sumrok for the last five years. He began using drugs off and on during his 20s. When he was in his 30s, he injured his back, was sent to a worker’s comp physician, who prescribed stronger doses of pain killers until his back stopped hurting.
“I was taking pain pills like candy,” says the 46-year-old, who is married and has a son. “All of a sudden, the pills are gone, and you’re very sick, and I start looking for them everywhere – on the street, taking them from family members without asking – just to keep me from getting sick. I thought I had to have them to function. If I didn’t have six or seven pain pills, I wasn’t going to be able to get out of bed. If I didn’t get them, I’d be sick, puking….I’d do about anything to have those pills.”
After he spent his and his wife’s life savings, and the money they’d put away to buy a home, and his retirement fund from a previous job; after he saw friends die from overdosing; and after he realized that he was risking losing his wife and son, he told his wife he needed help, and they found Sumrok.
“It’s been a miracle, for sure,” says John. As the Suboxone took effect, “after two or three weeks, I began to feel normal again.”
About two years ago, Sumrok asked him to fill out the ACE survey. “It really did make a difference,” says John. He had never connected experiences in his childhood with using drugs as an adult.
“When I was just a baby,” recalls John, “my grandpa took me from my mother, and told my parents: ‘When you guys are stable, I’ll let you have him back.’ Up until I was 10 or 11, I called them ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’.’” His older sisters were sent to live with his other set of grandparents. He didn’t live with his parents again until he was 15 years old. His sisters were adults and out on their own by then.
Until he did the ACE survey and talked with Sumrok about his childhood, it didn’t dawn on him that losing his mother, father and his sisters at a young age could have affected him in ways he didn’t realize. “I knew I was loved by my grandfather and grandmother, but being a young kid and seeing other kids going out with their parents was frustrating,” he says. “I lived with old people who never left the house, while my parents were out running around. I maybe thought my mom and dad didn’t care about me enough to change. I might have always felt like I wasn’t important enough to my mom and dad for them to change the way they were living and acting.”
But now he has a better understanding of what it was like to be a 19-year-old in the late 1960s and involved in the drug and party scene then, as his parents were. He understands them better, and why they weren’t able to care for him. He and his family members have “had our discussions,” says John. “My family life is a whole lot better. I didn’t have relationships with my parents or sisters. We only live seven miles apart, and I barely saw them twice a year, if that. But now I have my wife back. I’ve got my son back. And I see my parents and sisters all the time. We’re a tight-knit family.” He’s also able to hold a job, and is a reliable employee.
John sees Sumrok once a month now. He participates in group therapy, where they can safely talk about their ACE scores without having to get into specifics. He checks in with Sumrok, who renews his prescription.
“I like group therapy with Dr. Sumrok,” says John. “He talks to us with respect. We feel very comfortable with him. Dr. Sumrok never lies. I trust him fully. And he trusts me. It took five or six months to build that trust. The more I met with him, the more I realized that he was really concerned about me. He wants to help people. Let him train more doctors in the procedures he uses. You can’t treat people like they’re nobodies.”
A 29-year-old patient, who chose to be called “Mr. Big” since I’m not using his real name, has been seeing Sumrok for the last six months. He had been in a methadone treatment program, and found Sumrok after he couldn’t pay for treatment any longer. Sumrok was the only physician who would take his insurance. Mr. Big filled out the ACE survey in the waiting room, but reported his score as a two. Then Sumrok went through the survey with him, and Mr. Big’s score climbed to an 8.
“It does help me understand my addiction better,” says Mr. Big, who is a single father of two children, five and six years old. “For one, my trauma in my childhood was very dramatic. I thought everyone’s parents did what they were doing. I could see why I related to narcotics and stuff. It was the only place I had to turn. I started taking opiates when I was 11 or 12 years old. I was playing football, and broke my ankle. They gave me painkillers that made me feel like Superman. I couldn’t get enough, because I wasn’t feeling like Superman without it.”
The Suboxone helps him feel “normal — probably the way everybody else feels,” says Mr. Big. “Nothing I took ever gave me that feeling before. I’m a better person, father, and a better brother” to his sister, whom he convinced to also get help from Sumrok.
The first time he went for help, to a methadone clinic, he didn’t like it for two reasons: Methadone made him nod off or feel high, and the people at the clinic treated him as if he was a number, or just there for the drugs. “That’s just unprofessional, in my opinion,” he says. “Sumrok actually sits down and talks to you like a human being.”
Mr. Big wants to work with Sumrok to develop a “game plan so that I can live without my medicine,” he says. He just wants to live a normal life. What does a normal life mean?
“It means that I’m home overnight with my children,” he says. “I don’t have to rob, lie, steal, or cheat to find drugs. I can fit in with society and not be high off my mind. I can wake up every day and do stuff. My children — they know Daddy’s not in bed sick any more. It’s wonderful. I’m wore out. I never knew that first grade and kindergarten had homework that was so complicated.”
With addictions and deaths on upswing, how to increase addiction docs?
Prescription and illicit opioids are the “main driver of drug overdose deaths,” according to the CDC, with 33,091 deaths in 2015. That’s four times more than 1999. And between 2014 and 2015, Tennessee saw a 13.8 percent increase in opioid deaths. More than 1,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2014, and tens of thousands of people lead desperate lives, most of them unknowingly fueled by their childhood experiences. Only 10% of these are getting the help they need, says Sumrok.
Dan Sumrok is just one doctor, in one part of the country. How can what he does be scaled up to thousands of physicians who can treat addiction — all types of addiction — successfully in all parts of the U.S.? By doing what Dr. David Stern, Robert Kaplan executive dean and vice-chancellor for clinical affairs for the University of Tennessee’s College of Medicine and the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, did: launch the Center for Addiction Science.
“This really starts with Dr. Altha Stewart, who’s the director of the Center for Health in Justice-Involved Youth,” says Stern. “She’s the one who showed me that kids with high ACE scores end up in trouble. When I developed the Center for Addiction Science, it had to be like a cancer center, it had to be multi-disciplinary. In the old days, we thought people who had addictions were weak in the moral department. You really needed someone to straighten you out, because your mother didn’t do a good enough job.”
But that approach doesn’t work. Neither does criminalizing addictions. Stigma drives problems underground, says Stern, instead of driving them to a solution. The center is taking an integrated approach to using research and education to help people in all possible ways, from physiology to genetics to counseling.
Stern believes that every physician should know about ACEs science, which is one of the reasons he chose Sumrok to lead the center, along with his willingness to be creative and seek solutions across disciplines. “Two of the most prevalent things in acute care are depression and addiction,” says Stern. “I think it’s important to be able to understand what ACEs mean to patients, what addiction is all about, how to recognize it, how to treat it.” He’s in the process of finding an associate dean for medical education, and is looking for someone who will integrate ACEs and other social determinants of health into the school’s curriculum.
“I think a medical school should provide for the community it serves,” says Stern. “This medical school should be the medical school for Memphis. We should develop solutions that are scalable.”
Dr. Altha Stewart, associate professor of psychiatry in the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, learned about ACEs in 2009 when a group in Shelby County began educating people about ACEs science. They brought Dr. Vincent Felitti, co-founder of the ACE Study, and Robin Karr Morse, who wrote Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence, which was published in 2007, to give a presentation. (Karr-Morse later wrote Scared Sick: The Role of Childhood Trauma in Adult Disease with Meredith S. Wiley; it was published in 2012.)
“It’s become a core part of what I do now in my professional work,” says Stewart, who was recently named president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association. She’s working with the Shelby County community and the local criminal justice system to integrate trauma-informed and resilience-building practices to find ways to help youth who enter the justice system — all of whom have likely experienced ACEs — instead of shaming, blaming or punishing them.
The things that have happened to kids — as well as to many people who come into the health care system — are out of their control, says Stewart. “When you’re a child, you don’t control the people who abuse and assault you, who create hostile environments, who don’t provide you with clean clothes,” she
says. “If a child can’t control their environment, because of these things they grow up thinking they’re bad, different, horrible people. This new approach (integrating trauma-informed and resilient-building practices based on ACEs science) helps them feel like they’re not drowning anymore. When they can pop their head out of the water and get a breath, and see outstretched hands, a life preserver, a life boat, that changes their entire perspective.”
When Sumrok began integrating ACEs into addiction treatment, that was innovative, says Stewart. “If you don’t ask these questions, people tend not to tell you,” she says. Sumrok’s approach is part of a shift in patient engagement and involvement. “The trend in health care is that patients are partners in their treatment.”
This new knowledge about why and how humans behave the way they do also speaks to how “we have trained the medical profession,” says Stewart. The traditional approach is that physicians “know everything. The people whom we treat know nothing. We tell them what to do, and if they don’t get better or do what we say, it’s their own fault.
“That’s simply not true,” she emphasizes. “Some of us have come to understand that there’s more expertise in the community and our patients than we’ve understood. That takes a bit of humility on the part of a physician, and an understanding that we are partners in helping a person heal.”
Sumrok’s experience with the young fellows at the Center for Addiction Science is giving him some real hope that the medical profession can change. When he’s explained to them how important it is to ask patients about ACEs and other aspects of their lives — such as food availability, safe housing, transportation, jobs (in the medical profession vernacular: social determinants of health) — “they say ‘isn’t that just taking a patient history?’”
He and others at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center have an opportunity to educate young physicians outside the state, too. Derefinko is also director of the newly created National Center for Research of the Addiction Medicine Foundation. The foundation oversees the 130 addiction medicine fellowships at 46 medical schools across the country.
“We want metrics to understand the impact they’re having” when they go out in the world, says Derefinko: where they go, whom they’re treating, how they’re practicing, whether they’re integrating ACEs science. In addition, the foundation will be developing some accreditation guidelines so that all fellows receive the latest and best education in addiction medicine.
One of those elements, says Sumrok, has to be empathy, which physicians can practice by listening, acknowledging and understanding how the experiences in a person’s childhood and adulthood have shaped their lives and health.
“Can you teach empathy?” he asks. “Can people learn to be empathetic providers? I think you can. I think so.”
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If you’re interested in becoming more involved in the PACEs science community, join our companion social network, PACEs Connection. Just go to PACEsConnection.com and click “Join”. PACEsConnection.com is the leading advocate for information about the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs) and the rapidly expanding, global PACEs science movement.
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[…] said: ‘The hypocrisy in seeking comfort and citizenship in the United Ѕtаtes, while enjoying the fruits of a ruthless, anti-democratic […]
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Thank you
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I, personally, thoroughly appreciate the research and response to ACEs discussed here. I have about 5 ACEs, but my strong relationship with God and deep emotional/spiritual healing through the Holy Spirit have given me true freedom. Consequently, I never resorted to any of the aforementioned unhealthy coping mechanisms.
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[…] May 2, 2017By Jane Ellen Stevensin ACE Study, Adverse childhood experiences, Child trauma, Community prevention programs, Solutions335 Comments […]
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[…] The ACEs study is something everyone needs to know about. It was a large study that looked at how ten types of childhood trauma were correlated with long term health. Those traumas include: physical, emotional and sexual abuse; physical and emotional neglect; having a family that wasn’t loving or felt you were important; 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 more adversity someone has, the higher their chance of addiction. It is so clear. Having a score of 4/10 means a 700% higher risk of becoming an alcoholic, for example. Since the original study, we now see that other hardships like an unsafe environment, being teased, frequent moves, and poverty are also major factors in developing an addiction. […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experiences. […]
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[…] for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee, goes so far as to describe addiction as “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking.” In other words, substances seem to provide some protection or relief from stress that is beyond […]
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[…] to compulsive comfort seeking (also known as addiction). Anything we do to avoid or numb our feelings out with food, alcohol, […]
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Idk if ppl still check this post, but I only learned of this theory, and although I never considered it (I had believed addiction was scientific & related to chemical deficiencies that people were born with
However, the data I have, supports this theory. It also explains why programs like NA, AA, GA, SA… have been so successful for certain ppl, but triggers for others (I’ve noticed that attractive young females & young males of color are less likely to be accepted, unless the meetings were specifically created for them.)
I’m too tired to text everything right now, but if anyone reading this researching a theory along these lines, I would be very interested in sharing info. Would also love to converse w/the writer. There were so many statements made that I’ve Seen to be true, but are discredited due to ignorance. Excellent article. I’m actually ashamed b/c the only reason I was searching was b/c of something said on a Netflix series (Sense8)—
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[…] https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… ØEffectiveness of EMDR in patients with substance use disorder and comorbid PTSD: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial. Article talking about the use of EMDR in treating addictions in people with past trauma. […]
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[…] Sources:https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-use-addictionhttps://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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[…] opioid epidemic is a complex problem, with multiple risk factors, particularly “adverse childhood experiences” (ACE). Individuals who experienced trauma in childhood, such as emotional and physical […]
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[…] “Treat people with respect instead of blaming or shaming them. Listen intently to what they have to say. Integrate the healing traditions of the culture in which they live. Use prescription drugs, if necessary. And integrate adverse childhood experiences science: ACEs.” – Dr. Daniel Sumrok […]
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[…] author, physician and psychologist, Dr. Gabor Mate, as well as Dr. Daniel Sumrok, Director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science […]
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[…] What did we learn? Community interest is widespread; the opinions are diverse; there is no silver bullet, and, there is one thread that almost all agreed upon – ACEs are at the root of the problem. What are ACEs? Adverse Childhood Experiences. They range from abuse (physical, mental, verbal), neglect (physical, emotional, witnessing the abuse of a mother), and parental issues (depression/mental illness, addiction, incarceration, parental loss via death or divorce). Having experienced 4 or more ACEs in childhood increases the likelihood of addiction to alcohol by 700% and suicide by 1200%. https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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[…] with addiction, leading some experts to suggest addiction could be more accurately called, “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking.” A good extended care program addresses this underlying trauma and other mental health […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood experience…. […]
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This man is right on target. It’s about time people learned about addiction. We are not bad people. We are sick people getting better. Amen
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[…] Daniel Sumrok over de invloed van negatieve jeugdervaringen op de ontwikkeling van […]
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[…] Een interview met verslavingsarts Daniel Sumrok over de invloed van negatieve jeugdervaringen op de ontwikkeling van verslavingen […]
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[…] inUncategorized Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood exper… […]
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[…] « Относитесь к людям с уважением, а не обвиняйте или стыдите их. Внимательно слушайте то, что они говорят. Интегрируйте лечебные традиции культуры, в которой они живут. При необходимости используйте лекарства, отпускаемые по рецепту. И интегрируйте науку о неблагоприятном детском опыте: ACE». — Д-р Дэниел Сумрок […]
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[…] Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine, says that addiction shouldn’t be called “addiction”. It should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”. […]
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[…] of thinking about job stress, think about early childhood stress. We know that certain early adverse experiences cause insanely higher rates of addiction (like 700+% higher than average). Think things like: neglect, poverty, parental divorce, a chaotic […]
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Great article!Very informative for me!I can see how this science will play a large part in curing addicts.
https://klaritykratom.com/kratom-for-sale/
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experiences. […]
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[…] blaming, and punishing are futile in the fight against substance use disorder. Dr Daniel Sumrok from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine pioneered a new […]
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[…] Originally Published on acestoohigh.com […]
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[…] “Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking (what traditionalists call addiction) is a normal response to the adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed.” – Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Me…. […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. […]
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As a person in their mid fifties who is completing their counselling journey and also a teacher of young children this helps so much. My own Aces score will certainly reflect my gains and losses on this journey and making much more sense of this -accepting myself- and managing the tricky times. There has been so much shame and guilt it feels so liberating to frame it in this understanding as I know I have to really help myself and care so much about helping others. Thank you
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I’m a school psychologist and I firmly believe that utilizing the ACE study and survey can help children and adults. If you can name it you can tame it. I utilize the ACE when working with adolescents in the school system and I believe it helps open the door to healing.
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This is a new approach to reality. Understanding that the basis of all our actions is how we were introduced to reality orientation and on what premises were we told about what the real world really is.
https://vegetativetraining.wordpress.com/a-reversal-transition-of-the-normal-current-state-of-the-organism/
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ACE makes a lot of sense to me. My grandmother
died in childbirth with my uncle at the age of 28.
My mother was two and never got the help she needed. She became mentally ill and alchoholic and died at 54. I am now 72 and understand these problems are not criminal. Much understanding and legal changes need to be made! My father an MD was no help. He sent my brothers to boarding schools to be away from her; he was very self assured but not very understanding. It is striking to me that he shared a birthdate with Donald Trump.
My husband came from a mostly wonderful family but died from cancer 14 years ago. I wish we HHS’s both understood this before he died but our three children, now in their 40’s are doing very well.
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Im a social worker who recently opened a men’s substance use treatment facility. I want to be fully trained in ACES and teach my men about it. They desperately need this! How can I get that training?
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Join our sister social network, PACEsConnection.com. You’ll find many resources there.
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This is huge for the landscape of our culture. It needs to be published far and wide! Has it been presented to TED talks? Can it be put on the docket in training judges? I see that the concept of brain development and plasticity is finally entering the mainstream. We have to return to respect and teaching of stay at home moms. Thanks and gratitude to all these people doing research and practicing what has been learned!
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Great article and very commendable work, but I wonder if there is data support this: “For most people, the drug is less addictive than other opioids,” regarding suboxone. The overwhelming majority of people I have spoken to who either were or had been on it have told that they wished they had never started taking it. The withdrawal was worse and far more prolonged than it had been with any other opiate they had taken. Certainly, suboxone saves lives, but what happens when patients cannot continue taking it for whatever reason?
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Extremely inciteful article..information that needs to be shared with everyone who works in recovery programs.
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Wonderful, well written article. Thank you for what you do.
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I have spent 20 yrs. of learning, growth & healing ., what a journey. I was out on lithium at 30 yrs. of age for mood swings- they said cyclothimia, lowest rung in ladder of Bi-Polar .. but could get worse with hormonal swings (menopause). moved away from my mom & started my healing journey ..
today I am 3 yrs. off lithium, my GP said he has never thought I was bi-polar, just dealing with too much big – not knowing how to deal with it actually. I have never felt better, I wrote a chapter in a compilation book of overcoming adversity, have helped turn around relationship with my mom -by standing up for myself & setting healthy boundaries, I have a beautiful morning routine involving energy work & I seem to inspire others just by bring ME .
Yea … early life experiences are held in our subconscious & can SO hold us back – UNLESS we dig deep, excavate that’s sh*t ..
My key word is LIGHTHEARTED… it has always been & still is my GOAL of his I want to feel – positive, open, non judgemental … 🙏❣️💪
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[…] alcohol, drugs, crime, violence, gambling, sex, or spending to feel comfortable. Dr. Daniel Sumrok calls these habits “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”.While it might help fast, […]
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Spot on! Keep up the good work!
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This is such an amazing approach to healthcare regarding addiction. I hope this spreads like wildfire across the United States, as we so terribly lack a great approach to the mental health of our addicted people. I’ve watched too many families struggle and also lost a loved one over addiction. This could have been a tremendous help for him. Thank you all for your dedication and research.
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[…] https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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Right on, Doc, you rock!
I have worked in the field of addiction for over 20 years. ACE scores help to identify the trauma that
the body remembers. Working with clients as a master’s-level therapist and Healing Touch Practitioner, I know that the root foundational energy center, anchored into the body by the adrenal glands, holds cellular memory of unsafe experiences.
Identifying and processing trauma is a key to
the healing process.
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THANK! YOU! As an adult child of alcoholics I’m just now figuring a lot of this out and this article really moved me! I feel so inspired to learn about my ACEs and how I can train or go to school to help at the Center for Addiction, or locally as so many others like myself and my family have felt betrayed by this medical system and past approaches. ACE Science and studies are going to change the world for the better.
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I agree so much with this article, I keep trying to tell people but no one understands. I work in an addiction center and do a lot of EMDR . I always give the ACE as part of my assessments, no one who is struggling with addiction has a low ACE score. I frequently see scores of 8-9 and 10. Emdr is great in addressing childhood trauma
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Thankyou for this well written article of hope and compassion through MAT, validation and witnessing a person’s trauma.
I am a AADC in Ct and appreciate this information as I continue to provide treatment in a respectful trauma informed manner.
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Do you also use EFT? Emotional Freedom Technique?
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Want to take the Test
Wow.
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Thank you .
I read your artical, i realise how the mistreatment has guided my mental issuse.
A good counler can be hard to find and some make matters worse!
Treatlng people with repect can only help and not hurt are efforts to get well.
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I am so thankful for the new research into ACE’s and the knowledge being spread so that we can all be aware. One thing I wish the article had also addressed is the genetic predisposition to addiction. I have been working with children for thirty years. I see many who are living in very loving two-parent families, but who have a strong family history of addiction. Many of those children have an addictive tendency to things like sugar or electronics.
One other observation: I have also worked with families living in poverty for many years and I can tell you that just giving them money (welfare, food stamps, etc.) does not reduce the ACE scores. Positive relationships, networking with people who can provide experience, counsel, good childcare, jobs, etc. is much more effective.
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Excellent. Thank you. It is our judgementalism and moralising that gets in the way of our seeing reality of human suffering… Maybe, it’s frustration and anxiety of sitting with uncertainty and not easily solveable problems…
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Can you please recommend anyone who practices this approach in the Dallas FortWorth area?
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This is brilliant my daughter 35 was abused by a female teacher at 6 and a half till 8 she was sellotaped to seat her mouth sellotaped face squeeze ears pulled and humiliated and at 16 a locum GP diagnosed bulimia she also smoked and At she also drank alcohol and last 2 years got worse but the bulimia and alcohol she purges she has also been diagnosed with ASD bottom line NO help from NHS u here in Scotland she has had no childhood no peer groups no help . I went private to a psychologist in May this year who treats with EMDR and CBT so it is a slow process but it’s like an old fashioned telephone exchange and she’s pulling out all connections and replacing them all slowly one by one And reading aces too high has hit it all right on the right nail and I thankyou I will read everything and hopefully help my daughter to get a life Mrs Irene Urquhart
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[…] doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood experiences.”, written by Jane Ellen Stevens and posted on […]
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thanks so much doc. high ace score. been on opiates for missing l4,l5 for 22 yrs. past all American in tennis and excelled in other sports too.
been doing bio oxidative medicine for nearly 30 years. have extensive background in bb of aa and pentecostal church.
off all opiates rt now and alcohol for back pain.
trying like he’ll to heal the brain and internal organs.
have heated with wood for nearly 50 years
last 22 with missing discs. continual cycle of pain med and diluted elder berry for back pain but now had enough
been aware acoa has been at root for years.
God bless yah warrior dr.
love yah……
go back to dr. Sam fuller of the mayflower. grandparents were fantastic but father was crazy from his childhood and ww11. he came to the relief of 101st at bastogne and then 4 major battles after.
but he beat. my brother and I unmercifully and was abusive
he,s still alive at 96 and haven,t seen him all summer.
.
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Thank you so much for this article. I have been saying this for years and was not very popular amongst my 12-step black belt coworkers. I was considered “too soft”. I do hear talk about considering trauma now, but is it being actually implemented where it counts? I still hear the horror stories of people being treated with little respect by clinicians so I think the actual consideration of trauma within the treatment setting is very spotty. They are still hearing, “there’s the door don’t let it hit you in the ass” Maybe not actually hearing those words, but when people are being judged they are given the boot, and often without a lifeline. This has to stop if we are ever going to fix our broken treatment system! Many cancer rates have a better survival rate than addiction–but the physical health side worked at it hard using evidence based research to change treatments until they drove those numbers down. Why doesn’t the behavioral health treatment system do the same thing?
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[…] that traumatic childhood experiences can haunt us long after we’ve left childhood ways behind us. Studies show that children who experience one or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are two to four […]
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[…] “My patients seem to respond really well to this,” he says. (To learn more about his program, read “Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs — adverse childhood experiences”.) […]
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[…] What did we learn? Community interest is widespread; the opinions are diverse; there is no silver bullet, and, there is one thread that almost all agreed upon – ACEs are at the root of the problem. What are ACEs? Adverse Childhood Experiences. They range from abuse (physical, mental, verbal), neglect (physical, emotional, witnessing the abuse of a mother), and parental issues (depression/mental illness, addiction, incarceration, parental loss via death or divorce). Having experienced 4 or more ACEs in childhood increases the likelihood of addiction to alcohol by 700% and suicide by 1200%. https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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[…] Research shows that the effects of being exposed to trauma in early life negatively affect long term health. One study revealed that individuals who experienced five or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs; i.e., emotional, physical, or sexual abuse; domestic violence; and household dysfunction) were 7–10 times more likely to report illicit drug use and addiction, and contributed to an earlier onset of self-reported substance abuse. […]
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[…] read more about addiction and ACEs, read this article about Dr. Daniel Sumrok. Also, read this CDC page with more […]
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[…] struggle with addiction, leading some experts to suggest addiction could be more accurately called“ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking.” A good extended care program addresses this underlying trauma and other mental health […]
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Well – finally – addiction treatment that makes sense… Adopt the simple belief: “human beings want to be 1) loved, 2) feel like they belong and 3) are competent”. And, in service to that belief: add “all behavior is purposeful”. Suddenly, it all makes sense… Yep – Mate makes us aware ‘addicts want to feel normal” and changing the chemistry of my brain to promote those “feel normal/good” chemicals sure makes sense… BRAVO DOC – wish there were a lot more of YOU out there. Thank you…
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[…] struggle with addiction, leading some experts to suggest addiction could be more accurately called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking.” A good extended care program addresses this underlying trauma and other mental health […]
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[…] In my past 30 years of personal growth, it became obvious that transforming fear into joy first meant relinquishing my addictions. Or, as Dr. Daniel Sumrok states, abandoning my ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking. […]
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[…] In my past 30 years of personal growth, it became obvious that transforming fear into joy first meant relinquishing my addictions. Or, as Dr. Daniel Sumrok states, abandoning my ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking. […]
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[…] factor for addiction. Those who have experienced five or more adverse childhood events are seven to 10 times more likely to use illegal substances, to report addiction and to inject illegal […]
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[…] of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine has examined the link between childhood experiences and substance abuse — and the results are […]
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Hi, thank you for the article it was very eye-opening. I believe my family fasten the skylights. Can you recommend a doctor that we can go see? We live in Palm Springs, California, and would be willing to drive
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Help me find this therapy!! I live in Dayton Ohio. I want to take the test because I would be scoring high!!
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[…] was also the finding of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. The study surveyed patients about whether they experienced 10 different types of stressful or […]
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[…] was also the finding of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. The study surveyed patients about whether they experienced 10 different types of stressful or […]
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[…] was also the finding of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. The study surveyed patients about whether they experienced 10 different types of stressful or […]
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[…] was also the finding of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study. The study surveyed patients about whether they experienced 10 different types of stressful or […]
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[…] a risk factor for addiction. Those who have experienced five or more adverse childhood events are seven to 10 times more likely to use illegal substances, to report addiction and to inject illegal […]
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[…] adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed. — Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood experiences. So much of what matters is incalculable and immeasurable: you could not attempt to stop a […]
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[…] that, while drugs are incredibly powerful, they don’t necessarily affect everyone equally. One doctor puts it like this: “Addiction shouldn’t be called “addiction”. It should be called […]
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[…] He says: Addiction shouldn’t be called “addiction”. It should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”. He says: Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking (what traditionalists call addiction) is a normal response to the adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed. He says: The solution to changing the illegal or unhealthy ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking behavior… — Read on acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can-recover… […]
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I cried while reading this article. Are
There centers near Lansing mi that I can attend? Or therapist trained in my area?
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Excellent article! Give hope. Needs to get this teaching in our schools!
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I have found your article very interesting.. I read Eckert Tolle and his philosophy is to live in the moment.. He had helped me a lot…He talks about our childhood abusive experiences as conditioned thinking and the method of changing our thinking is to live in the moment.. bring our minds into the present by focusing our mind on maybe a book that is in our present. I found this has helped me to change my conditioned thinking.vim much happier now
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Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow…
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This soundsvery reasonable.
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Makes sense.
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Great! Agree! Makes perfect sense. But, this long article does not present a ‘go to’ for addicts or even white-knuckle recovering addicts.
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Powerful information!
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[…] via Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs…adverse childhood experience… […]
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I was an abused child hit and starved at times. I drink. It stops my night mares at night. I don’t have health insurance right now. I do have stable housing and I am food sucure. I wish I could find a program like this I’m my area. I live near Portland Oregon USA.
Thank you Debbie
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[…] Stevens, J.E. (May, 2017). Addiction doc says: it’s not the drugs, it’s the ACEs… adverse childhood experiences. ACEs Too High, retrieved from https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can…. […]
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Reblogged this on Site Title.
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Excellent article!! Are there any treatment places in Florida? And, how about providers that may use this model of treatment for the many people out there that are not addicts, however struggle with the ACE’s adversities?
Thanks
Maribel Lopez
954-270-6902
marilopez1@bellsouth.net
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[…] ACEs are incredibly common regardless of your gender, socio-economic, geographic or educational background. […]
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The biology of desire by Marc Lewis is a great book dealing with this.
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It is starting to move this way, I know from personal experience, there’s still a long way to go but it is being realised that the underlying issues with substance abuse and why people become “addicted” is because of these underlying issues ACEs as well as other factors but also with the article on opioids it should be based on absolutely every mood altering substance not only opioids but everything, that’s why the support for the underlying issues , ACEs, needs to be addressed very much so.
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Life changing!!!- Thank you Dr. Sumrok for opening our eyes to this new paradigm of treatment. I firmly believe we are extensions of our childhood experiences. Your approach will show the new healthcare providers a different and better way to treat addiction that hopefully will begin to dissolve stigma that surrounds addictions and mental Illness.
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Brilliant
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Fabulous!! This model exactly fits my understanding and experiencing The Aces scoring is a shower tool but the underpinning of real relational and functional care is a fine model.
Still don’t know where to find such for my son but still seeking.thabkyou.
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The sad part is that the addictions treatment professional are still using just traditional talk thearapy that is not geared to address the trauma that is stored in the subconscious level of the mind.
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Many thanks! I treat binge eating disorder and trauma, and without question, if the trauma is not addressed, binge eating remains. We need this strengths-based approach integrated into our treatment approaches, our criminal “justice” system, and our legal system immediately.
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LOVE this article. Highly informative and wise. This has motivated me to take physical action to get healthier. Fortunately I have a very emphatically supportive Doctor who treats me with utmost respect and kindness and I’ve had some lovely therapists too. Thank you for educating us! From a childhood survivor 🌹
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[…] with nearly every major public health problem in America, including depression, suicide, substance use, and decreased life […]
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All that is good reading BUT………..MY QUESTION IS……..IS ADDICTION……..A DISEASE?? Because…..i was an addict(heroin….meth…..acid……you name it…i did it for 29yrs(from age 15 to 44) been clean now for 11years. And i……….say its a disease. Its starts with the choice to use but…….eventually turns into addiction which i believe is a disease. Just as alcoholism. Sooooo…………IS addiction a disease? Yes or no?
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You said it yourself that “addiction starts with a choice.” We don’t choose to get a disease i.e. cancer, diabetes, cad, htn, etc.
So then, based upon that ONE observation, I wouldn’t put them in the same category. 😊
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People often make choices that lead to disease. They eat diets high in carbohydrates and processed foods and develop type 2 diabetes as a result. I spent too much time in the sun with too little sunscreen and got skin cancer — twice (slow learner, I guess). People get lung cancer from smoking, liver disease from drinking alcohol to excess, heart disease from maintaining a high stress lifestyle. Lots of our diseases start with choices we make.
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I’m no expert, but they teach us in nursing school that addiction is very much a chronic disease.
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Addictions are not diseases in the literal sense but thinking of them in that way has been very helpful to many sufferers. It’s a reasonable and useful metaphor and can be used as such. I wouldn’t waste much time arguing it with people. Pleased to read of your success!
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Yes it is a dis-ease. But it is not purely defined. It is a complex diagnosis with multiple components including physiological, behavioral, spiritual, genetic, environmental, psychological, etc. It includes abnormal brain neurochemistry which can be developed as a result of normal brain adaptation. Thus, you have choice in the recovery but not in all aspects of the dis-ease development.
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I am often asked that question.
I think the disease model is useful, if incomplete.
I don’t find it useful to be stuck on the model though.
I see SUDs as symptoms of trauma.
Bless you on the journey.
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[…] Een interview met verslavingsarts Daniel Sumrok over de invloed van ‘adverse childhood experiences’ op de ontwikkeling van… […]
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This all maybe true in the beginning of an addicts are alcoholics doping are drinking careers, and yet I believe that once I found out how much I enjoyed being “high”(the endorfen releases) it was on baby! And I then proceeded to drive the wheels off of it! Glad I quit before I caught it on fire.
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I agree with this. I am a 20 years clean, crack addict, and many other drugs. You know Bill W. said this many, many years ago. If we don’t deal with our demons they will kill us. Sometimes the tragedy was too traumatic we stuffed way down in that hiding spot in our brain. Drugs and alcohol make it even easier to hide it. It took 7 treatment centers, 28 days in jail, and a great sponsor with many meetings to make me accept my past and be able to live in the present and have goals for the future.
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I totally agree with this doctor.
Treat unwell people with respect and dignity and listen to what these people have to say
Then the doctors can help choose there path to recovery………
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This is an important discussion. i sort of knew there was more to addiciton than the high. It costs a person too much to be just a recreational thing. I too suffer from ACES with a score of 8 and while I am not addicted to drugs or alcohol – I’m not happy. Yet, when I bring this up to my therapist or to a regular doctore they either say it’s ‘in the past’ and I should let it go or they don’t know what I’m talking about.
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Reblogged this on F.E.Feeley Jr and commented:
You need to read this.
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Thought provoking. . Thank you!
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Fascinating article which makes an awful lot of sense and could result in meaningful and long lasting change for so many people and their families. It would be really interesting to look at ways in which preventative methods can be applied in the care and treatment of children and young people who are known to have experienced childhood trauma, but before patterns of addictive behaviour are formed.
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Very interesting article.
This may have already been asked: Obviously not all people who have experienced ACE’s become addicts or engage in ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking. What is it that triggers it in some and not in others?
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I hope some of the recent work on electronic stimulation of brain centers advances quickly. I am admittedly suspicious of advocates of unending therapy for others. On the drugs chart, that looks like a careless error. Do people actually die from nicotine? I believe they die from cancer caused by tars and other compounds in smoke that serve as systemic poisons. Second hand smoke causes health damage; it does not addict people to nicotine.
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Jacqueline — I had the same question. I think, reading between the lines, that the people who had ACEs but didn’t turn to drugs, somehow developed ways of coping with their traumas — comforting themselves — that didn’t involve drugs or alcohol.
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Look at the info here on “resiliency”. It relates to the factors we might have in our lives that help us rebound from stresses. Like, we may have ACE points from a missing parent and a divorce, but maybe we have a grandma close by who is loving, supportive, accepting and shows us better coping strategies.
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Look at all the overweight people we have in the U.S. Overeating is definitely comfort-seeking.
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My son has been doing meth and shooting heroin for 10 years now . The only risk factors , his mother is a chain smoker and coffeeholic . On my part a bit of workaholic and late night food bingeing . No Drugs or pills or alcohol for either of us . No sex abuse .No verbal abuse to kids . His Mom and I have done a lot of open bickering in front of the kids that probably stressed them . What kind of ACE score would that ring up ??
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Four ACEs. Enough to use drugs to cope.
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I am a Licenced Professional Counselor. I want to work with this man!!! I’ve known this forever!! Trauma MUST BE NUMBED! Addiction is NOT a brain disease, it’s a human response to unspeakable horror!! I refuse to ignore or gloss over the HUGE ELEPHANT in the treatment industry. I walk into a client’s trauma with them, one step at a time. It’s scarier than the scariest horror flick they’ve ever seen. Some refuse to go. Some have had enough numbing and are willing to try. I’ve witnessed miracles. ACES MUST BE ADDRESSED! Thank you, Dr. Sumrok. I would drop everything in my life to work with colleagues who “get it.”
Phyllis Miller, MS, LMHC, NCC
Safe Space Counseling, PLLC
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[…] Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine says “It’s not the drugs. It’s the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).” […]
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[…] article! Click here or on the pdf file to learn […]
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Excellent article! I am encouraged to read that more sensible viewpoints are coming out about the causes and treatments for addiction . When the underlying causes are properly understood then proper treatments will follow . Though some will become addicts without experiencing trauma, I believe those people will fortunately find recovery a somewhat easier process since they will not have the same need to escape traumatic experiences. Pain appears to be at the soul of addiction and escape from pain is what the addict is attempting to do.
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I do not agree. While I can only speak for my own experience…I had a wonderful childhood…stable home life…no “uncles” or family friends touching me…no abuse physically emotionally or psychologically…raised in a Catholic..not to tight home..with both parents…and siblings…yet I am an addict…recovered today. However, what your saying doesn’t ring true for me…
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My daughter is similar to you, having had a good upbringing etc….and she too has addiction issues. However, I, her mom, suffered with a Post Partum Depression from 5 month’s till she was around 14 months old. On some level , the attachment relationship suffered, And her brain became wired differently? Gabor Mate who is a well respected doctor in this field, says yes, my depression would have caused some changes in how her brain became wired, and not to blame myself though, as I was doing the best I could under the circumstances. Not sure if maybe something like this resonates for you.
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Although I was not raised in an abusive home either, I was shamed through Catholicism and the general attitude towards females in the 60’s and 70’s. I don’t think there are many in our society who have suffered zero abuse or trauma. If you experience something that devalues you I believe that can lead to substance abuse and then to addiction. The absence of awful doesn’t mean it was neccissarily good either. Just my opinion.
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[…] Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine, believes we should rename addiction “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking.” A seasoned doctor and former Green Beret based in Appalachia, he sees addictions as largely coming out of brain-body-mind changes that result from trauma, especially in childhood. In this way, addictions can be seen as our natural response to not getting that comfort when we were young. (You can read more about Dr. Sumrok’s trauma-informed treatment work here.) […]
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Please add Adoption to your list os ACE. Being removed from your mother and lying alone in a hospital crib for 4-6 weeks waiting to die is pretty scary.
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That situation is addressed by the ACE measure of having one or no biological parent(s) in the home. It isn’t termed specifically adoption, but it is there.
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my son was adopted from Russia (actually Siberia), premature, given up at birth, spent an extended time in intensive care of a hospital, then went to a baby house till 10 months old when my wife and i came on the scene to adopt him. we brought him back to the USA and consequently changed his language and life. he is gay and is addicted to alcohol and nicotine. he is now 25 going on 26.
We sure could use some help. Reed Coles 413-537-0245
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You might want to contact people at the Attachment and Trauma Network.
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Yes, I agree. I was disappointed to not see adoption on the list.
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Subsequent ACE surveys include involvement with the foster care system.
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Very informative readings. Thanks
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[…] after it integrated ACEs screening, and saw a 30 percent drop in emergency department visits. A family physician in Tennessee educates his opioid patients about their ACEs, with nearly 100 percent of them returning to health and getting their lives back. The physician […]
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[…] after it integrated ACEs screening, and saw a 30 percent drop in emergency department visits. A family physician in Tennessee educates his opioid patients about their ACEs, with nearly 100 percent of them returning to health and getting their lives back. The physician […]
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Totally!
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Does his work include the impact of faith or lack of faith in Christ on inner healing from Aces? And as an alternative habit pattern of ritualized comfort behavior?
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Please remember that Christ is only one of many great spiritual Teachers that have appeared on earth. So the question could be: faith or lack of faith in God, Higher Power, Buddha, Mohammed, Allah, Ra etc. etc.
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Hi Laura, Thank you! I think perhaps the question about faith in a higher power may have been in reference to the principles in the 12 step programs, which urge participants to seek help from their high power, however that looks for the individual. You reference a Higher Power by many names by which that One has been known by many faiths. Thank you for bringing your perspective!
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[…] According to the study, people with any ACE score (based on the ACEs experienced) are two to four times more likely to abuse substances while ACE scores over 5 are “seven to 10 times more likely to use illegal drugs, to report addiction and to inject illegal drugs,” according to ACES Too High. […]
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What a wonderful program you have. Is there anything like that in OKC! I’m the daughter of a Vietnam Vet, and I believe his pstd spread into my life. Thank you,
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Thank you for your research into addiction and in going a step further into just what causes comfort seeking behaviors. The root cause is where our answers always come! My son has been to treatment two times now, and I was absolutely shocked at the punitive approach! I hope that you continue to teach our medical professionals. I look forward to studying the ACE’s exam in depth.
Thank you again!!
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Excellent article!! Are there any Dr.s in Utah?
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Dr. Sumrok, I have read the article that Jane wrote in May 2017 a few times. I love the work that you are doing and am glad to see the outcomes that you are getting. I had a question about the ACEs screen that you provide to patients. There were a couple of instances noted that the ACE score, when first filled out by the patient was low and then when you sit down with the patient and go over each item, you get a higher score. Can you talk a little bit about how that exchange goes with the patient, as to the shift in understanding what each question is asking?
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[…] seen about 1,200 patients who are addicted,” Sumrok said in an interview. “Of those, more than 1,100 have an ACE score of 3 or […]
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[…] Stevens, J.E. (May, 2017). Addiction doc says: it’s not the drugs, it’s the ACEs… adverse childhood experiences. ACEs Too High, retrieved from https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can…. […]
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Thankyou. This is giving me hope that I can heal and help my kids and the community.
Stigma of human suffering STINKS.
I’m tired of having to defend myself from more abuse when I’m seeking help.
Julia
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[…] shouldn’t be called addiction. It should be called ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking” says Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science […]
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[…] Source: Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experien… […]
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Reblogged this on Parental Alienation's Dirty Secrets , Akin to Domestic Violence 40 yrs ago and commented:
Worthy read!
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Fascinating and clarifying article, and the ACEs and Resilience tests were revealing and helpful.
I can recommend ‘In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts’ by Dr. Maté as well, which is excellent.
It seems our collective understanding of the nature of addiction is becoming more precise, which I think is essential in terms of how it is viewed by society at large (ie not as a defining characteristic, but as a symptomatic behaviour created by a deeper wound).
I think it is also essential to remember that nobody is addicted to the substance or behaviour (as such), but to the increase of endogenous morphines that is provoked by that substance or behaviour.
One is seeking the comfort that love provides. Addiction is a love—replacement therapy, in my experience, but that love that was lost can’t be replaced.
However, you can learn to love yourself, which includes the cessation of addiction.
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[…] and I will share soon here, plus Veronica Valli linked to an excellent article about it recently here too. Mine is 8/10 which meant I was environmentally and genetically primed for addiction. And […]
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How can I get in touch with this doctor and this program!
Thank you for this discovery
Michele
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731 431 3010
dsumrok@uthsc.edu
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That’s tremendously kind of you to give everyone a way to reach out to you directly. Thank you for that and for your important and transformative work.
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Fantastic, hope-filled article that needs to be required reading for all of us.
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It’s an excellent article. Garbor Maté’s book “In the realm of the hungry ghosts” is also excellent, and humbling. This is, however, and unfortunately, not new news. It is how we worked with addicts in the Sydne Drug Advisory Centre in the mid 1970’s. It is also a policy which has been successful in Europe for a long time. Unless, and until, the concept of a “War on Drugs” can be addressed, politically, the situation is unlikely to change. There is far too much money tied up in policing and incarcerating those who become “addicts” for it to change any time soon, particularly in our current combative political climate.
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[…] Daniel Sumrok, Director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the Univ. of Tennessee calls it, “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”. When you view chronic online use from a lens of isolation or social anxiety, the conversation […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood exp… […]
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[…] Anecdotal evidence of successful prevention and treatment approaches is also described in the paper. One story (included in briefing in the U.S. Senate) was about cases before a Tennessee judge where the outcome for a traumatized child was dramatically better when treatment was provided compared to one who was simply punished. Another comes from the work of Dr. Daniel Sumrock who incorporates ACEs science in his Tennessee clinic. (See “Addition doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs—adverse childhood experiences”). […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experiences. […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experiences. […]
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[…] Source: Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experien… […]
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[…] Here’s a different voice in the noise around drug addictions and the opiate crisis. Drug addiction should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”. The doctor has some credentials for suggesting the change. Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Medicine, oversees one of the few Addiction Centre of Excellence as designated by the Addiction Medicine Foundation. Of the 1200 addicted patients he has seen, 1100 have high ratings on the Adverse Childhood Experiences scale. https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs, it’s the ACEs — adverse childhood experience… […]
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Please!! I need you to help my boyfriend!! I need to get him a therapist right away who specializes in this & can help him!! I will pay ANYTHING to get him help before it’s too late. I am in the Alsip, I’ll area & need a doctor ASAP!! PLEASE SOMEONE RESPOND TO ME & HELP US!!
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Very good article…I’ve looked at ACE’s as they relate to addition and other life problems…however, an ACE score of 0 doesn’t mean you’re immune to addiction…but reviewing ACEs with an addict/alcoholic is a very sound approach to achieving recovery…
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I always thought the answer to addiction is in the “why”. Been through rehab at a young age
There to understand the why and learning to love myself has been a long road. Thank you for your research.
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I would like to know where I can receive treatment for ACE, I live in San Mateo, CA
Thank you for sharing this.
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Hi, Kay:
Try searching these sites for people in your area:
The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation: Find a Therapist – http://www.isst-d.org/default.asp?contentID=18
Psychology Today: Find a Therapist – https://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms
Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh) Clinical Referral List – http://www.attach.org/attach-resources/registered-clinicians/
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At an AA meeting, NA meeting…all depends on what your addiction is. Go to 1 of these meetings and ask somone who has been there a long time. they will help.
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[…] This is a shortened version. To read the full article go to https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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When a sex addict gives his wife herpes, HIV, hepatitis…it’s going to be pretty hard to offer him something other than anger. “Sex addiction” drives sex trafficking. It is part of compulsive abusive sexual relational disorder. Calling it sex addiction is a huge disservice to the patients and the people that have a life time of suffering as a result. Many people have ACE’S and do not end up addicted.
Character disturbance (as per George Simon) is a part of the picture here.
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Drug addiction drives drug trafficking. I’m not sure the point you’re making.
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Amazing research. I would love to join this study.
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Nothing at all mentioned about the death of a parent or a parent with a chronic disease. My mother passed away from cancer when I was eight, after being ill for almost 2 years.
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Hi, Kathy: The original ACE Study looked at only 10 types of childhood adversity, but subsequent studies have included others, including racism, bullying, involvement with the foster care system, moving often, homelessness, etc. Living with a parent who’s very ill for a long time and losing a parent certainly qualify as ACEs.
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This is an amazing article. I have an ACE score of eight. Pretty high. I consider myself a fairly high functioning person. With that said, I will probably die young as I have major intimacy issues and I move in and out of addiction behaviour every few years — which is a self-soothing behavior but not the least bit healthy.
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I just want to add that although I consider my resilience to be exceptionally high, it isn’t an antidote. I still exhibit highly addictive behavior. I’ve just learned how to work around it.
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That’s my problem, also although I had severe childhood trauma. I didn’t start abusing drugs till I was in my late thirties. I was also abused by my 1st husband. So why so late in life?
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Ace score 7. Clean since 4 6 16. DOC opiates. Interesting case study, with some troubling conclusions. The medically assisted treatment program is not what I recommend, but can be somewhat effective in extreme cases, but only as a step down tool. The theory of childhood trauma being a precurser to substane abuse is not new to me, but the health risks for other chronic diseases, due to increased ace scores, is surprising. I feel the calling addiction a disease is misleading. My recovery requires constant attention, my addiction is still here, which makes it disease like. I have a mental illness that becomes activated when I use. I feel my addiction is more of an allergy than a disease.
disease of add
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I agree that addiction is not a disease. It is a coping mechanism that is rooted deeply in the brain. That is my take.
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I disagree I don’t feel I chose to all of a sudden f- up my life, not to mention my grown children. All I ever wanted was love & all I got was pain & more pain. Plus it makes since b/ c I started realizing about 8mos. ago I do things on impulse when something bad happens . I’m trying hard to change but I keep felling.
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I’ve always like the allergy model over the disease model since, generally, you must have exposure to the allergen before you realize effects…however both are just models to simplify and make more understandable a very complex issue…the AMA looks at addiction as a brain reward system disease and there is certainly data to support that position…I believe that everyone has a biological potential to become an addict much like everyone has the potential to become a diabetic…some have a greater potential than others and that’s genetically determined…it’s not a digital yes/no condition but more of a continuum…with repetitive heavy use over time, just about anyone will be come an addict/alcoholic but there are those who become addicts/alcoholics in a rather short period of time (Type I vs Type II alcoholics)…the discussion of ACEs in this article (and elsewhere) is of great insight because it looks to address why people get into repetitive heavy use in the first place… I don’t think there is a singular path to addiction, but a high ACE score definitely increases the potential that someone will use drugs to self medicate and continue until they reach the point of biological addiction…
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I wholeheartedly agree with your entire comment Steve.
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[…] It’s a fairly simple formula: Treat people with respect instead of blaming or shaming them. Listen intently to what they have to say. […]
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Reblogged this on Far be it from me –.
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Reblogged this on helenjnoble.
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One thing that should be mentioned is that children with such issues not only struggle with substance addiction, we are basically addiction prone. Can be addicted to shopping, eating/binging, hoarding… I get addicted to everything I do… even gambling. That is on top of the regular substance I used to be involved with but no longer. I now choose to be addicted to healthy things (legal things)…
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[…] Source: Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experien… […]
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Reblogged this on Mark W. Harvey, APRN.
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Great advancement in treating the whole human being with compassion, empathy, and medication.
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I think my son is taking dangerous drugs like heroine. I don’t know if he has any addictions. He is also taking a narcotic that his doctor prescribes him improperly. We live in the Dallas, TX area. Is there someone you can recommend here that can help him?
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Amazing ! Thank you.
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What angers me is when addiction is called a “disease.” That needs to stop, too.
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Scored a 10. I have no addictions but my health is an incredible disaster. Four chronic illnesses – two of which are life threatening. Attention span issues and diagnosed ASD – so I have NOT (obviously) read all the comments above. Is there any hope for someone like me?
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Hope so. There definitely needs to be more help for adults with ACEs. Doctors like the one in this article are few and far between.
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I currently study Diploma of Alcohol and Other Drugs and Diploma of Mental Health issues concurrently in Melbourne Australia. For those asking ‘if they can learn (or are they too old)’; I can tell them, I am in my mid-60’s. NO ONE IS EVER TOO OLD TO LEARN new information, if they choose to put in the hard work. This information Dr Dan Sumrok has offered could be [an entire addition] Master’s Degree Thesis &/or PhD to go forward learning more. I personally appreciate the information Dr Dan and others have offered to add to my own knowledge base. My goal is attending training in USA and bringing it back to this region to teach others. THAT is what it is all about: ‘Each one Teach one’ (Frank Laubach, 1884-1970, Literacy); this LITERACY about Substance Healing and Rehabilitation needs to be taught/learned by others, as well.
Kind regards and thank you for your continuing work, Dr Dan and others, AdvocateWorldWide.
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This guy is a friggin hero. I have been saying this for 25 years. Let’s get on with it #PedsDocs4SinglePayer #PedsAgainstACEs
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Lots of good information here and a very interesting read. Thanks for sharing.
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Where are doctors in state of Iowa that work with this program?
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The ACE study is 100% accurate. I scored about a 6 or 7. I was sexually abused when I was young. Later when I was a teen I became addicted to sex, then alcohol, then drugs. I have been to 8 or 9 treatment centers and have been unsuccessful staying sober. I’m currently going to the methadone clinic and have been for over 4 years.
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Finally! What a breakthrough! So happy to learn about this!!
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Wonderfull! I have known this from my own personal experience. I fell off a balcony age 18month was traumatized as a result of and being handled by medical staff. I have a mood disorder and don’t handle stress well also have gut problems . I don’t seem to get the right kind of help. I am 61years old Email richard.j.jackson@hotmail.com
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How about… rather than spending money on fighting the war on drugs and then more money on treatment, as a society we wage a war on (seems to be popular at the moment) and spend resources fighting child abuse, family violence, poverty, racism, discrimination, unemployment, sexism etc etc? Too radical?
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You are definitely on the right track
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There is a slippery slope when everyone who has SUD has to have experienced ACE. Many did not. You do them no favors by forcing them into a pigeon hole where the normal experiences of growing up are labeled as “trauma.” I am not talking about the true trauma survivors I work with as a child welfare attorney. I am referring to the upper middle class kids raised with every advantage and a 0 ACE score who nonetheless became addicted to drugs. Any one size fits all approach creates problems for those who are not in that category. Group therapy to recover from trauma is of no use to someone whose addiction is not driven by trauma. And like many others working with the SUD population, I have yet to find anyone who fully recovered with suboxone, rather I have seen many times suboxone being abused, being sold, and leading to relapse.
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I agree that one size does not fit all.
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I would bet that if you traced back on these middle-class, “zero ACE” kids, you’d find that there is trauma in their ancestry. Addiction often skips a generation. Epigenetics explains that trauma in our ancestors gets passed down in our genes. Just because something is not currently included in the ACE assessment doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be. Rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water, these circumstances need to be understood and included in the ACE assessment.
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Middle or upper class folks are not immune to trauma. In fact, in many of those cases, the trauma is extraordinarily hidden for status reasons.
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Ava, it may not look like a “big T” trauma but lack of self worth / self love can be established in any childhood regardless of money and class. It’s not necessarily what we experience but how we perceive it and what beliefs we form about ourselves. Coming from a privileged background can cause some sensitive souls to suffer with huge guilt and shame, or carry great weights of expectation etc. To end up so abusive of self indicates to me that there is some deep level of trauma, possibly unconscious and/or preverbal, much of which can occur in the womb or during birth without anyone being aware. We might also consider the physiological and psychological patterns set up in new borns by drugs given during labour, and our subsequent reliance on them later in life…
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“upper middle class kids raised with every advantage and a 0 ACE score who nonetheless became addicted to drugs”
I had every advantage, but was emotionally abandoned at 18 months when the next baby was born as was she when the third one came – I am addicted to alcohol – I suffer from anger, depression and sadness. I am 62 and have tried to get rid of it with EFT but it still lingers.
Yet I am an intelligent person and function in society, but life is a drag and I can’t wait to numb myself at the end of the day (or sometimes at the beginning of the day)
My score is 3 – my thinking is that umc kids that have everything, but no emotional support score at least a 1
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Three is a big number in the scheme of things where ACE is concerned.
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So what is your definition of trauma. Is everyone’s trauma the same? Is all trauma obvious? Is the early childhood experience the only form of a thousand traumas. Just like the law, this science requires training and an opened mind. Not a disfunctional retort from an early unrecognized traumatic experience.
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Hi, I have an ACE’S score of 7. When I started my transformation a few years back the most refereeing and healing words I heard were ” Honey, you weren’t crazy, they were!” Luckily I never did drugs and alcohol usage was limited to my college days- I believe my need to be in full control kept me from partaking.
The problem with ACE’S is you know you’re different than most, you struggle more with routine life skills, but you don’t know why. I also think many us tend to have more of a creative mind; that combined with the unhealthy mechanism we develop really sets you apart from others. Without an outlet for the creativity, people just don’t know what to do with how different they are. It’s extremely difficult to “fit in” with emotionally well persons. They try to numb all that creative energy so it won’t drive them crazy. What helps as an adjunct therapy is daily work on developing self awareness and then learning techniques to retrain the brain. I wrote “Stuck in Our Stories No More” a step by step guide on how I transformed my mind, body and soul. I train individuals, corporations (employee assistance programs) and health care team providers.
Leslie Peters RN
Nurse Consultant, ACE’s
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Hi, Leslie: Since the ACE Study and subsequent ACE surveys in more than 30 states show that ACEs are common, I think that if we create a culture where we can be more open about our ACEs, we’ll all discover that most of us have ACEs and have incorporated mostly unhealthy ways of coping — including over-achieving, engaging in thrill sports and over-eating.
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Great testimony!
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I think your point about using adjunct therapies to help retrain our brains is a very important one. My fiancee was helped significantly by EMDR. For me, it was EFT, NLP, and CBT that did the job in combination. No “one size fits all” approach is likely to succeed as well as an integrative, tailored approach that takes individual and cultural factors into consideration.
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What about childhood bullying and low self esteem issues? We’re these looked at in the study?
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Hi, Michelle: Thanks for your question. Bullying wasn’t included in the original ACE Study (and low self-esteem comes from ACEs of many types), but it and several other types of ACEs have been included in subsequent ACE surveys. Some of those are racism, involvement with the foster care system, living in an unsafe neighborhood, and witnessing violence outside the home. What some people are beginning to do is to ask the people they’re serving about their traumatic experiences, and adding those. For example, Roseland Pediatrics in Santa Rosa, CA, serves people who have immigrated to the U.S., so one of the questions they incorporated in their ACEs assessment is “Did you lose a family member to deportation?”
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This is right on target and moving in the right direction. I didn’t see depression and suicides addressed and childhood trauma is definitely the cause. I struggle daily and have searched over 30 years for relief. I’m trying cbd oil now with not much improvement.
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Please look into Advanced Integrative Therapy (AIT). It is an energy psychotherapy that heals childhood trauma and it works.
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Great testimony!thanks.
I will check it out.
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http://www.thesacredplant.com has a webinar series explaining in detail the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. The right kind, strength and method of delivery is crucial.
I too have struggled a long time – it started after I had my first baby – I was asking myself:”how can anyone beat kids?”
I am 62, my score is 3
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May I suggest EMDR. It helped me more than years of other therapy, recently I am trying somatic psychotherapy and this also is very helpful.
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Grateful for this article!
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Implementing Trauma Informed Care has elevated the quality care I deliver to my patients resulting in more positive patient outcomes. I am a psychiatric nurse working in hospital acute care unit for 22 years. For the past 20 years I identified the negative consequences of childhood events determined ones behaviors. Patients need assistance in identifying this. New, effective interventions need to be implemented and available for both inpatient and outpatient populations to save lives!
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AWESOME!! GOD’S GIFT TO HURTING PEOPLE!!
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Can you give me any information on finding a group and doctor in Georgia who use ACE to help addictions?
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There’s no medical, chemical, psychological, edible, sexual or material solution to a spiritual problem.
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Joe M, what does the word “spiritual” mean in this context? Your advice may be helpful for people who are “spiritual”, but people who aren’t spiritual actually do get better and conquer their addictions. I’ve seen them do it. I’ve also seen very spiritual people die from the struggle. Calling it a spiritual problem and disregarding the science/medical/psychological/chemical aspects of this problem is incomplete.
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Excellent point. Rational Recovery is a substance abuse recovery group with no spiritual aspects that has a higher recovery rate than the 12 step groups (which are only barely better than placebo). If a person has a need to believe that a “higher power” with intelligence is looking out for them, then good for them if they find comfort and a path to better, healthier coping strategies that involves that, but it’s not for everyone.
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It’s not only a spiritual problem.
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While I agree that treating all people with respect returns the best results and that the ACE concept may be true for many, my 40 + years working with addicts informs me that addiction can come about in a multitude of ways and affect even people whom have had stellar childhoods. In contemporary addiction treatment the most effective approaches start with assessing biological, psychological, and social factors that are core issues in subjective addiction and/or other mental health issues. The biopsychosocial approach was strong body of evidence and many years of global research to back it up.
I also have found that addiction destroys the sense of family and creates comfort seeking, after all, drug and alcohol use is all about instant gratification that is contrary to long term goals. So I can see why this instant gratification seeking may get confused with childhood issues. However, I have worked with hundreds of addicts who have lived to retirement age with very high social functioning and visit their doctor for some obscure pain issue, get a prescription for Percocet, and have their life unravel in a few years as addiction sets in and instant gratification becomes the primary focus. These cases are used to support the biological approach that some individuals are more predisposed to develop addictive tendencies than others. To disregard this theory and attempt to say the person had unresolved childhood issues is a slippery slope. If the person had never visited the doctor, they would have never been exposed to opioids and thus addiction and given the unresolved childhood issues never would have impacted their life.
So to hold the ACE theory true in absolute, would be to say that opioid use brings out unresolved childhood issues after living 65 years of very high social functioning and that giving the person buprenorphine will help reverse the neurological damage created by the opioids. In sum, one drug that activates opioid receptors creates neurological damage yet another drug that attaches to opioid receptors fixes the problem, of course with the proper therapy.
Great dialogue, but let us be careful to not put the blinders on.
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood exp… PTSD is not a disorder according to van der Kolk, who wrote The Body Keeps the Score. “Bessel says we’ve named this thing wrong. Post-traumatic stress is a brain adaptation. It’s not an imagined fear. If one of your feet was bitten off by a lion, you’re going to be on guard for lions,” explains Sumrok. “Hypervigilance is not an imagined fear, if you’ve had one foot bitten off by a lion. It’s a real fear, and you’re going to be on the lookout for that lion. I tell my patients that they’ve had real trauma that’s not imagined. They’re not crazy.” […]
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I’m a counselor who specializes in psychoactive-assisted recovery.
It is astonishing to me that this article doesn’t mention therapeutic value of Ibogaine and Ayahuasca in addiction treatment.
Prescription of Suboxone and group therapy is an excellent short-term solution for some people, but most folks, especially the younger generation, resist this form of treatment and for good reason: it is a life sentence and never-ending contract with Big Pharma.
And why should they opt for Suboxone, when they can detox with Ibogaine in just a 48-hour long session? Why should they be forced to do 12-step, when joining an Ayahuasca circle will provide spiritual, emotional and physical healing, on a level of depth and authenticity that is exactly what they’ve been looking for all along?
There is no longer any reason to deny the therapeutic value of Ibogaine / Ayahuasca intervention for addiction. In fact, these medicines have been researched internationally and there is plenty of scientific data available that shows exceptional, unparalleled benefits on the brain, as well as cognitive-emotional functions. Simple google them and check publications on PubMed.
Dr. Gabor Mate has worked with Ayahuasca traditional doctors for many years, so is Jascque Mabit, a french MD who started Takewasi center in Peru, the first in-patient center to treat addicts with Ayahuasca.
In 2012, I co-founded an in-patient center in Mexico, that specializes in post-Ibogaine integration (therapeutic aftercare) called Living Clean Ibogaine (www.livingcleanibogaine.com). Since then we supported recovery of dozens of people, healing from opiate addiction. Our long-term success rate is close to 70% and it can be even better. We worked with middle-class families from US and sons of political leaders from Europe, we bridge indigenous medicine tradition of Mexico and Amazon with integrative medicine, as well as yoga, nutrition and T-Group process as group therapy (much more effective than 12-step!!!).
Ibogaine is illegal in Mexico and Ayahuasca is in legal “gray zone”. I understand that MD like you can’t legally prescribe these drugs.
But I also believe that to be in integrity with this profession and to really respond to this dramatic moment of epidemic, at the very least this article must mention the existing practice and research in the area of psychoactive-assisted recovery. Otherwise it is just as misleading as the very stigma of addiction that the concept of ACS is attempting to overcome.
I’m available.
Danesh Oleshko, LLM
Director, Co-founder,
LivingCleanIbogaine.com
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Questions: Ayou a recovered alcoholic or addict yourself? How long have you been prescribing your combination drug-therapies? Less than 10 years? Longer?Longitudinal studies conducted? What is your rate of recitivism for your program? Are there side effects to the drugs you use? As Thomas Szazz stated many years ago: the psychological / psychiatric professions have created a plethora of regimens but most treat the symptoms not the root cause.
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Ibogaine and ayahuasca are both promising treatment modalities, but there is no “one size fits all” approach that works for everyone. While for someone with a physical dependency to opioids, ibogaine is likely a helpful means through the withdrawal, it’s not going to treat the cause of the problem if there was trauma and/or maladaptive coping strategies behind that dependency.
For some people, the idea of an ayahuasca circle is frightening, intimidating, or simply contrary to their culture and upbringing. A titrated dose of MDMA (ecstasy) or LSD in a controlled setting with an experienced professional counselor can be a lot less stressful for those folks, and just as effective (per current research status). And though it’s a lot slower approach than ibogaine, high-dose baclofen treatment can be very effective in facilitating a clean withdrawal and maintaining sobriety. The body of research on that is still small, but compelling, as are the anecdotal accounts you find if you Google “baclofen alcohol” or start at the drugs dot com user reviews section.
Short version: there are a lot of paths that can end up in the same general destination, and it’s good to have alternatives.
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Scientists are now working on erasing traumatic memories, I can see how this science will play a large part in curing addicts.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/will-scientists-soon-be-able-erase-our-most-traumatic-memories-180951167/
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How do I get an ACE score? Where can I take it?
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Hi, Taylor: Go to Got Your ACE Score? — it explains the ACE Study, has the ACE survey, and also a resilience survey.
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[…] according to a number of experts in the field, it can also come from many forms devastation in families: abuse, neglect, addiction, divorce, […]
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Grew up with an effed up childhood, mother tried to commit suicide and I found her at age 11 along with many other things. Growing up and even now never drank, did drugs, smoked no promiscuity but food was my comfort. Never went to any sort of therapy until now and I’m in my 40’s. Recently found out my score is a 6 and I’m having a hard time of letting go of the notion that I have to have a brave face on 24/7. As she said I picked a profession that reflected my childhood, running from one emergency to the next. I’m just overwhelmed now and not sure where to go from here.
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Hello, can you let me know where I can find help (groups and a doctor) in Georgia? Thank you so much for offering hope and compassion.
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Makes COMPLETE sense!!! I have longgggg believed the chronic self (ill prescribed ) medicating is a result of trauma and no healthy or soft place for individuals to get the inner healing tools they NEED!! Nature vs Nurture and self worth is lost in trauma….pain is so individually experienced even if all children in the family seen the same things! I hope more CARING and tool instilling programs are implemented around the world!!!
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I think this is absolutely fantastic.. Nice to know there is a movement that truely addresses the needs of these patients, with dignity.
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Because some ER doctor prescribed suboxone to one of my brothers years ago, they are both now every bit as controlled by and addicted to it as they ever were any street drug. When you can’t hardly find a doctor to prescribe it (seems like one for every three counties), I have a hard time believing it’s a good thing. There’s obviously a lot I don’t know about drug abuse, but I do know the heartache of having two addicts in the family.
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Sorry to hear about your brothers. Addiction is a family disease, and it’s super taxing to those closest to the addict or recovering person. I know from personal experience.
As for the Suboxone issue, it’s not a magic fix, but isn’t supposed to look like what you described it to be in your post. Suboxone treatment is medication-assisted therapy, not purely medication therapy (chemotherapy). Individuals who are working with a Suboxone provider are usually required to attend weekly counseling sessions, have a treatment plan for active recovery, and should be discussing a taper with their prescribing physician. If their Suboxone doc is simply writing them scripts for refills with no conversations around progress, recovery-oriented movement, and a game plan towards a gradual taper, there’s something wrong. Of course, it is up to your brothers to actually show up and lean into these services in order for them to be successful, and thus the recovering individual has a bigger responsibility for their own recovery than anyone else. It’s not a question of blame or duty — it’s a question of empowerment.
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Addiction is not a disease.
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Wow. This article was like a kick in the chest. My son is 30 years old, and has abused every drug out there, and has been in and out of prison since he was 18. He’s in prison now, and will get out in September. I have known for years that divorce and several other issues affected him deeply. He needs you. I would like to get him in to help as soon as he gets out. We live in Northeast Arkansas. Can you direct us to the proper help? Thank you so much.
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[…] shouldn’t be called “addiction.” It should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking. Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking (what traditionalists call addiction) is a normal response […]
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Hi Dr. Sumrok, Please let me direct your attention to my book written in 1997 called The Craving Brain. Ronald Ruden MD
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I moved to El Dorado County, California recently which seems to have many more people (by my own observation and by some professional input from others) with addiction issues. Is there someone in this part of the country who understands ACE’s that I could collaborate with (I’m a pastor and help find meaningful solutions) to bring some hope? We host an AA meeting on our church campus, but I’d like to help facilitate folks finding even more help.
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Hi, Gale: There’s an active ACEs initiative in the county. You can find out more information here – http://www.acesconnection.com/g/el-dorado-county-ca-aces-connection
If you join ACEsConnection.com, and then the El Dorado group, linked above, you’ll be able to see and contact members to find out more information.
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[…] be called “addiction”. It should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking” says Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science […]
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experiences. – Aces Too High “Addiction shouldn’t be called “addiction”. It should be called “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”… The ACE Study found that the higher someone’s ACE score – the more types of childhood adversity a person experienced – the higher their risk of chronic disease, mental illness, violence, being a victim of violence and a bunch of other consequences. The study found that most people (64%) have at least one ACE; 12% of the population has an ACE score of 4. Having an ACE score of 4 nearly doubles the risk of heart disease and cancer. It increases the likelihood of becoming an alcoholic by 700 percent and the risk of attempted suicide by 1200 percent.” […]
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I am filled with joy and hope for these people…….. the medical community finally are understanding this….. stop looking at us as if we have 4 eyes!!!!! We are just like you!!!!! We all are not jobless losers, bad parents,and careless spouses!!!!! The world has been short changed by writing us off!!!!!! So much pain,and shame has been handed out to great people simply because they are sick!!!!!!! I know no other illness where people get treated like criminals rite off the bat!!!!! This is why people don’t get help!!!!! It’s not help at all!!!!!!! It hurts very bad…… after all….. Nobody wants to be different!!!! We just long to be NORMAL!!!!!!!!! Thank god for you!!!! Keep up the good work❤️
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[…] “Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking [or addiction] is a normal response to the adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed,” Sumrok says. […]
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[…] “Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking [or addiction] is a normal response to the adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed,” Sumrok says. […]
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I read through this whole article. It appears to be spot on, I have a child that is addicted to heroin and has overdosed and almost died. If the ambulance did not have Narcon on board, he wouldn’t of made it to the hospital. i’m so grateful to the men who saved his life. He is now currently incarcerated, for the next two years due to his overdose. It is my opinion, that in the state of Idaho, its easier to lock him away rather try to figure out whats going on with this child…he’s 20. He was an athlete, very popular intelligent, well spoken and handsome, still is. His father walked away when he was young, I remarried sometime later and subsequently, his step father walked away as well. He started to run with a tough crowd strangely enough, none of these kids had a father in their life. I honestly believe this is do to trauma in his life, he suffers from severe anxiety and was also diagnosed with ADHD. Rather than throwing these kids in prison and spending tax payers dollars, wouldn’t it be more beneficial to try and use the resources to get them into some counseling and rehabilitation, out in the community and working. These people have no idea what these kids go through being incarcerated. When they come back out they can’t integrate back into society, they have little or no self esteem, can’t get a job or anywhere to live due to their felony. It’s hard for them to be in public places…sad deal. I also have a daughter that’s heading off this year to do an intern at Stanford and she’s only 18. Why is it that my son is hurting so deeply, does not having a farther in the picture or two fathers walk out of his life play a part in this? I can’t help but wonder as the whole group of boys my son was using heroin with are now all incarcerated and all fatherless.
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Would love to train in this area! Getting my masters in addiction counseling will be looking for pre- practicum site for intern!!
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Bupe??!! Really? I was a surgical unit nurse in a hospital where it was given to post-op patients. They should signs of addiction within 24 hours. Getting them off it, just a few days post op so we could discharge them, was difficult; they became hostile, uncooperative, complained about everything, etc.
If you are given people Bupe all you are doing is substituting one narcotic addiction for another.
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I have a family going back generations whose addictive personalities have provided lives that survived, but Looking through the eyes of a care worker, lives that could have been without so many of the tears and pain.
Could I at 61 still learn and teach others some of these tools?
I’m from NZ but living in Melbourne Australia at the moment
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Hi, Sharon: Absolutely you can still learn and teach others! Even at 91! I’m 68 and doing this every day.
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Swamiji has a really good track record of healing Rituralized Compulsive Comfort Seeking. innerawakening.org
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Great, great article. My ACE is about 4, but I have a high resilience score. I have never abused drugs or alcohol, nor even tried marijuana, and became a pharmacist LOL.
BUT my body sure remembered. I now have RA and MS. Is there any data supporting autoimmune diseases to high ACE scores? And if psychotherapy etc can help decrease the risk?
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Stress from ACE can negatively affect gut bacteria which can lead to all sorts of chronic illnesses. google stress and gut bacteria eg. The microbiome: stress, health and disease. (antibiotic use also affects gut heath).
then investigate ways of improving gut health. going gluten free, eating fermented vegetables, taking supplements, there is a lot of information on youtube eg. Healthy Gut Healthy Body: Intestinal health & chronic disease.
Google and read about Doctor Terry Wahls who has reversed her MS with diet.
All the best.
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Gerald May has some very enlightened ideas about attachment and addiction (worth a read)
There is no doubt that Dreadful ACEs make for dreadful addiction and morbidity/mortality
It’s the subtle “ACEs” which cause an awful lot of harm ,ones like religious belief whether they be Christian Jewish Muslim or any other .
Forcing our beliefs on children messes with their minds . How many people realise the psychological damage of “pushy parenting”,or parents forcing little girls to perform in beauty pageants or the like
I could write an list of “acceptable “behaviours which are damaging to children’s minds
Very few people have escape ACEs .
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Folks if you really want to get straight or sober – if you know without a doubt deep down that how you are living is going to kill you or end up in prison – AA & NA are free to you. All you have to do is show up. They work practically in “saving asses”. I’ve been sober almost 36 years thanks to the AA program and the people in AA who you can not bullshit like you can MD’s / psychologists / psychiatrists who do not suffer the addiction themselves. In fact, many of us who are real alcoholics / addicts have tried EVERYTHING including doctors, drugs, religion, therapy, etc. before getting to AA / NA as a last stop. I guess you might say AA has been addressing “ACE’s” (as you call them) since 1935 working thru the 12 steps. Just my 2-cents.
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I have advised12Steps to clients for many years and I believe in it.
I also am aware of clients on medically assisted treatments being shamed at times in the rooms.
Bill W ,an infantry lieutenant in the trenches of WW1 certainly suffered what today would be called PTSD. It just wasn’t called trauma in the 1930s.
The Big Book speaks eloquently about trauma without using the word.
It also acknowledges more to come and willingness to incorporate new info.
I look for the common threads.
I also have been at 12 Steps meetings from Barrow ,Alaska to Ojojona,Honduras ,no copay or deductible required.
No church or party affiliation required.
Only a desire to stop using.
Same story really.
I hope we can agree that carrying the good news to others I’d more important than defending any single paradigm.
It works if you work it.Thank you.
Dan
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Yes Sir. We can most certainly agree.
In addition to your insight on ACE’s I would add that in my opinion – not provable of course – personality trait(s), factor(s), gene(s), etc. may be inherited & passed on that predisposes one towards alcoholism / addiction. While such an individual may have some “internal” challenges in life, as long as this person stays away from alcohol / drug abuse, everything is OK. Otherwise, introduction of alcohol / drugs brings the predisposition into “full bloom”. It is only a matter of time. Your ACE’s may or may not contribute to development.
I believe Jack Anderson wrote an article (1930’s or 1940’s) regarding alcoholism / AA, fairly new phenomena’s at that time. In it I believe he mentioned that extreme immaturity and / or being an only child as the most 2 common characteristics exhibited by alcoholics. I have found this true to varying degrees just as I have found that alcoholics are many times above average in intelligence if they stay away from drinking.
If you have not read it already, an interesting read on AA / Oxford Group that you mentioned in your reply above, is the book “Not God”. Written as an objective historical research by the author if I’m not mistaken (Ernest Kurtz). He was granted access to much of the “closed” literature, notes & AA files at the time. Don’t let the book title fool you. (I sense however you have already read this book.)
Lastly, there is a saying in AA that seems to dovetail into your ACE’s: Isn’t it amazing that people who get sick by the mouth (drinking) are healed by the mouth (talking it to death). Free association therapy within psychoanalysis also comes to mind.
BR Tom W.
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Thank you Dr. Sumrok for your desperately needed work. I recently discovered the ACE’S study by chance. Why is that? This information is ground-breaking and revolutionary. I have a score of 8. I’m 56, and never understood why my life has been filled with addiction and relationship disasters. I live in Eugene OR, and have searched for support groups and treatment programs, but people don’t know what I’m talking about or where to send me. I’m in AA, and have been clean and sober again for 3 months. (3rd. time) I believe dealing with my trauma is the key to having a “normal” life.
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You can also do it without 12 step programs.
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Adam:
Most certainly. There are a number of ways to success in defeating addictions at various stages. “If it works, don’t fix it”.
IMO, there is an inverse relationship between the remaining amount of willpower (self-will) of the alcoholic / addict and conquering the problem alone. Once all willpower is gone, I find it very unlikely an individual will succeed without help, without which in most cases will end up in the penal system or early death (say nothing of impact on their families).
The 12 step program is the last stop for many of us – when all else has failed. It is an extremely pragmatic program. IMO only, if one cannot make it in such a program, then from my experience and observations, the progressive physical nature of the disease (or “syndrome”) will take its course. I think it is a mistake to divorce the physical aspect of alcoholism from the “ACE” induced emotional / mental aspect. I would postulate that over time many people have had “ACE’s”. (Freud, Jung, Adler et al invented a whole school of thought on such.) But they live normal lives not becoming alcoholic or addicted. Only an alcoholic / addict has an additional physical trigger that if left untreated progresses over time. Again, just my 2 cents. BR, Tom W.
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experiences. […]
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How do you treat addicts with 8/10 ace
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With attention to their autonomy,respect, and nonmaleficence always seeking beneficence.
The hard things are addressed right away and the impossible things take a little longer.
It’s the way I heard it in the Navy.
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[…] https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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What is left out is that long term PTSD (or PTS if you prefer) is genetic in origin and we know the genes. Well at least quite a few of them. Funny enough no test for those specific genes has been devised despite being widely mooted a few years back.
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Sort of. Toxic stress from ACEs can alter genes. See ACEs Science 101 on this site.
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Thanks!
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Progress in the genetics has been rapid and complex defying easy or simple understanding of Mendelian genetics.
There may not be a clinical lab test yet for PTSD but biomarkers and their mechanisms are emerging.
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Is there someone in Melbourne Australia who follows this method?
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You may be able to find resources here:
The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation: Find a Therapist
Psychology Today: Find a Therapist
Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh) Clinical Referral List
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Where can I find this treatment for my daughter? She is currently in Syracuse, NY but Charlotte, NC is also an option. Thank you!
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You may be able to find resources here:
The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation: Find a Therapist
Psychology Today: Find a Therapist
Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh) Clinical Referral List
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How do you get help for someone who is homeless and returning from incarceration repeatedly for 12 years?
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Ive listened to Dr Garber Mate on TED TALKS. I’m reading the book The Body Keeps The Score. And going through intense therapy for DID. Ive been molested as a young girl. Raped & Stocked as a woman. 2 bad marriages. Currently getting off opioids, that were prescribed after a MVA. I have a serious Gambling Addiction. Ive fought my entire life to quiet my mind and memories of a traumatic childhood. It didn’t work,when as an adult my past was just to overwhelming to stay in the present. I fell apart when I learned my 8 yo son had been sexually abused. Your article gives me hope! Especially for others who need help. Not one additive person should ever be treated LESS THAN! I truly believe addiction is the direct link of childhood trauma.
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Agree
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Dr Sumrok my son HSS been addicted to pain meds since his ankle accident in 2007 fell off a roof crushed his ankle and heel he’s has no job no money no insurance we are willing to help what we can but if something doesn’t haven’t I’m afraid the worse will happen I think he has tried subutox given by a friend not sure any suggestions would help with your ACE program
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Good knowledge but no solution and that does not help my son’s problem.
Can’t help a 52 year old man hooked on meth for 10 years!
It is really a hopeless situation. Homeless and a walking mental case. No money, no insurance, no HELP.
Hopeless 😫
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Many people who ended up getting help with Dr. Sumrok and others who take his approach felt the same way. Keep looking.
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I’m in the same situation with my son he’s been an addict for 10 yes anything available to him he has no job no insurance no money and I don’t have any idea how to get in touch with this program he is 35 yes old he needs help before matters get worse he’s been incarcerated a few times I’ve never given up but I’m at the point of no returns locations of one of the ACE CLINICS near my location would be appreciated desperate in Marysville Tn 37801
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I was sent this email today which is Sabbath afternoon. I have been struggling and all these ways in my PTSD and addictions since my childhood. I started smoking weed, and drinking in early TEEN years.
Been diagnosed with all kinds of things from the VA hospital here in Loma Linda California.
PTSD, bipolar manic depressant, stress and anxiety disorder, ect…..
I’m 57 years old now and I am suffering with so many health issues it’s sometimes too much to even handle.
after reading this article I’m more than willing to go down to the VA on Monday morning and see dr. Mickey ask who’s the head of the psychiatric unit and ask him to read this email and hopefully he’ll be willing to treat me so that I might stand a chance on recovering and getting back to somewhat of a normal life.
thank you so much for this informative information.
I just wish you all were out here in California and that’s so far away.
and if someone wants to reach me by phone to talk with me or encourage me I am leaving you my cell phone number. 909-246-6393
I just want to thank God for this blessing today that which I received.
God bless all of you.
Sincerely and respectfully,
Alan DesChamps Sr.
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I found this most helpful, I am a survivor of child trauma in very sense of the word and have struggled with alcohol abuse. I today am proud of how far I have come along this journey.
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Spread the word
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First, one physician can’t just decide PTSD is not a disorder. Second, physician’s don’t think addiction is strictly a physiologic process but is strongly affected by past experience, but remember: many members of the same family often suffer from addictions, but not always the same addiction, and they don’t have the same personal traumas, therefore, there appears to be a genetic predisposition to addiction with variable penetrance and variable expression.
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Think dynamic epigenetic rather than static genes,penetrance etc.
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[…] Source: Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experien… […]
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I wonder where boarding school sits in all this, I hear from too many people really struggling with depression who went to boarding school
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That’s an interesting point, Tess. That’s another way of being separated from your parents, isn’t it, like divorce.
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I have seen a lot of institutionalized trauma at boarding schools.
Some are there because of failed relationships at home.
Abandonment,anxiety,affirmation trauma often haunt kids away from home.
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[…] with those tormenting stories of Mate’s patients, and the daily caseloads of forensic experts and addiction specialists of the […]
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Have you read William Wordsworth poem “My Heart Leaps Up” ??
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For years, I have felt that my daughter’s extremely traumatic treatment for leukemia between the ages of 3 and 6 contributed heavily to her addiction. Her treatment included over 300 spinal tap/chemo injections and bone marrow aspirations WITHOUT anesthesia because that was not used then. By the time her chemo was over, she resembled a survivor of Mengele’s horrible concentration camp experiments. Since she is in the first group of survivors, I imagine there is a growing number of childhood cancer survivors who deal with addiction now. Are you doing any work with this particular group? Or do you know anyone who is? Thank you.
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We have seen children survive cancers and sickle cell disease who after their childhood treatment suffer addiction.
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Yes, people can be taught empathy.
Click to access empathy-connection.pdf
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Thank you, Vicki.
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Both my daughters are addicted to opioids. Between the 2, I have 5 grandkids . I suffered with depression since I was little. I am now raising 5 grandkids. I feel like I’m going g to destroy their lives by being the only one in their lives.
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Seek help for your own trauma.
Bless your effort.
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Donna:
This is right on, and van de kalk and Lance Dodes were my main guys, along with Logotherapy (Frankle) and others. Listen, give respect, seek out trauma (big and small) and help people discover purpose…healing can then occur. It takes time, though, and often we just don,t have a sufficient amount of it.
Bob Anderson
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Yes
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My name is Sean, and I grew up in central England; a place called Nottingham. I now live with impact of deep, wounding childhood abuse. Together those form psychological, emotional, physical and sexual in nature. My head feel to my arm resting on my desk. I found myself thum;ing the table in dismay. I read British psychotherpatist’s book: Who Says I’m An Addict?’, and, some years ago, benefited massively from his alternative interpretation of the impact of childhood psychological abuse, before he moved to Zurish, Switxerland. Yet, as agonisingly predictalbe, our world-renowned, and valued NHS remains stuck in limbo, ‘treating’ people like me with more or less useless cognitive therapy: my despair-saturdated approach that merely lead to the essenitally obvious realisation that (a) ther was a problem, related to my childhood problem, and that (b) that problem lay inside of me. Not an entriely useless, but fatally handicapped limntation, it was only until I recieved eye-movenemt desensitisation and reprogrsamine theraoy: ‘why must I be constantly inflicted with the pain of continuous misunderstandibng by a profession, that is, psychological medecine, that here, in the UK, refuses to accept contemporary thinking, in spitev of it’s obvious, and increasinlly obvious accuracy in common with the overwhemlming number of us who relate with the understandable agone, and releif, of lethally infected, arguably by the profession itself, with acsense of long-overdue understanding, and now frustration and the inability to find answers to ur cognitive, bandonment trauma within the massive majority of NHS-diafgnosed conditions?’ But for \David, and later, Patrcia Heyland’s professionally deepr quidance and depth of understanding willingness to embrace less conventonal, but significantly more effective methodsv of treatment, I’d still be thumping my frustrated fisats on this desk, oblivious to what is now such a compdlling and pesuavie answer to this issue. cd
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EMDR rocks.
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Love this work and as a potentially high ACE scorer look foreard to taking the test myself. Would like to know more and if this type of treatment is available in the world elsewhere.
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Hi, Sarah: You can take the ACE survey and a resilience survey at Got Your ACE Score? on this site.
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ACE addiction may apply to some individuals. But, what I see happening more is the inability to understand real Chronic Pain and the need to address what opiod treatment does in the human body when in tremendous non stop continuous knawing pain. Yes opidods may become dependent but their ability to illustrate how it affects the human brain, and the Nervous System to aid in helping chronic pain is in no way a means a of getting high, but in fact a means of neutralizing the ability to cope with the normalcy of living a fairly decent and productive life… In order to understand Chronic Pain you need to experience it and live with it for years.
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Chronic pain is often a PTSD symptom.
Many nonnarcotic approaches used alone or in concert can help.
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I am a nurse in a clinic that prescribes buprenorphine for opiate addicted people. We have a higher rate of relapse than what you describe. It seems “subs” are not always enough to get people to stop using opiates. I would love to talk with someone On the staff about methods, learns about trainings or come to visit and learn some new strategies about what is working in recovery; How to talk to participants in our program about ACEs. Any info would be welcome.
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I cannot begin to thank you for an answer to constant suspicion….
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My upbringing left me with feelings of shame,
deep sadness, trust issues, poor self with
and major depression and anxiety. It is difficult
to be around people who drink or abuse drugs.
but my addiction is to food. At 5’3″ I once weighed over 300#. I have always struggled with my weight. After many years of Psychiatric
treatment I am now in a drug regime that has me feeling the best I ever have mentally. Fibromyalgia and arthritis plague me and I struggle with how to cope with pain despite access to all sorts of opioids and other meds
I have. I firmly agree with the ACE accessment and treatment plan. I wish it was available in our area for those who struggle here.
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EMOTIONAL BRAIN TRAINING by Dr Laurel Mellin. Takes this to a whole new level. Teaches you how to rewire the brain. SHOWS YOU HOW!!! Life saving. Life changing. Thanks for the article.
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I have been on suboxone for 5 years and it makes me feel how I think normal people feel. Before opiates and suboxone I suffered from severe depression. When I have to change Drs due to insurance I’ve fighting to stay on it every since. Dr says we don’t give suboxone for depression. I told them if they took me off that it would be a death sentence. They don’t care the just want me to take more antidepressant s. Very frustrating.
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One of the first observations of buprenorphine when initial studies were done at Columbia is that about 85% of clients got an antidepressant effect.
It is correct that it is not approved as an antidepressant.
But it works.
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I was wondering if there were support groups/treatment centers for this in Austin Texas?
I’m from a family of 7 kids. I estimated my score at a 5 and several of my siblings’ scores to be higher than that.
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Hi, Candice — If you join ACEs Connection, the companion social network to ACEs Too High, you can search for other people in and around Austin, TX, to get your answer. There are quite a few members from that area.
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I love this!
Are there any resources available to find a dr and/or therapist in my area who understands ACES and treats patients accordingly? I’m in the Phoenix area….
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Hi, Jodi:
Try searching these sites for people in your area:
The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation: Find a Therapist
Psychology Today: Find a Therapist
Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children (ATTACh) Clinical Referral List
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there may be addictions, but I also believe there is something that looks like addiction I call, Something Other Than Addiction SOTA.
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Where can you go to participate
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Where do you live, George?
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A great post – thank you from NZ!
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My daughter and her husband have just returned from a year of work at Rotarua.
Historical trauma with the Maori?
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My child (45 yrs old) was raised in our home with an alcoholic father. He has struggled his whole life with the affects. Alcohol has also been his attempt to cope. I love your concept of Empathy rather than shame! Is there a connection worth Oregon Health Sciences University?
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Hi, Deana: Can you explain what you mean by your question: Is there a connection worth OHSU?
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Wow – This article has my son’s name written all over it. No matter your ACE score – because everyone has had different levels of experiences – it seems from reading this it can help whether your score is 1 or 5 and that there are different approaches depending on the individual. We have been struggling for years trying to find the right help and still feel lost. Definitely need to check into this more. Wish there was something and doctors exactly like this here in Michigan or even if we could go there.
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We are working on increasing the workforce who are trauma informed.
Stay in touch and I will ask some Michigan contacts.
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Sorry my son had a blessed life with a wonderful loving family. He was placed on ADHD meds after he and my husband also Ryans biological Dad ( sad that I need to say that. But asked all the time!) Married 26 years we talked it over. I’m a nurse and was not ok with medication for a normal, high energy strong willed, heigh IQ kid In the 4th grade!
It felt wrong to me but we felt so pressured. Thisewerethe first pills that sent a very clear message. If you don’t feel right or are getting yelled at or under stress pop pills.
It all makes me sick!!
Not all SUD sufferers have univing horrible memory of family. Our son Ryan knew we were NEVER GOING TO GIVE UP
May he Rest In Peace at last. 7 rehabs failed him but they were paid so let’s face it,that’s ALL that matters.
God help our next generation along with this one. 🙏💔🙏😥
it felt wrong to me. Little boys NEVER SAT STILL in my day.
Look at the mess we’re in. My son had no abusive family, he did had an over zealous prosecutor in Iredell County NC which was very traumatic on his life.
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I am sorry for your loss.
Many traumas haunt kids that are not included in the ACE questions.
Many ADHD kids are misdiagnosed as you say.
Many also hate being labeled and feeling like they are stigmatized by it
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Thank you. Very informative and accurate.
I lost my father(who was a retired physician ) to opiate overdose in 2015.
I struggled with addiction most of my adult life.
I’ve been clean 2 years now, and I went through 7 treatment centers over the years before finally coming to terms with the very things written in this article.
Can’t express to you enough how true it is, all of it.
Especially treating the addicted person with respect.
It makes so much difference in the way one feels about our future, and the possibility of actually staying sober.
Keep up the good work.
Again, thank you.
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All respect to you and your sensitivity.
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Like Dr Vincent Feletti says [we always knew this [all of this] about addiction, about child abuse. It’s the result of ACE’s.
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He is a giant.
Proud to stand on his shoulders.
Thank you.
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I love this work. I have a high ACE score and I’m an addict with 27 years of sobriety from drug/alcohol addictions but very newly sober around people addictions that have nearly killed me.
One piece missing from this work is that structural oppression creates violence in the lives of children and adults. Racism, economic injustice, sexism — one need not have the police pull you over and harass you to feel the terrorism of police violence every day. My ex grew up in the neighborhood where Mayor Goode dropped the bomb on a house of Black critics of the system, killing 11 people including 5 children and destroying 60 adjacent homes. This terrorism left an indelible mark — moreso than her mother’s frantic and sometimes violent parenting, which was a desperate attempt to keep her ‘in line’ and out of harms way.
ACE scores as you have designed them do not explain the current opioid epidemic. But the massive redistribution of wealth in the US and the foreclosure of employment options for white workingclass people does. The crack epidemic can be similarly explained — but unlike today, there was no empathy whatsoever for crack addicts — because, racism. And all of that addiction was characterized as ‘poor character’ and ‘poor choices’. Add structural violence to the ACE scale and it will have much more powerful explanatory value. AND rather than focusing solely on individual therapy, it may move the nation to consider how sick the hoarding of resources and the ‘blaming’ of people on the receiving end of structural violence makes our society.
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Extremely well phrased, Jaime! History matters!
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He is a giant.
Proud to stand on his shoulders.
Thank you.
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Bam!
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I have an eight but never addicted to opioids (although other things).
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[…] Addiction doc says: It’s not the drugs. It’s the ACEs – adverse childhood experiences […]
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[…] https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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I could not agree more. This is what we practice in our clinic every day. My colleague and I developed a trauma informed care training using the neuroscience of addiction and trauma, including ACE’s data, as the framework for why it’s so important. We’ve done this training for the last three years mainly in primary care offices. We insist all staff, including providers, be present for the training. We get the same feedback every time, “This totally changes how I think about addiction and some of our difficult patients. And will definitely change how I act .” We get these same comments from a variety of staff, including physicians. We also incorporate MAT into and discuss the impact it has on recovery, again using science data and math as we call it.
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Where do you visit to train? Will you come and train my staff in Upstate NY? Please let me know.
h2ostuhr@yahoo.com
Thx
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Shelly=sister
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This is not an original idea!! As a trauma therapist, this us certainly a “no brainer”. What I’ve found working in the trauma world, lots if providers are not “trauma-informed” & dismiss the adverse affects of trauma. It only seems like an original idea because he’s just now “clueing in”.
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Hi, Tana: Thanks for your comment. Are you educating your clients about ACEs?
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You are correct. For many of us working in this space it can perhaps be seen as a “duh.” The more important thing is the realization by the rest of the healthcare world that this matters. Even within my own profession as a LCSW I continually meet colleagues who don’t know anything about ACEs or trauma informed care or addiction. No matter what our profession we are all in it for the patient first and the more we work together and share information the better care our patients get.
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Sorry to be late to the party but glad to be here.
Let’s work together as healers to get the word out.
Thanks for your observation about which I agree 100%.
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Bravo! I attended one of these trainings years ago in my quest for CE. Makes so much sense! I have worked with this client population for 30 years. First as a substance abuse counselor now as a life coach with a speciality in behavioral health. From my experience, there is an underlying trauma that supports self-medicating with compulsive / addicting behaviors. I work holistically addressing mind, body, emotions, and spirit. And I bring in my yoga teacher training. This can have profound affects on trauma reduction.
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Love the somatic work w yoga incorporated.
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I am not an addict but 2 out of my 4 children are opiate. Addicts I really need help for them i have sent thousands of dollars on methadone. Clinics a little success for a bit but back to square 1 again. Because my daughter is an addict I’m. Taking care of her 2 youngest. Children they are 6 and 8 I love them and love caring fir them but I am 64 years old and now work 40 plus hours a week and really need another job for financial. Reasons please what can I do to help. Them my other 2 children are successful
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Mary, Raising our grandchildren – the children of addicts – is very complicated and stressful, on top of the stress of having addict children. If you don’t know this already, there are many FB support groups that are private (closed) where you can connect with others doing the same. There are millions of us, not only in the US, but all over the world. You most definitely are not alone. I’m doing the same and send you big hugs. If you are interested, search ‘grandparents raising grandcildren’ on FB. xo
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Thank you! I have a clearer understanding of trauma! A lot on my plate!!
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[…] is fitting that addiction is now appropriately called ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking which has been connected to adverse childhood experiences. So by losing our default salutogenic […]
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I am expecting the trauma levels in our country to skyrocket due to the disrespect now being shown through rhetoric, legislation, deregulation and massive tax cuts targeted to health care and social services. Rampant hopelessness, fear and lack of compassionate services is changing the very culture and character of our country.
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Love the somatic work w yoga incorporated.
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Reblogged this on Psych Choices Blog and commented:
Many people understand addiction as a normal response to childhood trauma. This article points out the importance of healing the trauma in order to heal the addiction.
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Yes
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[…] Source : https://acestoohigh.com/2017/05/02/addiction-doc-says-stop-chasing-the-drug-focus-on-aces-people-can… […]
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Fantastic post! Have re-blogged! All the best x
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Thank you
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Reblogged this on Courage Coaching and commented:
An incredibly insightful piece of writing! Addiction should be renamed to “ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking”.
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I like a simpler construction.
People in chronic pain chronically take pain relievers.
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From Dr Dodes.
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This is one of the best articles I have read in a long time. I am in recovery from opiate addiction and also have several mental health diagnoses, including PTSD, and also have an autoimmune disease. I agree with everything here. When I went to treatment the first time, it was all about just getting off drugs, no therapy around the reasons why I used drugs. The second time i went, I intentionally sought out a treatment center that focused on my past trauma and healing my mental health issues. I knew that if I didn’t learn healthy ways to manage them, that I would die from my drug use. I’m so glad that these important, critical issues are being seen in a different light. Thank you for posting!
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Thanks, IWise-Woman! I’m very glad you found a treatment center that focused on your past trauma.
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Me too. It saved my life!
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Agreed! I am in recovery from complex traumas. I tell everyone, even while in my master’s program of Clinical Mental Health Counseling (that I just graduated from with a 4.0 smile…), that post traumatic stress symptomology and responses are “NORMAL” AFTER TRAUMA, AND NOT A DISORDER!!! It was refreshing to hear the doc speak this out.
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Great job on the master’s program! I agree… I just experienced a trigger a few days ago that I haven’t had in years. It is normal! And I’m glad that I have the tools to manage it now. I’m so glad this information is being spread and talked about. Best wishes to you.
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You are correct. Short term PTS happens to everyone (to varying degrees). Long term PTS(D) is genetic in origin. The genes (at least some of them) have been mapped.
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/ucla-study-identifies-first-genes-231248
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3108177/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4443770/Scientists-discover-PTSD-gene.html
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Thanks and bless you.
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Such a wonderful read…thank you so much.
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Thanks, Deborah!
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In my experience working with children with early relational trauma and attachment issues, and now adults with substance use or “addictions” – I could not agree more! I see it as the same neurobiology! Substance use is an external means to regulate their dysregulated nervous system that they failed to have regulated during early childhood. The most effective treatment would be to focus on the underlying problem – not the drug use which is just the presenting symptom at the top of the iceberg. Very encouraging to read your post!
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Aimee, do you educate your patients about ACEs science?
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Spread the word
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[…] via Addiction doc says: Stop chasing the drug! Focus on ACEs — people can recover. — ACEs Too High […]
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Great article. I’ve worked in addiction medicine for more than 40 years and I’m glad these ideas are finally catching on.
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Hi, Jed — You’ve been ahead of your time for a long while! Thanks for reading this and your comment.
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I wonder why it has taken so long to catch on.
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So Dr Sumrock, since I live so close you, do you think , this program will work for nicotine addition. I have kicked every other addiction myself, or well I think I have. I read it all, you are are something special. Proud to know you
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