Learn Your Score. Control Your Destiny. Multi-generational family at a crossroads.

2-3 ACEs Score

Your Results

Your score falls into the range where your adverse childhood experiences statistically speaking, will play a role in impacting your lifelong health and wellness.

The research shows that people with a two or three score are more likely to have a lifetime history of depression, develop alcohol use disorder, and have liver disease. Individuals in this score range also tend to have problems performing their job functions, and they report a higher rate of serious financial problems than those with a lower score.

BUT, there is good news, too! Your brain and your body are designed to heal. While your ACEs score is a permanent thing, you can take control of your destiny by adding protective, Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs) to your life. Surrounding yourself with supportive friends who care about you and your wellbeing. Forming strong connections to affirming adults in your community has also been shown to help your brain and your body heal. Affirming adults could include a teacher, a neighbor, a coach, or a religious leader. By adding positive and affirming people in your daily life, you can build resiliency to the adverse experiences you have had. Your brain and your body will literally heal themselves, reducing the likelihood of those negative health and wellness outcomes.

If at any point you find yourself overwhelmed and needing assistance, please reach out to Crisis at (262) 657-7188.
A trained professional will answer your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Now What?

You can take steps now to help your body heal, help your brain heal, and improve some of your long-term health outcomes. If you are willing to work hard on it, you can develop your resilience and change your life. The American Psychological Association offers four key areas to focus on as you build up your resilience:

Build Your Connections

Prioritize relationships
Join a group

Find Purpose

Help others
Be proactive
Move toward your goals
Look for opportunities for self-discovery

Foster Wellness

Take care of your body
Practice mindfulness
Avoid negative outlets

Embrace Healthy Thoughts

Keep things in perspective
Accept change
Maintain a hopeful outlook
Learn from your past

Research shows that the single most important thing you can do to improve your path is to surround yourself with people who will consistently support you, who will listen to you, and who will validate your feelings. Another critical step is to connect with a trained counselor. This could be a school counselor, a licensed therapist, or a mental health clinician. You did catch a lucky break because there many excellent resources available to you in our community.

Positive Childhood Experiences Assessment

You cannot undo or change your ACEs score. BUT you can improve your long-term health and wellness destiny by gaining resilience with Positive Childhood Experiences (PCEs).

Positive Childhood Experiences questions:

Before your 18^th birthday, how often did you:

Feel able to talk to their family about feelings
Feel their family stood by them during difficult times
Enjoy participating in community traditions
Feel a sense of belonging in high school
Feel supported by friends
Have at least two non-parent adults who took a genuine interest in them
Feel safe and protected by an adult in their home

Do you have more questions or just want to read more about your score and what it means? Numberstory.org is a fantastic source of easy-to-understand information by one of the country’s leading experts in ACEs, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris. We definitely encourage you to learn more and control your destiny!

More Mental Health Resources

So why do we care about PACEs?

We want to help everyone take control of their destiny to live healthy and satisfying lives. To do that we need individuals, organizations, communities, and systems to understand the impact they have on kids’ life paths. So we need to talk about PACEs (both positive and adverse childhood experiences) and how they intertwine throughout all of our lives.

At the individual level

At the organizational level

At the community level

Educating the public about PACEs can provide hope and inspire people to think of new ways to support families, organizations, and communities. Understanding how positive and adverse experiences impact our life path offers an opportunity for engagement with all sectors. Communities can use this new lens to create mindful, healing-centered, research-informed approaches to prevent adversity and encourage connection and healing.

At the system level

Retake Assessment

Funding made possible by SAMHSA Grant #SP022112 administered by the Wisconsin Department of Health.