Reply to "If you told your physician: "I have an ACE...or three or four", what would you want your doc to tell you?"

Chris EngelMember

I agree, Sam. It would be nice if doctors and their staff even knew what we were talking about.

I think the best response would be something sympathetic or empathetic. Abuse and trauma are so wrongfully normalized by our culture. If the conversation comes up, I think many folks would feel relief that someone/anyone knew that their abusive/neglect-filled past was related to their current health problems. That ah-ha moment can be therapeutic in itself.

I'm not sure doctors would say much more since they are taught to practice universal precautions and not make people think they are worse off than they already are. One would have to be a very educated patient to press their doc for specific life course risks.

One thing that might be helpful is if the doctor shared the statistics of how many people have ACE scores similar to their patient's. If a patient was interested, maybe the doc could provide a handout or tell them about : http://tiny.cc/gotyouracescore

2/27/135:06 PM

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