Comment by starkparker

This test is very easy for the victim of an active and damaging abuser to score 3 or less. This is at best a triage test to inform immediate intervention; it's definitely not something to inform an adult in retrospect.

Especially this caveat:

> Having a grandparent who loves you, a teacher who understands and believes in you, or a trusted friend you can confide in may mitigate the long-term effects of early trauma

While true, from experience all of them can contribute directly to that trauma instead.

(ACE 4 in my 40s. My grandparents were dead, my parents were both cops who prevented friends from contacting me and controlled my movement, my mother used my father's abuse of her to threaten me, and my kindergarten teacher had my school principal beat me so hard for talking in class that I was mute for two years and gained a speech impediment that took another five years to mitigate, and which still affects me when stressed.

Three unsuccessful suicide attempts before I was 20. I'm still scared to death daily that my parents will find where I live, learn that I'm married, contact my spouse's family or employers, etc. Fantastic therapists and found family are why I'm not in a grave.

My last contact with my parents was 2 years ago, when my mom tried to claim my dad was dying and they needed me to come home to deal with estate paperwork. It was bait; nothing was wrong with dad, and I found out only because I hired a lawyer and investigator to go visit them to confirm.

My late first spouse had an _even worse_ relationship with their parents, hadn't spoken to them in 20 years, and the only instructions they left before passing away were to not notify them of death or estate plans under any circumstances. Probably a 2 on their ACE.)

I'm very satisfied with my life. My only regrets are not getting further away from my family sooner or cutting off contact with them as thoroughly as my first spouse did.