When I learned of singer and activist Sinéad O'Connor's death last year I was struck by three things in particular: how young she was (she was only 56), that it was unexpected and she'd been found unresponsive in her private home, and that all that was known was that it did not appear suspicious. I wondered whether her early trauma might have played a role in her early death ..read more

Missing ACEs represent adverse experiences not included in the 10-item Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE). They highlight why it can be so challenging, time-consuming and effortful to heal as an adult. I've developed 4 new surveys and am working on a 5th to address Missing ACEs, which represent other types of adverse experiences that you, as blog readers, and others have noted are missing from the 10 ACE questions. The missing ACE surveys address the kinds of additional but less well-known events that can impact our health, our life trajectories and our quality of life ..read more

I'm excited to share my first podcast since I took a break from blogging for a few years. This episode is hosted by Kristen Boice, a LIcensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) who incorporates the role of trauma and the importance of doing our own healing work. In deconstructing chronic illness I talk about the underpinning role of adversity during early life that provides clues for risk, indicators for prevention and opportunities for healing, among other topics such as what is somatic psychotherapy? Updates in today’s post are 1. Consults: I started offering consults on the chronic illne ..read more

I've been invited to talk about autoimmune disease and trauma by Dragon Claw. This is a non profit founded by and for people living with autoimmune diseases. Their goal is self-education to better support self-care, reduce isolation and to work with and decrease stress. Dragon Claw started because of the common medical approach in which people are given a (often life-changing) diagnosis and then turned loose without information to support health and healing, many of which are things each person has then had to discover for themselves through personal research. Many of us with chronic illness ..read more

I'm back with the updated Background Survey that I introduced last week and then fairly quickly put on hold so I could make some fixes. Thank you to all of you who have taken it so far, and for your patience for those of you who had challenges and persevered. For those who couldn't proceed I hope you will try again as it should be smoother now. Reading your responses has been quite emotional for me. It has touched me deeply. I felt joy on reading about the self-compassion and tools that many of you have and are finding helpful. And my heart ached for what so many of you have endured with symp ..read more

Introducing the next phase of the Health and Life Event Surveys (HALE) with The Background Survey, which I invite you to take just above or at the bottom of this post. You helped me with the Pilot HALE study more than 4 years ago. The updated HALE Surveys now ask you to register as a way to better examine links between chronic conditions and dose of adversity, which I will describe in more detail below ..read more

I've taken a deep dive into updating the surveys. I've been developing a system to better examine the the role of adversity in chronic illness on my blog. These surveys include and go well beyond the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) of 10 types of adversity. So many of you find that your experiences aren't included in those specific questions. You have also been clear that there are broad areas that have long been overlooked despite the research showing they influence risk for chronic illness - from birth events to discrimination to events that have triggered the onset of your symptoms. I ..read more

A reader recently expressed something that has also come up in a recent consult. Many, and likely most of us, experience this at least some of the time when living with chronic symptoms: a level of exhaustion with the struggle, the amount of effort and work and time it takes for this chronic illness journey, and what it takes for the process of healing. Below are 12 tips for pendulating in trauma and chronic illness that help relate to that difficult place with more ease (and sometimes even with fun). Reader Question. Julia recently left this question in a comment on one of my blog posts: The ..read more

In my recent post I asked for your help on whether you took the ACE survey on my blog and, if yes, whether you had any chronic conditions. I asked because I cannot tell who is taking these surveys and who has these high ACEs and ACREs scores. Given that this is a chronic illness blog, I suspect that most respondents had a chronic condition, which is associated with higher ACE scores, but this is not known. I send a big thank you for all of your contributions!! Below are the results with your responses. The post Whose ACEs? CITS Survey Results “Did You Take the Blog’s ACE Survey?” appeared firs ..read more

I recently went to Canada to be with my mother for her 90th birthday and we had a really nice visit. She is independent, in good health, and starting to feel better after a difficult year since my father's death. I'm starting to feel better too. An unexpected bonus was meeting her 3 month-old kitten. It felt as though I was growing attachment and attunement receptors I didn't know I had. The kitten and I played for hours together. It was magical. In blog matters, I looked at the data from the 10-item ACE survey (adverse childhood experiences) on my blog that is available for anyone to take. I ..read more