Your ACE score is 0

Congratulations, your ACE score of zero is good news. Only 3 out of 10 American children reach the age of 18 without an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE).

Without an ACE, your risk of chronic disease, mental illness, violence, or being a victim of violence is significantly lower. An ACE score ranges from 0 to 10. Each type of trauma counts as one, no matter how many times it occurs. For example, people with an ACE score of 4 are twice as likely to be smokers and seven times more likely to be alcoholics. Having an ACE score of 4 increases the risk of emphysema or chronic bronchitis by nearly 400 percent, and attempted suicide by 1200 percent.

People with high ACE scores are more likely to be violent, have more marriages, broken bones, more drug prescriptions, more depression, and autoimmune diseases. People with an ACE score of 6 or higher are at risk of their lifespan being shortened by 20 years.

An ACE score of 0 does not mean that you have no chance of experiencing mental illness, addiction, physical illness, or unhealthy relationships. It just suggests that your brain and body developed in healthy ways and didn’t predispose you to an increased risk of these things. It also doesn’t mean that you had a “perfect” childhood with no pain or strife. But it means you had the things every child deserves; 18 years that weren’t full of, or stained by constant fear and cruelty.