Trauma is a fact of life. There is probably nobody on this planet that has not or will not at some time experience loss and trauma to some extent or other. Maybe, the deeper and more prolonged the trauma the greater the possibilities of telling and speaking up……

A. ‘Τo stigmatize and to discriminate against someone is to treat them unfairly and with dis-grace. The consequences of being stigmatized against can result in feeling and actually being excluded and devalued by one’s societal context. It can create barriers and serious limitations to privacy, work, receiving respectful health care and so on. Interestingly, the plural of stigma is stigmata, which are bodily marks or pains resembling the wounds of the crucified Jesus. Stigmatizing, discriminating against and targeting others often comes from a place of fear based ignorance, lack of understanding, and maybe social manipulation and biases that we are unaware of. Engaging in negative attitudes, language and practices of targeting and exclusion and devaluing another’s sense of self is harmful and deeply hurtful. Identifying similarities and differences is part of our wiring. Humans, as well as, other mammals are always evaluating creatures around them. In terms of our evolutionary development and survival it is apparent that there is often a need of assessing of others. Is this somebody to be afraid of or is this somebody who is threatening the equilibrium of our group? However, we need to bring our neo-cortex online and evaluate our behaviour and see whether we are truly threatened by those we may perceive as different or are we simply projecting our sense of entitlement, fears, shame, aches and unresolved issues, and more importantly, consider if our actions stem from our social conditioning, ignorance and misinformation, and unacknowledged biases. What if we asked ourselves why the dissemination of knowledge to do with trauma, post traumatic responses, art and healing and artistic expression, in my case, is threatening to us, and also, what part of the status quo or interests might it be threatening and who does our engaging in unethical and immature behaviours ultimately serve. Lastly, it may be important to remember that democracy is synonymous with freedom of expression, freedom to access and circulate knowledge / information, and the protection of rights and dignity for all ’ (Tonya Alexandri, 2017)

According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, the rougher your childhood, the higher your score is likely to be and the higher your risk for later health problems. The researchers came up with an ACE score to explain a person’s risk for chronic disease. An ACE score is a tally of different types of abuse, neglect, and other adversities in childhood. I read somewhere that we can think of it as a cholesterol score for childhood toxic stress. You get one point for each type of trauma. There are other common traumas of course like the death of a parent, death of loved ones, accidents and surgeries, bullying, extreme poverty, natural disasters, etc

Adverse Childhood Experiences questionnaire

https://www.ncjfcj.org/sites/default/files/Finding%20Your%20ACE%20Score.pdf