Self Awareness · Reflection
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)
Why this matters in friendship
The experiences we grow up around often shape how we experience closeness, conflict, vulnerability, emotional safety, trust, repair, and connection later in life.
For some people, relationships feel naturally safe and stable.
For others, relationships may feel emotionally unpredictable, overwhelming, unsafe, distant, or fragile.
The more adversity, instability, emotional neglect, fear, inconsistency, or unpredictability someone experienced early in life, the louder certain inner assumptions and protective patterns can become.
These patterns can shape:
- trust
- conflict responses
- emotional regulation
- fear of abandonment
- withdrawal
- reassurance seeking
- difficulty with vulnerability
- emotional shutdown
- overfunctioning
- avoidance of repair
ACE does not determine your identity.
It helps explain some of the emotional patterns your nervous system may have learned over time.
Before you begin
This reflection includes questions about childhood adversity, instability, and emotional safety. You may skip this assessment at any time.
Your ACE score may be used anonymously in aggregate to help us understand regional patterns. Your name, email, and individual answers will not be shown with your ACE score.