The Deepest Well

Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Trauma and Adversity

Nadine Burke Harris, Burke Harris, Nadine

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781328502667
• eBook ISBN: 9780544828728
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Education Counseling
• Index: Social Sciences

“An extraordinary, eye-opening book.” —People

National Health Information Awards winner

“A rousing wake-up call. . . . This highly engaging, provocative book prove[s] beyond a reasonable doubt that millions of lives depend on us finally coming to terms with the long-term consequences of childhood adversity and toxic stress.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris was already known as a crusading physician delivering targeted care to vulnerable children. But it was Diego—a boy who had stopped growing after a sexual assault—who galvanized her journey to uncover the connections between toxic stress and lifelong illnesses.

The stunning news of Burke Harris’s research is just how deeply our bodies can be imprinted by ACEs—adverse childhood experiences like abuse, neglect, parental addiction, mental illness, and divorce. Childhood adversity changes our biological systems, and lasts a lifetime. For anyone who has faced a difficult childhood, or who cares about the millions of children who do, the fascinating scientific insight and innovative, acclaimed health interventions in The Deepest Well represent vitally important hope for preventing lifelong illness for those we love and for generations to come?.

“Nadine Burke Harris . . . offers a new set of tools, based in science, that can help each of us heal ourselves, our children, and our world.”—Paul Tough, author of How Children Succeed

“A powerful—even indispensable—frame to both understand and respond more effectively to our most serious social ills.”—New York Times

Appendix 1

WHAT’S MY ACE SCORE?

Prior to your eighteenth birthday:

1.	Did a parent or other adult in the household often . . . Swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you? or Act in a way that made you afraid you might be physically hurt?
	Yes No	If yes enter 1 _____
2.	Did a parent or other adult in the household often . . . Push, grab, slap, or throw something at you? or Ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?
	Yes No	If yes enter 1 _____
3.	Did an adult or person at least five years older than you ever . . . Touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way? or Attempt or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse with you?
	Yes No	If yes enter 1 _____
4.	Did you often feel that . . . No one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special? or Your family didn’t look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other?
	Yes No	If yes enter 1 _____
5.	Did you often feel that . . . You didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you? or Your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it?
	Yes No	If yes enter 1 _____
6.	Were your parents ever separated or divorced?
	Yes No	If yes enter 1 _____
7.	Was your mother or stepmother . . . Often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her? or Sometimes or often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard? or Ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Author’s Note
• Introduction
• Discovery
• Something’s Just Not Right
• To Go Forward, Go Back
• Forty Pounds
• Diagnosis
• The Drive-By and the Bear
• Dynamic Disruption
• Lick Your Pups!
• Prescription
• The ACE Antidote
• Stop the Massacre!
• Sexiest Man Alive
• Maximum-Strength Bufferin’
• Revolution
• The Rising Tide
• Listerine
• In the Rearview
• Epilogue
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author
• Connect on Social Media