Heroes ACE

There is exciting research coming out that is looking at positive or protective childhood experiences (read the full article here). It’s fascinating research because it is showing factors that impact resiliency to ongoing stress or traumatic events for children and youth. It is also important to note that this area is requiring more research, but provides a nice antidote to adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s).

Seven Protective Childhood Experiences:

1. Able to talk to family about feelings

2. Felt that family stood by in difficult times

3. Enjoy participating in community traditions

4. Felt belonging in high school

5. Felt supported by friends

6. Having atleast two nonparent adults who show genuine care

7. Felt safe and protected by an adult at home

What’s Next?

Going forward, looking at protective and positive childhood experiences of our favourite heroes and villains will be included. Especially since these factors can easily be identified as possible interventions. It will also be interesting to see how often our favourite characters experienced, or did not experience PCE’s and how that get’s portrayed.

When Logan came out in 2017, there was a increased fascination with his daughter, Laura. Or X23.

Laura debuted in 2003 in X-Men: Evolution, and then later in print in NYX in 2004.

What Happened?

To best understand her complex history, here is a video on her comic book origins:

Adverse Childhood Experiences

1. Psychological abuse by parents/caregivers; e.g. verbal abuse, excessive punishment
   1. YES – the sole purpose behind her creation was to recreate a killing machine.
2. Physical abuse
   1. YES – she underwent surgery without any anesthetic as a type of revenge by the director of the procedure. Subjected to radiation to trigger her mutant gene
3. Sexual abuse
   1. YES – She was exposed to teenage prostitution and intentionally inflicted physical pain to her clients.
4. Emotional neglect
   1. YES – Laura was interacted with minimally in her early years.
5. Physical neglect or malnourishment
   1. YES – Limited interactions, locked away in a cell.
6. Domestic violence
   1. YES – Her surrogate mother, and the creator of the program, Rice; were in constant dispute about how treat Laura – as an trained assassin or a child.
7. Parental alcoholism or drug use in home
   1. NO – Not disclosed
8. Loss of biological parent before age 18 (Death or absence)
   1. YES – Laura killed her own mother when exposed to the trigger sense. The same happened with her sensai. She also killed Rice, prior to Sarah, her mom’s death. And later killed her own uncle while saving her aunt and cousin. Laura also did not know her biological father until a later time.
9. Parental mental illness or depression
   1. YES – Consider the environment for a moment, which Rice is in control of. Rice forced Kinney to carry Laura. Rice then, for his own satisfaction, performed an operation that brought Laura a lot of pain. Then used Laura to kill her sensai, hired her out to perform assassinations. And then tried to have her killed on a suicide mission.
10. Household member imprisoned
    1. YES – She was. She lived in a cell. And by extension her mother was imprisoned by the program. Not to mention, her biological father, even though not exposed to as a teenager, had run-ins with the law.
11. Multiple changes in placement or primary caregiver
    1. YES – By the time she was eight, she had no primary caregiver. She found belonging amongst her aunt and then a group of homeless mutant teenagers.
12. Serious medical issue involving hospitalization?
    1. YES – Her whole early years was spent in an institution.

Discussion about ACE’s

First, I want to start with positives. Laura’s sensai and surrogate mother would sneak in positive interactions. These were able to provide a buffer to, an albeit, troubled childhood. As Laura did struggle with killing a child, this provided Sarah with hope. (Even though Laura did not learn her own name, and that Sarah was her mother until the point that Sarah died.)

When considering the ACES score, Laura is a 9/10. Her childhood and teen years did not set her up for a successful adult life.

She also struggled with connection, as she had limited contact with primary caregiver (Sarah). She spent a large amount of her early years in seclusion and isolation.

In these type of situations, the brain becomes super good at survival. The logical and rationale (frontal cortex) part of the brain, and even the hippocampus in limbic system (relational and emotional brain) is poorly developed. What’s left is the amygdala, which is scanning for danger. In this case, may be overdeveloped.

The image below may help explain. The left is a healthy, or typical brain development. The right is a brain that has experienced developmental trauma.

That being said, if the amygdala can he soothed, by a nurturing caregiver (which later happens when she meets up with Wolverine and the X-men), the brain can be healed.

Positive Psychology (PERMA)

• Positive Emotions: It’s really hard to say that an individual who has experienced life in survival has had a chance to experience any positive emotions. If she took the positivity ratio self test, it will probably end up being more negative, or even, in this case, numb.
• Engagement: Laura was never really given the chance to engage in an activity of her choice. It’s fair to say that her skillset often met, or exceeded, the challenges she faced. As for the state of flow, obviously she was in intense states of flow while completing missions, but again, not by choice. As she aged and became a teenager, she “choose” activities that she excelled in. A beneficial intervention may be identifying Laura’s strengths and finding activities she can do that she can then find a state of flow in.
• Positive Relationships: In Laura’s formative years, she had limited contact with positive relationships. When she finally escaped, she found solace in relationships with peers – something that she chose.
• Meaning: As a child, her meaning was written for her. As an adult, and after careful training, she took on the role of Wolverine.
• Achievement: This is a difficult one, because on one hand Laura was successful in her missions; but then on the other, she wasn’t really able to regulate herself and determine her own goals and destiny as a child.

Post Traumatic Growth vs Post Traumatic Stress

Looking at Laura as an adult, she shows more signs of experience post traumatic growth. She has formed and built new relationships. She has found new possibilities and strength in taking on the mantel of Wolverine. For me, the moment where she experienced the greatest change, and then had a new found appreciation for life was when she tracked down her father (yes to kill him), and Logan said to her “if you want to kill me, fine, but I won’t let you kill yourself.” From this point on, while stress symptoms may have presented, she found herself on the growth track.

Interventions

Soothe the amygdala. Her amygdala has most likely been over developed. There are many different approaches that can be taken to soothe the amygdala. It is important to understand Laura’s emotional age and do creative interventions appropriate for that developmental stage. For example, if her identified age is say 5, an intervention to soothe is reading a bedtime story. This all helps lower the baseline of stress, which again soothes the amygdala.

Retrain the brain. It’s important to remember that every positive interaction helps rewire the brain – one small positive interaction at a time. Intentionally choosing new neural pathways to replace the old, and eventually the old will be pruned.

Consider this example of the backwards bike:

Care-team. Interventions for Laura, especially in her younger years, would need to be by her care-team, a group of caring adults. The experience that Laura had even by the age of eight cannot be undone by individual therapy alone. She needs to learn to trust adults.

Her care-team also needs to realize that when she is triggered, it’s not because Laura hates them, it’s that her brain has been trained and prepped to respond with anger to keep herself safe.

PACE – Her care-team should consider creating a PACE-ful. Incorporating ways to be playful, accepting, curios and empathic towards Laura.

Anger – This is a difficult one, Laura is a trained killing machine, and has been programmed to react. When she hunter down her father, he defended himself, but he also accepted her in her anger. She wasn’t someone to be afraid of. Laura has been trained that she is someone to be feared, and she may even fear herself. She needs to be accepted, and that she is human, and is experiencing the emotion of anger; she is not a monster.

Identity Development – Understandably, given her early history, Laura has struggled to form an identity. She could do such exercises as: What’s in a Name, and Character Strengths.

• What’s in Name: the goal here is to help someone understand their name. Explore the names history, family application, famous individuals with the same name, and any kind of significance. Then concluding with making an acronym such as Love, Accepting, Unique, Real, Awesome.
• Character Strengths: this exercise helps an individual learn what their signature strengths are. Then interventions can be built around what an individual is already awesome at.

Closing Thoughts

I once had an early years co-worker tell me that parents, and caregivers, need to remember that they are growing children. That line gives thought to the careful amount of nurturing over time that is required to shift a fully independent human infant to a functional adult that can experience a healthy range of emotions and have healthy and positive relationships. In between, of course, there are a lot of steps.

When considering X23, for me, it emphasizes how infants, and children, become products of their environment. Sometimes the habits we instill are intentional as parents, other times they may be accidental or survival based.

Laura learned from a young age that she couldn’t trust adults, and she needed to spend considerable amount of time with were dad in her adult years to regain that trust and re-wire her brain.

So even if our lives are difficult, healing can ALWAYS happen, it just requires some re-wiring.

After completing the Anakin Skywalker post, it was apparent that the Adverse Childhood Experiences was missing the important role that attachment plays in development.

As such, I came across an instrument used by Complex Trauma Resources, which they have given me permission to use.

Here are the areas that they consider:

1. Psychological abuse by parents/caregivers; e.g. verbal abuse, excessive punishment
2. Physical abuse
3. Sexual abuse
4. Emotional neglect
5. Physical neglect or malnourishment
6. Domestic violence
7. Parental alcoholism or drug use in home
8. Loss of biological parent before age 18 (Death or absence)
9. Parental mental illness or depression
10. Household member imprisoned
11. Multiple changes in placement or primary caregiver
12. Serious medical issue involving hospitalization?

Notice that the wording is simpler, and now instead of 10 items, there are 12. The two additional areas being considered are: changes in caregiving; and serious medical issues that would take a child away from their primary caregiver.

In future posts, I will be using this alignment, noting that items 1-10 go towards the ACE’s total score; while 11 & 12 are attachment related.

I’ve wanted to include attachment because it is a buffer to the impacts of developmental trauma. Below are some of the impacts of adverse childhood experiences can have on an individual in their youth and adult years.

Don’t lose hope. This video clip, while lengthy, explains that even if ACE’s happen, healing can occur through a healthy attachment:

Anakin Skywalker (aka Darth Vader) was the most “googled” Star Wars character in 2017. His history has fascinated individuals since 1977. To understand Darth Vader’s early years and the subsequent outcomes of his life these will be the sources:

• Star Wars 1-2*,3-6
• Star Wars: Obi-Wan & Anakin (2016)*
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series
• Star Wars: Darth Vader comic (2015-2016)

*= is when Anakin is a child/youth and will be used for his ACES. Other media will be used to look at the outcome.

What Happened

Anakin was miraculously conceived by midi-chlorians and born to his slave mother Shmi Skywalker on Tatooine. At age three, after his master lost a bet in pod racing, his mother and he were owned by Watto.

Anakin was talented at a young age, he was a pilot, he built a droid, and he repaired pod racers.

When Anakin was nine he met a stranded trio: Jar Jar, Padme, and Qui-Gonn. He was quite mesmerized by the 14 year old Padme and inquired if she was an angel.

Anakin would help the trio by racing his pod, risking his own life. Qui-Gonn would make a deal with Watto to split the winnings 50/50, including the freeing of Anakin – but not his mother. Only sustaining a cut on his arm, Anakin won the pod race, essentially freeing himself and acquiring the part needed to get Jar Jar, Padme, and Qui-Gonn off the planet.

Now free, Anakin would accompany Qui-Gonn, and his friend Obi-Wan, to Coruscant with the goal of becoming a Jedi, leaving behind his mother.

Anakin fought in the Naboo space battle, single-handedly destroying the droid control ship. While he fought, his mentor Qui-Gonn would die in a lightsaber duel. At Qui-Gonn’s funeral Obi-Wan promised to fulfill Qui-Gonn’s wish for Anakin to become a Jedi.

At age 12, Anakin’s natural abilities made him arrogant amongst his peers, but he still followed and idolized Obi-Wan. Anakin also made a new relationship with Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, who saw Anakin’s potential.

Anakin became uncomfortable with his life being decided for him, giving his lightsaber to Obi-wan, he also expressed his desire to leave the Jedi Order.

Obi-Wan and Anakin were sent on a rescue mission to Carnelion IV, where Anakin would be abducted by two locals. Anakin would work with the locals as he tried to reunite with and rescue Obi-Wan, which he did. He then decided to remain a part of the Jedi Order.

At age 19 Anakin would pursue his relationship with Padme further, eventually leading to marriage. Even though marriage was forbidden for Jedi.

Anakin would also return to his home planet in search of his mother. He would find her, moments before she died. In anger and grief, he would then destroy the whole Tusken village – men, women and children. As he buried his mom he desired to become so powerful in the force that he would stop his loved ones from dying.

The Clone Wars started shortly after, when Anakin was still 19.

 Adverse Childhood Experiences

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 that you might be physically hurt?
   • NO – It was not reported that with his mom Shmi, or in the care of the Jedi Council that he was. However, he did grow up as a slave, and in care.
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 – This is a difficult one. In his house no, by his owners it is unclear in the movies. It could also be argued that his lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan would count, but that was after age 19. In the accompanying book for episode two, Anakin does reflect on his master Watto hitting him.
3. Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever Touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way? OR Try to or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal sex with you?
   • NO – This was not reported. However, Padme is five years older than Anakin, and they were married when he was 19.
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?
   • NO – If not, the opposite was true when he went into care with the Jedi, he was the chosen one.
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 – We can see by his clothing in Episode One that Anakin was poorly taken care of, he was a slave until age nine.
6. Were your parents ever separated or divorced?
   • NO – He never had parents. His mom conceived and birthed him alone.
7. Did 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 knife?
   • MAYBE? – We know very little about what the conditions were like for Anakin and his mother as a slave. At the same time, at their last meeting, Shmi died from her wounds from being a slave.
8. Did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic or who used street drugs?
   • NO – This was not reported.
9. Was a household member depressed or mentally ill or did a household member attempt suicide?
   • MAYBE? – To me, Shmi presented in a discouraged (yet at times optimistic) manner. We know very little about her story – and grief of being a slave may be more appropriate than saying she was depressed or mentally ill.
10. Did a household member go to prison?
    • NO – This was not reported.

Discussion about ACE’s

Anakin has a score of 2, with the potential of four. A lot of what ACE’s measure is, as the title suggests, experiences directed toward the child/youth in their family system; very little has to do with the larger environment. For example, being a slave, being raised in poverty, growing up in care, and growing up in a war time. A lot of factors that may have contributed to Anakin’s development are not included.

Also, these experiences are external, not internal – how did Anakin perceive his childhood/youth. We can see that at age 12 he was questioning how he was being raised. By 19, he made a commitment to himself as his mother died in his arms.

ACE’s doesn’t include how a mentor, such as Palpatine, can impact ones life.

While ACE’s intentionally covers early family life experiences, it then seems to invalidate impactful experiences had later in life, such as was the case with Anakin.

Current Mental State

(Spoiler) Anakin is now deceased, but during his life he displayed characteristics and traits that could result in a mental health diagnosis (for in-depth diagnosis go here). He met criteria in his later years for narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder.

One could argue that due to his traumatic events in his younger years being left untreated created the foundation for personality disorders to develop (specifically borderline).

Positive Psychology (PERMA)

• Positive Emotions – Anakin (Vader), discusses a lot about his anger, hate and fear. He may experience confidence and pride in his abilities as a Sith Lord. But overall, his positivity ratio would be below the recommended three positives for every one negative emotion.
• Engagement – Let’s discuss flow here. Flow in it’s simplest terms is when one becomes lost in their own work. It is a balance between the challenge presented and the abilities one has. For Anakin, in his younger years, he felt that his abilities were not being used to their full potential, and would experience boredom and frustration with the lack of challenges. As Anakin grew, he became more and more comfortable using his abilities in challenging situations. Even until his death, it could be said, that Anakin was often in a state of flow.
• Positive Relationships – Anakin, before becoming Vader, had developed successful relationships with Padme, Obi-Wan, and his padawan Ahsoka. He also valued his relationship with Palpatine, as Palpatine often met and validated Anakin’s emotional needs. After becoming Vader, he struggled to maintain positive relationships, often using his power and abilities to have control in relationships. It’s hard to say that Vader’s relationship with Palpatine was positive, many times Vader made plans to usurp his master. The only positive relationship worth noting is Doctor Aphra, they developed an interesting and unique bond.
• Meaning – Anakin’s motivation for joining the dark side of the force was so that he could learn the power to prevent suffering. When looking at Paul Wong’s PURE Meaning Model Anakin accomplished steps one and two: finding purpose and life goals; and understanding the requirements for the life goals. However, he struggled in the next two steps: responsible actions that are reflective of the purpose and life goals; and evaluation of your life for consistency with life goals. It could be said that his purpose changed, where he wanted to become the Sith Master, but was unable to dethrone Palpatine.
• Achievement – Anakin did achieve his goal of becoming successful with the force, building a reputation as a Sith Lord that spread through an entire galaxy. However, he did not learn the desired ability, to prevent suffering and death. He accomplished his short and mid-length goals, but not his long term.

Post Traumatic Growth vs Post Traumatic Stress

Depending if you are a Jedi or a Sith will determine the outcome of this question. Becoming a well-known, and admired leader of a galactic government that emerged from slavery sounds like post traumatic growth, or benefit finding. Yet becoming the leader of an empire that has caused death and destruction, sacrificing all relationships in pursuit of domination, sounds like post traumatic stress.

Let’s look specifically look at traits of PTS and PTG.

• Post Traumatic Stress:
  • Re-experiencing: Yes. He would experience intrusive dreams and visions of losing his mother and his wife.
  • Avoidance: No. According to Rogue One he built his castle on Mustafar, and he did return to Tatooine in search of a mysterious pilot.
  • Numbing: Maybe? It’s important to remember that Anakin became “more robot than man”
  • Hyperarousal: Yes. He was easily triggered to anger, even amongst co-workers.
• Post Traumatic Growth:
  • Relationships: No. He did not develop or maintain new positive relationships.
  • New Possibilities: Yes. His life story led to the possibility of becoming a Sith Lord.
  • Personal Strength: Yes, in away. His abilities with the force led to him becoming the second, if not the most powerful person in the galaxy.
  • Spiritual Change: Yes. He changed from the Jedi religion to the Sith.
  • Appreciation for Life: No. It is hard to say that a man who helped create a weapon that could destroy whole planets appreciated life.

Can you experience both? It definitely seems that Anakin experienced both stress and growth at times during his adult years. It is important to remember that this isn’t an either or type situation. PTSD can be experienced and then develop into PTG; and vice-versa.

Interventions

Keep in mind that these are only a couple recommended interventions, there could be many helpful approaches.

Empathy, Validation, and Connection. Anakin really needed emotional validation. A lot of his struggles originated from not having his experiences validated by Yoda and the Jedi Council. He was also seeking for a male role model, or father figure. The lack of validation and a father figure, made Anakin vulnerable to Palpatine.

Slower transition to Coruscant. Being removed from his mother happened so quickly. It was a couple days, at most, Qui-Gonn went from being a complete stranger to “foster dad”. This transition needed to take longer, and could have fostered more open communication, but as were the traditions of the Jedi that they did not allow visits to family. Anakin being removed at such an older age compared to the other younglings, had already developed an attachment and a bond with his mother.

Self Concept. Anakin could have benefited from a life-story or as it is called by Signs of Safety, words and pictures, explaining in age-appropriate terms why he was now living with the Jedi on Coruscant, and why he needed to leave his mother. It would have helped provide context and meaning, while also nurturing his self-concept.

Grief. Anakin needed to express his grief. He left his mother behind, his first mentor was killed in a light saber duel, and he was kidnapped. He needed a moment to grieve, instead he was frequently told to not feel.

Anger is OK. Anakin was often taught that anger was bad. He never learned how to manage any emotions, in particular the weight of anger, and instead expressed it in unhelpful ways. As noted with grief, he needed to express his emotions in helpful and healthy ways.

Closing Thoughts

Anakin, as is anyone, is a complex individual, showing that ACE’s, while beneficial, is not the sole predictor for outcomes in life. Anakin’s tale, from my perspective, is one of people who were trying to be helpful but did not take time to get to know and understand him which lead to him being vulnerable to the dark side of the force. While his early experiences did impact him, it was more his formative 20’s where his greatest impacts where had.

Wade Watts is one of the heroes in the book and recently released movie Ready Player One. Spoilers are ahead. The movie changed the background of the Wade, so this assessment is purely based on the book by Ernest Cline.

What Happened (Spoilers!)
Wade is the only child of his teenage parents. Both his parents were refugees to the United States of America. When Wade was a couple of months old, his dad was shot and killed while searching a grocery store during a power outage. Loretta, Wade’s mom, raised him alone while working two jobs. Wade was babysat by the virtual world, OASIS; this is where Wade learned his life skills.

At age 11, Wade would find his mother dead from an overdose. He then lived with his aunt Alice who only wanted Wade for the food vouchers. She had abusive boyfriends and tenants in her double wide trailer. He slept in the laundry room, the only free space from everyone in the trailer. However he spent most of his time in his secret hideout in an abandoned vehicle.

Wade went to school in the OASIS. He excelled academically, but spent most of his time researching James Halliday, the creator of the OASIS, and the quest for the easter egg that Halliday left in the OASIS after he died.

Around the age of 18, just prior to graduating high school, Wade was the first to uncover the first clue in the hunt for Halliday’s egg. This led to him forming close ties with the “high-five”, five egg-hunters: Atr3mis, Aech, Shoto and Daito. Wade was known online as ParZival. Wade also became a main threat to a corporation seeking to win the hunt.

Adverse Childhood Experiences

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 that you might be physically hurt?
   • YES – his Aunt Alice brought home less than desirable boyfriends, and she poorly cared for Wade
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?
   • NO – It’s hard to think that this didn’t happen given the boyfriend situation, but I can’t recall any mention of it.
3. Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever touch or fondle you or have you touch their body in a sexual way? OR Try to or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal sex with you?
   • NO – this was not reported.
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. His mom was working hard to provide for him. But at the same time, he learned his basic skills in the OASIS. With his Aunt, she didn’t include him.
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. His dad was stealing from a grocery store. His mom died from an overdose. His aunt only wanted him for the vouchers – and at times would take Wade’s stuff and pawn it.
6. Were your parents ever separated or divorced?
   • NO. They were not separated by choice.
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 knife?
   • YES. Aunt Alice had abusive boyfriends.
8. Did you live with anyone who was a problem drinker or alcoholic or who used street drugs?
   • YES. His mom (and most likely his aunt)
9. Was a household member depressed or mentally ill or did a household member attempt suicide?
   • YES. His mom was not stable, nor was his aunt Alice.
10. Did a household member go to prison?
    • NO. This was not reported. It could be stretched to say that Wade’s dad could have served jail time instead of being shot while looting.

Closing Thoughts
Wade, definitely would benefit from therapy. However, timing is the important piece here. Therapy is needed when Wade is ready. When someone is in crisis, therapy for historical events is not appropriate, the crisis needs to be dealt with first.

The difficult piece with therapy with teenagers is that their past, present, and future is at stake. If the present counselling was forced and Wade perceived it was a waste, he then would not seek out therapy when he is 25, 35, or 75.

This idea was inspired from a panel at the Calgary Comic Expo where two psychiatrists (Dr. Sterling Sparshu and Dr. Sudhakar Sivapalan) discussed What if Batman had a good Psychiatrist? and then proceeded to talk about PTSD and Grief in a none-threatening and entertaining way. As I am not a psychiatrist, I am going to use my therapist/counsellor lens.

Life History – What happened to the Character
Whenever the magic hits, I am going to choose a fictional character (i.e. Anakin Skywalker, Katniss Everdeen, Luna Lovegood) and look at their life history up to the age of 19.

ACE’s Score
I’ll be using their lifestory to inform the Adverse Childhood Experiences score. A tool that is being used as a predictor of health, but also an intervention.

You can check out the full-test here.

Discussion about ACE’s
After looking at the adverse experiences, I’ll look at each one individually, and see how it has contributed to the current mental state of the character.

Current Mental Status
Craftily using DSM V, I’ll look at what the character may currently be diagnosed with, and try to tie together their current mental state with their life story/ACE’s. Other instruments may be used as well, depending on what the situation is.

PERMA (Positive Psychology)
Since the goal is to not just look at what it is wrong, let’s also look at what is going well for the character. Do they have positive emotions and relationships, are they engaged, do they have meaning, and how is their sense of accomplishment. These will be indicators that will help determine if they are in a place of post-traumatic stress – and stuck there; or post-traumatic growth.

Post Traumatic Stress vs Post Traumatic Growth
Looking specifically at relationships, self-esteem, appreciation for life, and meaning, and how those have been impacted by ACE’s.

Interventions, Past & Present
Then I will look at possible interventions for the current mental state, and what the implications would be. Then I will get creative and look at interventions that could have been implemented in the past and what the potential outcomes would have been.

Please keep in mind
This is the tentative layout, this could change depending on the character, situation, and as the series grows.

This is to create discussion about mental health and how it is portrayed in many, if not all, characters what we love.