stepmoms would get into heated, drug-fueled altercations. Nick always used the same word when he described his dad’s house — crazy. “Oh my goodness. That’s so sad,” I said. “The thing about it that breaks my heart is that we know that most ACEs are handed down from generation to generation. If Nick had figured out that what he experienced was ACEs and that he probably had a dysregulated stress response that he needed to deal with, can you imagine how differently things could have turned out for you and for Karl?”
