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Dealing with past trauma may be the key to breaking addiction

• talltimtom 8y ago
  I get people saying “Well of cause”. But this is just a fluff piece. I honestly would love to see a scientific breakdown of just how often we are actually seeing people become addicted due to purely psycological or environmental factors. I come from a family that has seen all to many cases of addiction so I am absolutely certain that there is a genetic component to it, and as a result I have consciously stayed away from anything addictive short of caffeine, to which I honestly feel I have an unhealthy addiction that I just cannot cut. I’d love to see someone break down the science. And I truely think that if the consensus became that addiction was most often due to past trauma, then we would see a revolution in how fundamental where distributed and in treatment.
  • phren0logy 8y ago
    "Trauma is Just One Risk Factor Out of Many Possible Contributors to Addiction Disorders" doesn't quite have the same ring to it. But to your point, there are well-described genetic risk factors. And socioeconomic, environmental, etc. risk factors. Like any complex behavior, there's no "one weird trick" that explains it all. But that doesn't get clicks. (I am an MD who treats addiction)
    • bernardlunn 8y ago
      Yes, but also trauma is treatable without Pharma drugs eg by meditation, hypnotherapy
      • phren0logy 8y ago
        Yes, I agree. Depending on the person and the circumstances, there are always options.
      • tcj_phx 8y ago
        "Stress" experienced by people who are traumatized (fresh trauma or PTSD) has effects on the physical body. There are some good prescriptions that can help with the biological effects of stress: MAOI's [0], various supplements, etc. Sometimes "depressed" patients really just need thyroid medications. MAOIs are good for getting people out of bed while their team figures out what other sorts of interventions they'd benefit from: [...] New research into MAOIs indicates that much of the concern over their supposed dangerous dietary side effects stems from misconceptions and misinformation, and that it is still underutilized despite demonstrated efficacy.[4] New research also questions the validity of the perceived severity of dietary reactions, which has been based on outdated research. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoamine_oxidase_inhibitor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoamine_oxidase_inhibitor Later anti-depressants (Tri-cyclics, SSRIs, etc) tended to be less-effective than the MAOIs, but the MAOI's patents had expired. B-vitamins can boost the metabolism. There's a prescription version of Methyl-Folate that's approved as an add-on for depression treatment (imho, this vitamin should really be a primary treatment). There's lots of space for the medical perspective on a treatment team.
  • tw04 8y ago
    I can tell you I've got two people in my life suffering addiction and in both cases it can be directly attributed to a trauma they experienced.
    • thoughtexplorer 8y ago
      To the OP's point, how does one scientifically determine that to be causal?
      • tw04 8y ago
        I couldn't tell you. What I can tell you is a normal functioning adult who was a casual drinker became an alcoholic essentially overnight. While obviously anecdotal, that seems pretty obviously causal to me.
      • dwaite 8y ago
        Like most studies of human behavior and physiology, it's quite easy to imagine unethical ways to test it
  • whiddershins 8y ago
    FYI the expression is “of course” I.e. “well, of course!”
  • iliketosleep 8y ago
    It's been known for quite some time that overexpression of DeltaFosB [1] is a key component of addiction, and in my view this is essential to understand. But for some reason, these types of articles seldom refer to it. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11572966 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11572966
  • mindgam3 8y ago
    Be careful about being certain of genetic factors. Addiction is undoubtedly passed down through generations to a certain degree, but to my knowledge there is no scientific consensus about whether the delivery mechanism is genetic or cultural/symbolic (ie the meme/“monkey see monkey do” theory). Research into my own family has convinced me that the cultural conditioning is a huge factor. Key data points for me were seeing some very specific behavior patterns replicated across generations by certain women in my family. I just can’t explain that level of “copycat” behavior with a gene.
    • canjobear 8y ago
      There is a clear and robust genetic factor, demonstrated in twin studies. http://www.els.net/WileyCDA/ElsArticle/refId-a0005230.html http://www.els.net/WileyCDA/ElsArticle/refId-a0005230.html Not that genetics are the only factor.
• mindgam3 8y ago
  Yeah, this is pretty much the most matter-of-fact (and accurate) headline I've seen on hacker news all week. What's funny (funny strange, not funny ha-ha) is that there even need to be headlines about this. In my mid twenties I struggled with some of the various addictions that were quite fashionable among the SV tech elite (work, Facebook, Burning Man, psychedelics, in that order). Thankfully I survived that period and was able to reflect on it, at which point a boatload of repressed childhood trauma began surfacing. After a number of years of working through that, the connection between trauma and addictive tendencies is so painfully obvious. Feeling bad + never learned healthy self-soothing rituals ==> take a hit of something to feel better ==> rinse and repeat. I've known enough other people who struggled with similar issues to understand that my experience is hardly unique. I would go so far as to say that anyone who ever experienced addiction will understand at some intuitive level that their dysfunctional behaviors are connected to past trauma. The question is, why is mainstream psychiatry still so obsessed with "curing" addiction via chemical means, as opposed to through psychology/trauma recovery?
  • gameswithgo 8y ago
    Just because you, and some people you know, have had addiction and trauma, does not mean there is a connection, and certainly that connection is not obvious. I have relatives and friends with serious addiction problems who had no serious past trauma (of the kind described in this article)
    • mindgam3 8y ago
      Introduce me to any one of these people. I can almost guarantee that every single one has some form of developmental trauma. I’m willing to be proven wrong, but after seeing a dozen ish cases up close and personal, I’m currently batting 1000. I would bet that the reason you are unaware of the past trauma is because the individuals have chosen not to disclose it to you, due to the stigma and shame associated with opening up. Also, in the most severe cases, the core wound is generally repressed until some shock to the system causes it to be more accessible.
      • 8y ago
• nicolashahn 8y ago
  I really like Gabor Mate. I recently watched a video in which he discusses the connection between addiction, ADD, and trauma. Extremely eye-opening for me, as someone who's witnessed and experienced a bit of the three. I'm not going to attempt to paraphrase, but here's the video: https://youtu.be/x2YdpvnwtGc https://youtu.be/x2YdpvnwtGc
  • schoen 8y ago
    That video was discussed a bit on HN two days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18497985 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18497985
  • agumonkey 8y ago
    8:40 "social media is a pale copy, the less it meets your real needs the more addictive it is, because you need more of it you need to get" reductionism applied to society, sadly
• Nav_Panel 8y ago
  Is this not what Freud, Fromm, &c have been saying for about a century? Psychoanalysis is designed as a therapy through which the patient "deals with their past trauma".
• soniman 8y ago
  If this were true then trauma would be endemic among Australian aborigines but not among Lebanese because there are a lot more Aboriginal alcoholics than Lebanese alcoholics, and also more Swedish alcoholics than Lebanese. "Trauma" is probably a way to make sense of experience that is otherwise senselessly random.
  • m1sta_ 8y ago
    Is trauma not endemic among Australian aborigines?
    • soniman 8y ago
      Aborigines are alcoholics because they haven't had enough time to build the genetic resistance to alcohol. It has nothing to do with trauma.
      • efficax 8y ago
        I'm not familiar with the australian context but this is simply untrue in the american case: https://psmag.com/news/whats-behind-the-myth-of-native-american-alcoholism https://psmag.com/news/whats-behind-the-myth-of-native-ameri... There has not been nearly enough time since the invention of distilled liquor (really only 600-700 years of widespread consumption by Europeans) for a significant amount of evolution to have occurred. In any case, the 'genetic' theory of native american alcholism has been debunked. Poverty, destitution, and a history of trauma, a great gaping wound since the arrival of Europeans in the new world, is a better explanation than a naturalistic fallacy that is just barely disguised colonial racism.
        • m1sta_ 8y ago
          There are cultural challenges too. Leaving certain communities and moving away from certain problems, physically or metaphorically, can result in attack from within those communities. There are some similarities with cults and with extreme conservatism.
      • 8y ago
• elchief 8y ago
  Dr. Maté's Scattered Minds is an excellent book for those dealing with ADHD I've read it, and it blew my mind how it described my various quirks, which I thought were unique to me, but are common to those that suffer ADHD
• andai 8y ago
  I tried breaking an addiction earlier today, but I could only make it a few hours before the withdrawal overwhelmed me. I've been practicing mindfulness lately, noticing the "shape" of sensations in the body, and it struck me that, physically, the withdrawal symptoms felt a lot like how I feel when I'm working through trauma. I had the sense that, if I could work up the courage to face it and work through it (specifically, to practice mindfulness on the extremely unpleasant sensations), the addiction would eventually dissolve. So I did a double take, when I saw my own thoughts at the top of HN!
  • all2 8y ago
    One thing that really, really helped me was being told that 'it is ok to feel bad'. No one had ever told me that before, and I always did my best to avoid discomfort and pain. Now, I have a much different story.
    • penagwin 8y ago
      This made a huge difference to me too. I've always done my best to not feel bad. Feeling bad must be bad, right? I still struggle with smoking, I would rather feel nothing then feel the mental pain. I'm just rather torn, through my years of depression feeling terrible has never felt productive it feels repetitive.
    • twmahna 8y ago
      To add onto this, I found it really constructive when I began to understand what was actually causing me to feel bad about being unhappy. That is, we all have an ideal self that we aspire to, and when we don't live up to this ideal, we feel bad. At first, I thought maybe it was NECESSARY to feel bad in order to motivate oneself to reach your ideals. Then, I thought that it might be impossible to feel good when we reach our ideals without feeling bad when we don't. That is, maybe the two are dualistic, by nature, and inseparable. But, as I thought more and more about my past and how children operate, I became convinced that it's not natural to judge/chastise yourself when you don't live up to your ideals. For me, it's primarily a trained behavior that resulted from judgmental parenting styles -- think, a parent making a child thinking they are a 'bad boy' when they've done something wrong. It's entirely possible to feel good about yourself when you reach your ideals without feeling bad when you don't -- it just takes a bit of rewiring. If you have any doubt, spend some time around children and you'll see that humans are naturally incredibly resilient to failure -- this should include failure at being happy.
• pasbesoin 8y ago
  I'll RTFA, but you know what else helps? Changing the physical environment. Getting away from severe, chronic stressors. Getting to a community that provides services and allows for mobility. "By your bootstraps" doesn't work so well, when you don't have boots. Or when someone keeps "stealing them from you" (metaphorically).
• andai 8y ago
  Are there any techniques to release or resolve trauma of which there are no clear memories? Not to say repressed, but which occurred at a very young age before clear memories could form. Being born, for example.
  • penagwin 8y ago
    Being born I consider a little odd, I doubt its encoded at all. But I do agree about unclear memories. Being physically beaten is rather cut and dry. Being emotionally abused becomes super unclear as to what is and isn't abuse.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
    • vonseel 8y ago
      I had a relatively normal, good childhood until I lost a parent to cancer (shortly after discovering she had brain tumors) at eleven years old. I am now 29, and for all intents and purposes believe to have overcome the grief and able to talk normally about my mother, etc. although of course it is still sad and I can go to that crying-space, if I focus in on it. I don’t blame anyone for what happened although it was sudden and tragic. I do recognize there are things I may not have learned and I missed out on a mother’s love and nurturing from 11 years old until now (and for the rest of my life). My dad was often traveling and not a huge presence in my teens, either, so a lot of the burden of emotional support was transferred to my older brothers and a close family friend. I do not blame my father for this; he worked his ass off to provide for our family and it just so happened that his work (oil and gas) required lots and lots of travel and he would not have been able to provide the same lifestyle for his children without being away most of the time working internationally. All of this on one hand has made me a much more independent person and I learned to do things for myself that my friends in university had their parents doing... it seemed silly how 18-22yr olds had parents scheduling doctor appointments, taking their cars to oil changes, etc. - stuff that any 18 year old with a brain and money (either earned or given from his parents) should be able to handle on his/her own. There’s a lot more to my story but in my late 20s I started having emotional problems and addictive habits. What would therapy look like for trauma in my case and how can I possibly believe that my childhood trauma is still the cause and root thing underlying all of my troubles? I could talk to you for hours about my mother, she was the most amazing woman and I desperately wish I could have known her longer, but I believe my healing level to be normal and positive. I won’t say the grief or healing of losing a parent can ever be complete, but I do think that one can come to a point where he is accepting of the loss, not broken into shatters when discussing it, and able to move on. I wish I could list the ways it changed me as a person, but that’s probably an endless list. I stopped wondering “what if?” because that’s not a healthy thing to do, but I do wonder what kind of person I would have been if she was still around: would I have gone to the same university? Selected the same career path? Still be single? I’m on mobile and can only see about 5 lines of text at a time, so I’m losing track of the overall arc of this comment, and I’m going to end it here, but if anyone wants to reach out, I will update the email on my profile after posting this.
• wenc 8y ago
  Since this HN, folks might be interested in a contrary view of Mate's ideas: The Seductive (But Dangerous) Allure of Gabor Maté. "Gabor Maté is admirable, but leads us down the wrong road" https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/addiction-in-society/201112/the-seductive-dangerous-allure-gabor-mat https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/addiction-in-society...
• cheez 8y ago
  I broke an addiction successfully by relocating and leaving everything behind. The addiction came back after I returned. Very sad. For now, I'm stuck here, but I know I have to leave.
  • coleifer 8y ago
    Doesn't sound like you broke it successfully. Hit me up if you want to talk, I've been there.
    • cheez 8y ago
      I appreciate the offer and you are of course right. I broke it but I did not get enough time in the "addiction-free" state before I returned to the circumstances that caused the addiction. Something like 1% of the time. I think I would need to be in at least 20-30% of the time to break the addiction.
    • cheez 8y ago
      I emailed you.
  • deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
• josephjrobison 8y ago
  My wife is a neuropsychologist and the core part of their treatment for PTSD is CBT, and bringing up the traumas of the past until it becomes boring and normal.
• aaron695 8y ago
  > "Two months later, the Nazis occupied Hungary: his mother took him to the doctor because he wouldn’t stop crying. “Right now,” the doctor replied, “all the Jewish babies are crying.” This is because, explains Maté, what happens to the parent happens to the child: the mothers were terrified, the babies were suffering, but unlike their mothers they couldn’t understand what the suffering was about. > Later, Maté’s mother, fearing for his survival, left him for a month in the care of a stranger. All this, he explains, gave him a lifelong sense of abandonment and loss which had an impact on his psychological health. It affected his marriage and his own parenting experience. To compensate for his buried trauma, he had buried himself in work and neglected his family." Because of what happened to him at two months old explains his problems in life? This is witchcraft at this level. Given the lack of understanding of young children, stress in parents hunted by Nazi's would be hard to tell from mortgage stress or even the stress of a new child in the house. Come off it. There's nothing cutting edge about saying (real) trauma can cause or exacerbate addiction. The science is knowing how much and how it affects treatment. Statements like this are just dangerous and wrong - "At the heart of Maté’s philosophy is the belief that there’s no such thing as an “addictive personality”. And nor is addiction a “disease”. Instead, it originates in a person’s need to solve a problem: a deep-seated problem, often from our earliest years that was to do with trauma or loss."
• random878 8y ago
  As a reader from the world of medicine, and not tech, I'd like to request that readers approach medical topics with an equal amount of criticism they'd reserve for their own field. Politely put, this is a short opinion piece in a newspaper. Cynically put, this is a paid for advertisement hidden in a newspaper to sell a book.
• rblion 8y ago
  Psychedelics helped me a lot but I'm in a good place today where I only vape a little weed. No drinking or smoking. Cutting down on porn a LOT! Still hard to completely avoid to be honest until I have a steady again. I am starting to just lay out everything in front of me as a CHOICE. I can feed the side of me that is a world-class designer and a sincere servant to society OR feed the hedonistic self-destructive megalomaniac that will probably die unfulfilled. Pretty easy choice when I lay it out like that...
  • maxhallinan 8y ago
    Did you take psychedelics in a clinical setting?
    • rblion 8y ago
      Nope. Just knew the right people at the right time, pure intentions and an open mind. All a person needs to have a good experience.
• ermir 8y ago
  Sam Harris recently released a podcast episode titled Addiction, Depression, and a Meaningful Life that goes exactly in this topic. I found it to be one of his best episodes, and I am sure you will find it useful too. Link here: https://samharris.org/podcasts/142-addiction-depression-meaningful-life/ https://samharris.org/podcasts/142-addiction-depression-mean... Also, the connection between responsibility and a meaningful life is one of the recurring themes of Jordan Peterson's work, a message which is sadly lacking in the modern culture. No wonder he has gotten so popular so fast.
• newname2018 8y ago
  Lifelong sufferer of various addictions here. I've kicked most but one thing I want to say is most addicts I've known. (myself included) are so worried about " how they feel" It's very helpful to an addict to just put those " feelings" aside and get on with your life. Not trying to sound like Nancy Reagan but stop being such a pussycat and grab ahold of life Just say no Edit, your feelings aren't that important. Get a life, Without an addiction