Addiction and Trauma Recovery

What Is It: When many of us think of 'Addiction' we often relate it to the overuse of Drugs and Harmful Substances.

However, at its core, 'Addiction' is the need to hyper-fixate on something external to one's self due to their inability to soothe and regulate uncomfortable sensations, feelings, and thoughts from within.

In Western Society, we need to completely reframe how we view 'Addiction'. Becoming an 'Addict' is rarely about the substance or object we become addicted to. While we can form many different coping strategies to avoid our 'Addiction', if the underlying causal factor of what created severe dysregulation within our systems is not dealt with, we will always become addicted to something else or will live out our lives continuously hyper-vigilant with every thought or behavior consumed with trying to avoid the 'thing' outside ourselves that once allowed us to 'regulate' (even if unhealthy).

How Does It Happen- From a young age, we all need to feel Physically and Emotionally safe. When these core needs are met, it allows us to flourish and function in many other different areas in our lives (Ex: creatively, cognitively, relationally).

However, if these core needs were not met and we did not feel like our basic material needs were being met or we faced severe emotional neglect, it can teach our mind-body complex that we are 'unsafe' and need to hyper-fixate on our external environment to achieve that safety.

It can also teach our systems that our naturally occurring thoughts, feelings, and emotions themselves are unsafe to experience. This will lead us to finding coping strategies that exist outside oneself to avoid our own internal environment.

Our Mind/Body begins to believe safety is formed by placing our energy outside ourselves.

How Does It Happen (Part 2)- Sometimes an individual can form 'Addictive' patterns and behaviors without there being severe childhood trauma.

If one has Trauma in their Ancestral Lines, or their Ancestors once formed Addictive patterns, there can be changes in the Brian and Nervous System as a result and will be passed down to the child (For more information on this: Look up Poly-Vagal Theory and Epigenetics).

From an Energetic/Shamanic Standpoint, Addiction can often form due to the concept of 'Soul-Loss'. Most cultures throughout Human History understood the nature of the 'Energetic-Self'.

Sometimes, due to an Experience we can't process or another individual 'Taking a part of us for themselves' we actually lose an aspect of our initial essence. We can begin to feel empty, like there's a hole inside us and form addictions to plug up this distortion.

How It Impacts Us- Feeling chronically unsafe both Physically and Emotionally can become its own 'Hell'. Often, it is through the overuse of a chemical-substance or becoming hyper-fixated on an object/process outside oneself that allows us to potentially feel some distorted sense of 'Safety' for the first time or at the very least the ability to finally escape an unpredictable internal world.

However, though 'Addictions' can actually serve us in the immediate moment, they will just about always exacerbate the underlying cause that lead us to form addictive patterns in the first place later on in life.

Through 'Addictive Behaviors' we are teaching our Mind/Body complex that we do not have the ability or tools to deal with our own internal landscape. We will continue to form more coping-patterns/hyper-fixations which actually makes us feel even more unsafe and disconnected within ourselves.

How It Impacts Us (Part 2)- Addiction hides us from our true-selves. The saddest part of being an 'Addict' is the inability to ever truly form a deep-connection with oneself. This also leads to a lack of Self-Love which also disrupts one's ability to truly form Healthy Relationships as well.

It is normal for Addicts to be Highly Co-Dependent or even Avoidant in relationships. The ability to also healthily understand and communicate one's own Boundaries and Needs is also highly compromised.

Addiction also leads into never-ending 'Shame-Spirals'. Most Addicts form their Addictions because they aren't able to fully process the 'Shame' that was projected onto them and likely not even theirs to carry. Yet, through forming Addictions and the inability to stop engaging in Behavior that's harmful to oneself further leads to augmenting the existing 'Shame' one is burdened with. It often doesn't help that society lacks understanding around Addiction and further blames the Addict.

Rehabs, 12-Step & Addiction- The Addiction Recovery Industry in America is worth over $42 Billion. Despite the expensive natures of Rehab Programs, their recovery rates are still very low. Furthering the problem is many Addicts don't even have the financial means to invest in these programs and are typically reserved for those who come from wealth. True Addiction is rarely something that can be healed in a short time-frame and needs a multi-faceted approach which Rehabs don't offer.

12-Step Programs are often a more effective solutions but still have major drawbacks and blindspots that only seem grow. Adding in Community, a Spiritual Dimension and

Self-Accountability Paradigm to the Recovery Process is certainly a step in the right direction, but still often lacks the awareness/resources to get to the root cause.

12-Step Programs still tend to hyper-fixate on the substance or adaptive behavior to trauma rather than what created it in the first place.

New Paradigm For Healing Addiction- As someone who has personally struggled with Addiction their entire lives, we must form a new paradigm that truly allows someone to overcome this insidious 'Affliction'.

We fully understand how disastrous the 'War On Drugs' was and that this isn't a problem to go to 'War' with and in fact only further perpetuates the Toxic-Shame many Addicts are struggling with.

Those who are Addicts need Self-Accountability, Compassion, and the tools/resources to confront the 'storm within'. Addicts are usually trying to escape from some deep Fragmentation they don't know how to deal with or 'Soul-Loss' which always leaves them feeling Energetically Depleted.

Through the Multi-Tiered Use of Mindfulness, Somatic Experiencing and Deep Energetic/Shamanic Healing, the individual can finally address the core of what lead to addiction and fully heal.