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Is addiction a biological disease that is driven by environmental factors or not<\/p>\n
Posted Mar 11, 2019<\/p>\n
It will come as no surprise to you that\u00a0childhood<\/a>\u00a0trauma, particularly unresolved trauma, can lead to mental\u00a0health<\/a>\u00a0issues and addiction later in life. While less was known about the specific correlation in decades past, today we have a pretty good understanding of just how damaging adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can be on development and coping.<\/p>\n The first few years of life are full of many important developmental milestones in terms of brain pathways,\u00a0attachment<\/a>, coping mechanisms and in generally learning how to relate to others and to stress. Those who experience trauma in their early years often develop survival mechanisms that are less than helpful in adulthood. For some people,\u00a0such interference early on can even drive them towards addiction<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is an area of addiction that I like to talk about, because people with an addiction are often judged at face-value by who they are right now, without any compassion or understanding of where they have come from or what has happened to them (for more on this mistake see\u00a0HERE\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0HERE<\/a>). Understanding these underlying issues however, becomes KEY in unlocking the secrets of addiction recovery.<\/p>\n “Treat people with respect<\/a>\u00a0instead of blaming or shaming them. Listen intently to what they have to say. Integrate the healing traditions of the culture in which they live. Use prescription drugs, if necessary. And integrate adverse childhood experiences science: ACEs.”\u00a0 –\u00a0Dr. Daniel Sumrok<\/a><\/p>\n What are ACEs?<\/p>\n Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs<\/a>) are\u00a0traumatic<\/a>\u00a0events that occur in childhood.<\/p>\n This may include:<\/p>\n Stressful<\/a>\u00a0experiences in childhood may also stem from outside the family home, for example:\u00a0bullying<\/a>, witnessing violence,\u00a0racism<\/a>, being an immigrant, homelessness, living in a war zone and moving house often (such as in the case of military families).<\/p>\n A substantial portion of the people I\u2019ve worked with over the past 11 years have experienced at least one of these ACEs. Most have experienced two or more.<\/p>\n What does research say about ACEs and long-term<\/p>\n Much of the research has stemmed from the original\u00a0CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study<\/a>, the most prominent investigation to date into childhood abuse and neglect and its impact on adult health and wellbeing. Data was collected between 1995 to 1997 from over 17,000 participants.<\/p>\n The ACE study looks at types of early trauma and the long-term outcomes for these children in later life. Participants were required to answer ten questions about specific forms of childhood trauma and mark whether they had experienced this or not. For each type of trauma, they received a score of 1, the highest being 10. For example, a person who was sexually abused, was exposed to domestic violence and had a parent with a substance use disorder, would have an ACE score of three.<\/p>\n The study found that a person with an ACE score of 4 has nearly double the risk of cancer and heart disease than someone without an adverse childhood experience. What\u2019s more, the likelihood of developing an\u00a0alcohol use disorder<\/a>\u00a0increases 7-fold percent and the likelihood of\u00a0suicide<\/a>increased 12-fold.<\/p>\n People who have had an ACE are two to four times more likely to start using alcohol or drugs at an early age, compared to those without an ACE score. People with an ACE score of 5 or higher are\u00a0up to ten times more likely to experience addiction compared with people who haven\u2019t experienced childhood trauma<\/a>.<\/p>\n The research has also revealed that people with higher ACE scores are more likely to experience\u00a0chronic pain<\/a>\u00a0and misuse prescription\u00a0medication<\/a>, and are at increased risk of serious health conditions such as:<\/p>\n In the United States, 60% of adults had experienced at least one traumatic event in their childhood and 25% had experienced at least 3 ACEs.<\/p>\n How do we make sense of all the research?<\/p>\n There\u2019s an overwhelming amount of evidence supporting this notion: the majority of people currently experiencing mental health or addiction problems have a history of adverse childhood experiences. That\u2019s not to say that all children who experience trauma will go on to have a substance use disorder, because there are a lot of other factors at play, but it is a nearly-necessary component of a person\u2019s history that requires serious consideration in treatment.<\/p>\n “Ritualized compulsive comfort-seeking (what traditionalists call addiction) is a normal response to the adversity experienced in childhood, just like bleeding is a normal response to being stabbed.” – Dr. Daniel Sumrok, director of the\u00a0Center for Addiction Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center\u2019s College of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also important to note that the ACE study simply reports on correlations, not causal links. We cannot say that experiencing physical abuse or a messy divorce in childhood will directly lead to a substance use disorder.<\/p>\n What we do know is this: Adverse childhood experiences are bad for your emotional and physical health and wellbeing in adulthood.<\/p>\n We must also consider all the other factors that influence a person\u2019s behavior including socioeconomic factors such as income,\u00a0education<\/a>\u00a0and access to resources.<\/p>\n Now, I don\u2019t want to overwhelm you with all the research that points toward the power of our trauma histories. Your ACE score is not destiny. With help, you can learn healthy coping mechanisms, and how to have healthy\u00a0relationships<\/a>. We also need to account for\u00a0genetic<\/a>,\u00a0environmental\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0spiritual\u00a0<\/a>factors that influence our behavior.<\/p>\n And while the research sheds light on how powerful childhood trauma can be in our life\u2019s trajectory, it also helps inform\u00a0government<\/a>, communities and individuals about the importance of compassion. The link between adverse childhood experiences and later health problems is even more of a reason to reduce stigma and\u00a0shame<\/a>\u00a0associated surrounding addiction. Children do not have control over their home\u00a0environment<\/a>, so therefore, we cannot expect them to overcome their difficulties as adults without compassion and support.<\/p>\n How can we help people with ACEs overcome addiction?<\/p>\n We need to focus on providing resources to the people at greatest risk and making sure those resources go into programs that reduce or mitigate adversity.<\/p>\n Dr. Daniel Sumrock\u00a0says we can do these things to help people change addiction by:<\/p>\n IGNTD Recovery takes ACEs into account, getting to the “why” of the addiction, not just putting a Band-Aid on the compulsive seeking symptom. Indeed, we believe that focusing on the symptoms is harmful.<\/p>\n So if this is something you\u2019d like to address either for yourself or for someone you know then find out more about my approach to addiction at\u00a0IGNTD Recovery<\/a>\u00a0or in my book\u00a0The Abstinence Myth<\/a>.<\/p>\n Read more about the ACE study:<\/p>\n Source:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.psychologytoday.com\/ca\/blog\/all-about-addiction\/201903\/linked-adverse-childhood-experiences-health-addiction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is addiction a biological disease that is driven by environmental factors or not Posted Mar 11, 2019 It will come as no surprise to you that\u00a0childhood\u00a0trauma, particularly unresolved trauma, can lead to mental\u00a0health\u00a0issues and addiction later in life. While less was known about the specific correlation in decades past, today we have a pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,41,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction","category-drug-use-effects-on-foetus","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drugprevent.org.uk\/ppp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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