Caroline McGraw

Trauma and addiction are linked. Many people suffering from substance abuse or even depression have some underlying trauma that has not been resolved.

This is a topic with a lot of myths and misconceptions swirling around, so we’re going to shed some light on the painful places.

“My drug of choice is food. I use food for the same reasons an addict uses drugs: to comfort, to soothe, to ease stress.”

So said Oprah Winfrey, media mogul, producer, and philanthropist. Oprah’s candid words highlight the link between food and drug abuse, capturing the addictive struggle that millions of Americans face daily.

Thanks to decades of research, we have a stronger understanding of the neuroscience of addiction.

Quick, what’s the first thing that comes to mind when you picture a person who is addicted to drugs? Even if you’ve heard about the opioid crisis, we’re willing to bet that you imagined a twitchy teen or a drunk twenty-something.

What would you do if one day you started hearing voices in your head?

Would you seek emergency care for schizophrenia, only to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital that offered little more than coloring books in the way of mental health care?

Suicide prevention is all about healing from the underlying core issues of hopelessness and despair. Suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts are all a function of these feelings.

Is it possible to take proactive steps to stop these thoughts and dispair?

“I was, in general, terrified of other people; I used drugs for emotional protection and social comfort.”

So writes Maia Szalavitz in her book Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, which interweaves her personal addiction account with science and research supporting the idea of addiction as a learning disorder, and why tough love doesn't work with drug addicts.

Is addiction a disease or not? That’s one of the most pressing questions in addiction research and recovery today. Neuroscientist, retired professor, and author Dr. Marc Lewis is convinced that addiction is not a disease, and he explains why in this fascinating interview.

When our team did a Google Image search of the term “Sobriety Quotes” recently, the first item to pop up was a Pinterest graphic with these words: “Wanna find out who your friends are? Get sober.”

This anonymous quote reminds us of a powerful, often-painful truth: When we change, our relationships to the people around us change too.

In the last twenty years, the idea of addiction and the brain disease model - in other words, the concept that addiction is a disease - has soared in popularity.

It is supported by many respected individuals and organizations. For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) currently defines addiction as “a chronic and relapsing brain disease.”

Similarly, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) calls addiction “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry.”

But does that mean that the millions of Americans who struggle with addiction cannot recover fully?

Do these definitions encompass the true nature of addiction, or is there more to the story? 

Have you ever felt hopeless and powerless in the face of your anxiety? Have you ever found yourself wishing that you could just feel better for good ... while simultaneously believing that recovering from anxiety isn’t a possibility?