The Impact Of Childhood Trauma On Addiction

It’s common for people who struggle with addiction to blame themselves – but our childhood experiences shape who we are. Childhood trauma is strongly linked to addiction – the environment we grow up in and the things that happen to us change how we view the world, how we respond to stress, and even how our brains develop. They can even change our immune systems – these changes can be felt through generations.

 

The prevalence of childhood trauma

 

Experiencing childhood trauma can leave you feeling anxious, depressed and isolated – but you aren’t alone. The Office for National Statistics says that 1 in 5 adults have experienced some form of child abuse. This is a grim statistic, and no child should face abuse or mistreatment. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood reports that one in seven adults calling their helpline have never told anyone about their abuse before.

 

It’s important to know you don’t have to suffer in silence. Addiction feeds on isolation and stigma, so reaching out to others and seeking help is the first step in breaking the cycle. Telling someone you trust or reaching out to a helpline if you would rather stay anonymous can start the process of unpacking your trauma.

Adverse childhood experiences

 

There’s a strong link between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the later development of addiction.

 

ACEs are traumatic events that happen to you before the age of 17. ACEs include:

 

• Domestic violence, both aimed at you and at someone else in the household
• Parental abandonment
• Having a parent with a mental health condition
• Being the victim of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse
• Being the victim of physical or emotional neglect
• Having a member of the household in prison
• Having an adult in the household experiencing drug addiction or alcohol addiction

 

These traumatic events have been studied at the population and individual levels. Studies have shown that as ACEs increase in the population, so does the risk of experiencing a range of negative health outcomes in adulthood. There’s also evidence to suggest the more ACEs you have experienced individually, the higher the risk of certain other outcomes, including addiction.

 

Addiction has a hereditary component, so having a family member with an addiction is both an ACE and can also increase your genetic risk for addiction.

 

ACEs can profoundly impact your life as an adult – but they are not your destiny. There are multiple things you can do to tackle the adversity you faced early in your life and address the problems that have occurred in adulthood, like addiction.

Neurobiological and psychological mechanisms

 

Childhood stress can affect brain development, which sows the seeds for susceptibility to addiction in later life. There are many ways that early trauma affects the brain and increases the risk of addiction.

 

The brain’s stress response system

When children experience repeated or severe stress, it can rewire the brain, disrupting the stress-response system (the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis) and priming the brain’s reward pathway to make the brain more sensitive to the effects of addictive substances. This is one reason why there’s a strong link between early trauma and later addiction.

 

Oxytocin

Oxytocin, a neurotransmitter associated with bonding, is influenced by your early relationships. Negative interactions with others can impair this system – and because loneliness (lack of bonding) is associated with addiction, this can increase your risk of experiencing addiction as an adult.

 

Dopamine

Early stress affects your dopamine reward system. This system is vital for reward-seeking and goal-motivated behaviour – and it’s also strongly associated with the development of addiction. Altering this pathway in childhood means you’re more susceptible to addictive behaviours to manage stress in later life.

 

Cortisol

Cortisol is the main hormone released in your Glucocorticoid Stress Response System, and this system can get dysregulated later in life if you experience a lot of stress early on. Higher stress can make you more susceptible to addiction as a coping mechanism.

 

Because stress and trauma impact the brain in so many ways, it can be difficult to turn away from unhealthy coping mechanisms in later life – your brain is more sensitive to stress, and substances are a quick fix for that emotional pain and anxiety. 

Substance abuse as a means of coping

Substance use as an adult can be a coping mechanism for dealing with painful memories and emotions and the symptoms of trauma-related disorders.

 

CPTSD – Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – can happen if you’ve experienced childhood trauma. PTSD is a disorder that can happen as a result of one big, terrifying event – like an accident or a sexual assault. If you grew up in a stressful environment, where the stress was prolonged, it can lead to developing CPTSD.

 

Both PTSD and CPTSD can cause you to grow up with a diminished capacity to self-soothe, which is why you might end up turning to substances. Your brain is not as good at calming itself down, and this feels extremely painful. Substances are a faulty but understandable way of self-soothing.

 

In the long run, addiction makes the problems in your life worse – but it’s a normal and understandable response to the changes in your brain and the prolonged stress you underwent due to childhood trauma. To get to the root of your addiction, it’s important to get out of the cycle of self-blame and self-medication with substances and reach out for help. You aren’t alone – and you can break the cycle.

Diagnosis and treatment

 

For people living with the legacy of childhood trauma and struggling with addiction, it’s important to treat both – and often this means getting professional help.

 

Having a diagnosed mental health problem and an addiction is called dual diagnosis – and this is common in addiction recovery. Because childhood trauma and addiction often go hand-in-hand, there are many established treatments for dual diagnosis. These include behavioural therapies, medication, inpatient treatment and support groups.

Breaking the cycle

 

Trauma and addiction are closely interwoven. The pain of trauma and the changes it causes in your brain and body can cause you to self-medicate to escape the pain. Breaking the cycle means not just treating the addiction but also the trauma you experienced.

 

Trauma changes the brain, and so does addiction – but you can change it too.

 

Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to rewire itself – and this ability never goes away. When you stop taking addictive substances, the brain slowly begins to adjust to the lack of these substances in your system, and you can influence this rewiring using different behavioural approaches, like lifestyle changes and therapeutic behavioural modification.

 

By committing to recovery and engaging in therapy, it is possible to treat your addiction and the trauma that led you to it. Engaging with addiction rehab and therapy allows you to face your experiences and build a healthy, happy life free of addiction.

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