My teachers have been many, and my insights are due to their tireless research and specializations. Among them are Dr. Daniel Siegel, Dr. Daniel Stern, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, Dr. Allan Schore, Dr. Stephen Porges, Mary Main, Dr. John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, Sir Richard Bowlby, and the Boston Change Group. I thank all of you for what you have brought to the fields of Neuroscience, Infant Brain Development, Attachment, Psychoanalysis, and Addiction.
In a little over 2 weeks, I’ll have been in the field of addiction for 24 years. It’s amazing really. There has been some very important movement during the last 15-20 years in a field that has baffled human kind since Seneca first brought us wine. We’ve found a limbic connection in the brain of people afflicted with addiction. With the Human Genome Project, we’ve explored the, long hypothesized, genetic correlation to addiction, (interesting findings regarding Type II. Alcoholism). For the longest time, we insisted that trauma, most probably sexual, was at the root of addiction. Then eventually we were forced to let that theory go, based on the experiences of our clients (although there were some startling studies done with female addicts in treatment during the 80s that pointed heavily to sexual trauma) We explored family systems, and found some credence to family backgrounds and addiction, but still, it didn’t fit everyone (not even most). At this time, the prevailing theory looks like this:
Genetic Predisposition Major Life Trauma (Attachment and then anything that occurs afterwards)
A Substance That Works to Make Life Bearable
This is how I explain the connection between addiction and attachment disorder/trauma to my clients:
In utero, something happens for Mom. It could be that she is having a difficult physical pregnancy, and feels sick or is bed-ridden. Maybe she and Dad aren’t getting along, or maybe Dad is away. It could be that she’s had a miscarriage in the past and is frightened of losing this child, or that there are already 4 children, and how will she feed and care for a 5th. Mom’s parents could be ill, or there might be financial problems. The mommy might have unaddressed attachment trauma from her own early childhood, or she might be depressed. Really, it could be any one of a hundred things. Mom could have a drug problem herself or be an alcoholic and not be drinking. Dad could be the unreliable alcoholic that she is worried about. Again, it could be almost any one thing or combination of things. And this is during the time when the blueprint for the baby’s emotional brain is being developed. Whatever Mommy is feeling becomes the foundation for what the baby’s emotional life will become.
Then Baby is born, and Mommy puts into Baby everything she is feeling, right brain to right brain, through the eyes and something called mirror neurons in the frontal lobe. These feelings become the baby’s emotional experience during the first 18 months of life (When the right brain is developing). The left brain is not even on board yet. During this first 18 month period is also when the capacity for joy is developed. If there is not the needed happy, loving, mommy-baby dance, if mommy is anxious or depressed, those neurons are pruned.
Here is what I’ve learned from my clients over the course of 23 years:
Alcoholics are hard-wired for anxiety—no exceptions. Their first drink is a miracle for their anxious emotional states. There may also be depression (as alcohol is a central nervous system depressant); or depression could be co-occurring from early attachment states. Alcohol is an incredible anti-anxiety drug.
Opiate/Heroin addicts are depressed. They fall somewhere on the continuum from severe depression to dysthymia. There is no better antidepressant than opiates.
Methamphetamine Addicts, overwhelmingly, have severe ADD/ADHD and are trying to self-medicate.
Marijuana addicts (The heavy users—chronic) have issues of rage that the drug has kept at bay. Eventually the drug ceases to work anymore; however this can take 20-25 years to occur. But when it stops working, the rage is unstoppable.
There are strong correlations between Cocaine addiction and Bipolar I, II, or II.
With Hallucinogens, there is often a propensity toward psychosis prior to the drug use; also, there are those called to a spiritual path who believe they will find what they’re looking for with the aid of psychedelics.
With the clients capable of accurate self-reporting, or with the information from their mothers and fathers, I can connect their drugs of choice with early attachment trauma and emotional states that their mothers were going through.
We know that complex trauma and/or personality disorders are attachment related, as well as PTSD, and that 40% of addicts (or more) have some form of personality disorder. What Mary Main and Daniel Siegel teach us is that the cycle of attachment trauma can be broken: One only needs to make sense of his or her life to break the pattern. I recommend Parenting from the Inside Out: Siegel and Hartzell
At Blueprints for Recovery, we treat Attachment Trauma and all other trauma with Neurofeedback, EMDR, and Psychotherapy.
Janice L. Witt, M.A. Addiction and Trauma Specialist
Neurofeedback Practitioner and Supervisor
Tags: addiction and attachment, addiction and trauma, alcohol addiction, drug addiction, trauma treatment
Category: Drug and Alcohol Addiction