Category Archives: Addiction
Anxiety as the Root Cause of Addiction
I read a study from two years ago that suggested anxiety as the root cause of addiction. That study really resonated with me because I grew up in a very stressful home. Our home was dominated by the disease of alcoholism.
But maybe your home was dominated by someone addicted to religion, power, work, money, etc. Addiction is the same regardless of the avenue we choose to follow our addictions. I believe everyone is affected by addiction at home or work or church or whatever.
Once you learn your “role” in the addiction, you are set to respond that same way in all present and future relationships. In another post, I will write about the roles we chose in that family of origin.
Some current articles about anxiety:
Cost of perfectionism–by Pavel Somov:
“Perfectionists pay a high psychological price of anxiety, worry, depression and/or dysthymia (low grade depression) (Maxmen & Ward (1995). According to Flett and Hewitt (2002) “perfectionists are more likely than nonperfectionists to experience various kinds of stress,” and they tend to exacerbate their own stress (p. 257).”
Insensitive children survive stressful homes and schools better–by Michael Ungar:
“While most parents want their children to be sensitive, kind, caring individuals, there’s some troubling research on primary school children that has been done by Thomas Boyce and his colleagues at the University of British Colombia (not far from the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics). Testing for stress reactivity using biological markers like cortisol levels during testing, Boyce and his colleagues have shown that a biologically predisposed sensitive child, one who is likely to feel emotional slights or be prone to anxiety, actually does better than most children when there is little stress in her environment. Give her a good home, an easy school routine, and she’ll outperform her less anxiety-prone peers. That may be because such children are also likely to be creative, expressive individuals, and those characteristics endear them to their parents and teachers. If you have a sensitive child, the good news is that as long as her world is safe and predictable, she is likely to do just fine.”
An experiment with monkeys and anxiety–by Adi Jaffe:
“A number of researchers at Wake Forest University school of Medicine looked at the social organization in 4 groups of monkeys. They then took either a dominant or subordinate monkey and put it in a cage next to a group of unfamiliar monkeys. The monkeys couldn’t hurt each other, but they could yell and scream, which they did, creating an emotionally stressful situation for the lone monkey.”
“After this stressful event, the researchers gave the monkey a chance to relax, human style: They were brought back to their normal housing and allowed to pull either on a lever that gave them food, or a lever that gave them a dose of cocaine. Want to guess what happened?”
Brain chemistry ties anxiety and alcoholism–
by University of Illinois at Chicago (2008, March 5). Brain Chemistry Ties Anxiety And Alcoholism.
“Doctors may one day be able to control alcohol addiction by manipulating the molecular events in the brain that underlie anxiety associated with alcohol withdrawal, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center report in the March 5 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.”
“The association of anxiety with increased alcohol use is a key factor in the initiation and maintenance of alcohol addition,” says Dr. Subhash Pandey, UIC professor of psychiatry and director of neuroscience alcoholism research, the lead author of the study.”
“Previous research has shown that people with inherently high levels of anxiety are at an increased risk of becoming alcoholics. In addition, withdrawal of alcohol in chronic users is often accompanied by extreme anxiety.”
“Alcoholics may feel a need to continue to drink alcohol in an attempt to self-medicate to reduce their anxiety and other unpleasant withdrawal symptoms,” said Pandey.”
“Pandey and his colleagues have discovered the molecular basis for the link between anxiety and alcohol addiction, which may help in identifying new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of alcohol addiction.”
Roots of PTSD, Codependency and Addiction
My 33rd year of recovery from alcohol addiction began Nov. 24, 2009. Needless to say to anyone living a spiritual quest, many emotions are stirred up during an anniversary.
In taking another 5th step, I realized that I had recreated the home of my childhood. I had the good mommy role and my husband was the bad daddy. As I stated there, he acted out his misery by having an affair and leaving me.
This experience has led me on the path of healing my childhood wounds. I was the oldest child–or rather, I was the youngest parent in that home. I took my duties so seriously that I taught myself to deny pleasure. In return, the power connected to this role of being the boss was my first addiction. One that I am only now giving up.
I believe those of us growing up in violent homes suffer from PTSD. I was particularly drawn to the definition of PTSD. Wikipedia defines it as “Posttraumatic stress disorder[1][2] (commonly referred to by its acronym, PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event which results in psychological trauma.[3] This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one’s own or someone else’s physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,[1] overwhelming the individual’s psychological defenses.”
In reading about Iraq veterans and PTSD, I identified immediately with the social isolation. I have done this all my life. Although I am a loner and am suspicious of anyone not content being alone, isolation leads me to paranoia and discontent. I am learning a balance finally because I am now free to talk about all my feelings.
I have also identified the brain chemistry associated with my codependency. So I have begun learning how to reparent myself.
So, you can imagine my delight to read this post: What causes addiction? by Jann Gumbiner. Over my 33 years in addiction recovery, I have read many articles and books about the origins of addiction. I was thrilled to find in this article a mention of Dennis Thombs’s book, Introduction to Addictive Behaviors. What I identified with was his belief that we used our addictions to combat feelings of anxiety (fear) that we never learned to process.
My comment to this post:
“After 33 years of recovery from alcoholism, I am so grateful for your mention of Dennis Thombs’s Introduction to Addictive Behaviors”. It so resonates with my experience. My reaction the first time I drank was akin to finding the Holy Grail. I only ever had the same experience when I had been in labor for 33 hours with a double footling breech delivery. I remember gulping down the pain killer that they could only give me as she was through the birth canal.”
I will continue researching PTSD, codependency and addiction as I know that my addiction began when as a child, I didn’t l know how to deal with anxiety and fear. Instead I used these feelings of power over people to feel better myself.
