How dealing with past trauma may be the key to breaking addiction

Opening up to past trauma is difficult, but self-awareness is key to addressing issues that leave us vulnerableWhat ’s your poison, people sometimes ask, but Gabor Maté doesn’t want to ask what my poison is, he wants to ask how it makes me feel. Whatever it is I’m addicted to, or ever have been addicted to, it’s not what it is but what it does – to me, to you, to anyone. He believes that anything we’ ve ever craved helped us escape emotional pain. It gave us peace of mind, a sense of control and a feeling of happiness.And all of that, explains Mat é, reveals a great deal about addiction, which he defines as any behaviour that gives a person temporary relief and pleasure, but also has negative consequences, and to which the individual will return time and again. At the heart of Maté’s philosophy is the belief that there’s no such thing a s an “addictive personality”. And nor is addiction a “disease”. Instead, it originates in a person’s need to solve a problem: a deep-seated problem, often from our earliest years that was to do with trauma or loss.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Life and style Psychology Science Health & wellbeing Source Type: news