More on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

More on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder


I thought I would post a little about the reaction I am getting connecting Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Alcoholism/Addiciton.



I quoted from:The Consequences of Child Maltreatment: A Reference Guide for Health Practitioners . A Reference Guide for Health Practitioners was prepared by Jeff Latimer for the Family Violence Prevention Unit, Health Canada.

One reader appeared to attack the credibility of Mr. Latimer by calling him an overpaid employee of a corrupt socialist state. That may be true. Im not found of socialism myself. But that’s not the point. The point is: Is there a connection to addiction (drugs,alcohol, etc) and post traumatic stress.


Jack Trimpey of Rational Recovery Fame sent me an e-mail and his response was:

Your belief that addiction is caused by PTSD is simply wrong, and a perfect example of the Addictive Voice. Anyone can permanently quit drinking regardless of any past traumas. The use of alcohol and other drugs is not to cope with miseries, as you suggest, but for the unspeakable pleasure they produce. PTSD is no excuse for drunkenness.


Well, I wrote Jack back and let him know I wasn’t making excuses but just trying to help people understand causes. Nor did I ever suggest they couldn’t stop regardless of the trauma either. I stopped for over 20 years before I understood the post traumatic stress roots of my addiction. (although I would have been better off had I understood it earlier).


Folks, Im not the only saying there is a connection.Here is a quote from Alice Miller:


5. Dissociated from the original cause, their feelings of anger, helplessness, despair, longing, anxiety, and pain will find expression in destructive acts against others (criminal behavior, mass murder) or against themselves (drug addiction, alcoholism, prostitution, psychic disorders, suicide).


http://www.thisisawar.com/AddictionRoots.htm


What Im suggesting is that this is a good subject for discussion. I know for myself that my addiction had its roots in childhood abuse (PTSD). It wasn’t a disease and it wasn’t some mysterious gene that nobody understands.

How many of you had horrible childhood traumas that happened before you started drinking and taking a drugs. Maybe at the hands of a parent, teacher, priest, or even a classmate?