Trauma and Addiction: Why Addiction Is a Coping Mechanism, Not a Moral Failing

Written by Roland Bal

Substance abuse and addiction or addictive behaviour is pretty much always present as a result of unresolved trauma. The expression of it, though, can vary greatly from person to person.

Addiction certainly has a purpose. It serves as a mechanism for coping by diverting the energy of overwhelming hurt into something else, which is either through an activity or taking a substance which will give some form of instant gratification.

Addiction, over time, does become an issue and focus in on itself.

Addiction as a Coping Mechanism for Childhood Trauma

If you are able to look at addiction and addictive behaviour from this perspective — that they have been applied to help you cope with underlying emotional stress — it will help you to take away the guilt, blame, and self-reproach that you may have formed around your addiction.

Addiction certainly has a purpose. It serves as a mechanism for coping by diverting the energy of overwhelming hurt into something else, which is either through an activity or taking a substance which will give some form of instant gratification.

This first step, of changing your perspective, will start helping you to look at it, and observe what is really beyond and fundamental to addiction. When you stop treating addiction as the problem and start seeing it as a symptom of unresolved emotional pain, you create space for real change. Understanding the role of dissociation in the craving cycle is part of that shift.

Substance Addiction vs Behavioural Addiction

Our minds can really become attached, form a habit and become addicted to everything. Even the supposedly good stuff like yoga, sports, or work.

If you look closely, though, you can see that there are basically two types of addiction. One is substance addiction — think of coffee, chocolate, alcohol, drugs, medication, soda-drinks, simple carbs. The second are behavioural addictions — think of internet, work, sex, sports, obsessions of any kind, promiscuity, the need for control, the need to always be in a relationship.

You will probably find that you have both present in some measure. Though that being said, you will likely have one being more dominant over the other. Either you are more inclined to be addicted to substances or more inclined to act out through behavioural addictions.

In the end, they serve the same purpose though!

Why Addiction Hops from One Thing to the Next

One of the things that people rarely talk about is how addiction moves. You might go from alcoholism to binge eating chocolate. From smoking to energy drinks. From drugs to overworking. I can see it in my own life — in my teens it was smoking joints and amphetamines, then it moved into food, and now whenever I get distressed I fall into over-organising or working too much.

This happens because the underlying emotional charge hasn't been addressed. The addiction is not the substance or the behaviour — it is the nervous system's need to regulate an overwhelming internal state. When you take away one outlet, the energy simply finds another. That is why focusing only on stopping one particular addiction without addressing what drives it leads to this hopping pattern.

How Behavioural Addictions Become Problematic

The longer traumatic residue stays in the body and mind, the more complex and deeply rooted become the coping mechanisms originally adopted for dealing with being emotionally overwhelmed.

When no attempt or start has been made to resolve the underlying trauma, these coping mechanisms become more rigid and will turn into focal points themselves. Even to the point that they are not associated anymore to the original stress: "I have to stop smoking." "I shouldn't drink." "I don't want to use drugs." "I really need to get away from my computer."

In the thick of traumatic stress activation, however, there is just no way to avoid it. This dual mindset of involuntary indulging creates additional stress, which reinforces an unhealthy cyclic release and build-up of the high energy charge in the nervous system.

Holding the Label of 'Addict' Lightly

I would encourage people to hold the labels of addict and addiction fairly lightly. They are useful because they allow you to zoom in on the problem — if you are drinking too much and can't stop, you need to focus on that area for a while. But when it becomes "that's what I am at my core," it turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Seeing addiction as a coping mechanism reframes it. It is true, and it takes away the negative connotation. From there, it often becomes easier to do what you might call harm reduction — moving from a more destructive addiction to a less destructive one is still progress, even though you are still using a coping mechanism. Moving from drinking every day to eating chocolate every day is probably going to make your life better.

But that is not the end of the road. The suffering at the core of the body is still there. And if you can start to address some of that — through working with the underlying trauma itself — that is what provides the real long-term relief.

Living with Addiction

Addiction is a way of coping and managing a stressful situation. You will fall back in and out of addictive patterns repeatedly throughout your life. It is not something you can get rid of entirely.

But the moment you stop making a problem out of it, you can see yourself going into addiction and use it as an alarm bell. What is going on? Do I need to take a step back? What do I need to address? The more you are able to work with the different layers of your emotional patterns, the more manageable your addictions become — not through control, but because the underlying charge that fuels them starts to lessen.

Stresses and triggers are going to be there in your life, either externally or internally. The more you know how to work through the emotional material, the more you are able to deal with life.