In this film, Dr Vincent Felitti, from Kaiser
Permanente presents information from the ongoing 17,000 person Adverse
Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study to challenge the conventional view that
certain chemicals are intrinsically addicting. He presents the evidence
gathered in the ACE study to show that “addiction is not a disease, but is an
unconsciously attempted response to minimize the effects of abnormal life
experiences. Addiction can be seen as the unconscious, compulsive use of
psychoactive materials in response to the stress of life experiences, typically
dating back to childhood.”
Dr. Felitti discusses
patients, including the woman who was the first person to draw his attention to
the issue of using substances (in her case food), who are engaging in behaviors
normally considered harmful in order to alleviate and protect from the pain of
childhood experiences. He primarily
addresses food, alcohol, nicotine, methamphetamines and heroin addiction. They are a few of the things that may be seen
as public health problems but may often be “personal solutions to
long-concealed adverse childhood experiences.
Describing bad habits as self-destructive behaviors hides their
functionality in the life of a trauma survivor.”
As I think about how we
try to address substance abuse, the heroin crisis, and human trafficking, I am
drawn to the conclusion that we will fail in our attempts to resolve the crises
until we begin to talk about the long held private conditions that lead to the
public problems. “These life experiences
are very likely to be lost in time, and protected by shame, by secrecy, and by
social taboos against exploring certain aspects of human experience.” So many of us were raised in families and cultures
where we did not discuss shameful family secrets. As we grew up we were seen as the problem
when the legacy of adverse childhood experiences presented as addictions and mental
illness.
At this point in time
treatment options are few and far between and minimally address the origins of
the addiction. By failing to address the
adversity experience in childhood by so many people, we fail in our attempts to
treat. When treatment fails, we blame
the person instead of recognizing that by “treating someone’s attempted
solution, we may be threatening and causing flight from treatment” or forcing
them to find another, possibly life-threatening, solution.
When these childhood
experiences are named and validated as the source of long term difficulties in
adolescence and adulthood we are removing the stigma and helping persons
understand that it is not about having something wrong with them, but that
something was done to them. The next
steps are to assist in finding healthier solutions and recognizing the strength
and resiliency that helped them find solutions in the first place and survive
in the midst of extremely adverse experiences.
