Automatic dissociation addiction to drugs and alcohol, for the child within, can provide a way to quiet the mind

Automatic dissociation addiction to drugs and alcohol, for the child within, can provide a way to quiet the mind and the body that they can have control over; a form of self-administered medication, a numbing out of false familiar nurturing. Certain behaviours, particularly those that trigger a rise in dopamine levels in the brain, like eating (particularly sugar, white flour, and fatty foods) or sexual acting out, can have a similar “soothing” (but addictive) effect. The more these substances or behaviours are used to quiet and calm unwanted feelings and sensations, the more dependent we become on them and the more convinced we become that we cannot calm down or feel OK without them.

Trauma and Addiction over time, greater amounts of the drug or acting out behaviours are needed to reach the same “high.” Thus the addiction takes hold, the child withins symptoms become worse not better and lives become unmanageable for all concerned. In this manner individuals may develop insidious multiple addictions. Gruesome twosomes like food and alcohol or sex and drugs or gambling and alcohol, are all potent combinations that make it difficult to recognize what the primary addiction or issue is, or exactly how to treat it. After all, we have to eat, right? However, there are ways of eating that trigger spikes in blood sugar levels that in turn trigger cravings. And because drinking also affects blood sugar and lowers inhibitions, gorging on sugary and fatty foods becomes easier and more mindless. Though the individual may not appear to be eating or drinking to unmanageable excess, they are able to manipulate their own body chemistry and maintain addictive levels of feel-good body chemicals by a combination of drinking alcohol and using food to get a dopamine high. This manipulation of one’s own body chemicals can also be achieved through maintaining adrenaline highs. Adrenaline can be as addictive to the brain as heroin, activities like constant rushing, overworking, high-risk behaviours or frenetic exercise can all create spikes in adrenaline. In all of these cases, behaviour can come to mirror that of an addict and thinking, feeling, and behaviour get
 out of whack.





The Ten Stages is a studied recovery course. It is a source of reconnection a method of unlearning and a reintroduction to our child within which leads us back to our one true intuitive voice.We start to learn and come out of our protective dysfunctional shell and reclaim our lives.