Would Ending the War on Drugs End Childhood Trauma?

@Frank Sterle Jr. posted:

Intense trauma from unhindered toxic abuse typically results in a helpless child's brain improperly developing. If allowed to continue for a prolonged period, it can act as a starting point into a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammation-promoting stress hormones and chemicals, even in non-stressful daily routines. It has been described as a continuous, discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’ and simultaneously being scared of how badly you will deal with the upsetting event, which usually never transpires.

The lingering emotional/psychological pain from such intense trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one's head. It is solitarily suffered, unlike an openly visible physical disability or condition, such as paralysis, a missing limb or eye, all of which tends to elicit sympathy/empathy from others. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is treated with some form of medicating, either prescribed or illicit. Any resultant addiction is likely his/her attempt at silencing the anguish of PTSD symptoms through substance abuse.

Since so much of our lifelong health comes from our childhood experiences, childhood mental health-care should generate as much societal concern and government funding as does physical health, even though psychological illness/dysfunction typically is not immediately visually observable. My own experience has revealed that notable high-scoring adverse childhood experience trauma resulting from a highly sensitive and low self-confidence introverted existence, amplified by an accompanying autism spectrum disorder, can readily lead an adolescent to a substance-abuse/self-medicating disorder. It’s what I consider to be a perfect-storm condition with which I greatly struggle(d), yet of which I was not aware until I was a half-century old. To this day, it still goes untreated, except for psychotropic medication, which only really benefits Big Pharma's bloated profit margin.

Frank, you capture the problem well, "a perfect storm." We have such big challenges all around with the "war on drugs." As they say, "War is hell." We've definitely had enough of that to last many, many lifetimes. Thank you for reading my post and commenting. I greatly appreciate it.

@Mark Rock posted:

Thank you for sharing and starting what is a very challenging conversation. One line in here stands out as the underlying problem and seems to be missed with critiquing the current war on drugs.

When people feel burned out, stressed out, and left out they are much more likely to seek comfort from artificial, illicit, and pharmaceutical substances.

I cant help but feel that this cuts closer to the truth and underlying problem. Napoleon is  very well known for his quote that "an army travels on its stomach." If we want to win the war on drugs then we have to address the underlying stress, isolation, and lack of opportunity that feeds this monster.

Thank you, Mark. The line you referenced came to me when I was trying to summarize why people do what they do when it comes to engaging in a physical response to an emotional pain. I appreciate you reading my post and taking time to comment.

@Sharon E Swaffield posted:

Hello Christopher

I couldn't agree with you more in this article. I have listened to Johann Hari's ted talk in the past. The War on Drugs is not working and never has. I agree with you that the exceptions are the cartels and pharmaceutical companies both of whom only care about profit; not people.

Another individual, whom you maybe familiar with and has expertise in addiction and trauma is Dr Gabor Mate from Vancouver, British Columbia. Anyone who uses drugs and becomes addicted does not intentional set out to become an addict. There is always a reason which ultimately relates to some kind of trauma and pain which the person is coping with by self medicating. Obviously punishment is not the answer.

This is a societal and mentality issue on many, many levels and systems!

Thank you for this post.

Thank you, Sharon, for sharing your thoughts and offering your support. Greatly appreciated.

Hello Christopher

I couldn't agree with you more in this article. I have listened to Johann Hari's ted talk in the past. The War on Drugs is not working and never has. I agree with you that the exceptions are the cartels and pharmaceutical companies both of whom only care about profit; not people.

Another individual, whom you maybe familiar with and has expertise in addiction and trauma is Dr Gabor Mate from Vancouver, British Columbia. Anyone who uses drugs and becomes addicted does not intentional set out to become an addict. There is always a reason which ultimately relates to some kind of trauma and pain which the person is coping with by self medicating. Obviously punishment is not the answer.

This is a societal and mentality issue on many, many levels and systems!

Thank you for this post.

Intense trauma from unhindered toxic abuse typically results in a helpless child's brain improperly developing. If allowed to continue for a prolonged period, it can act as a starting point into a life in which the brain uncontrollably releases potentially damaging levels of inflammation-promoting stress hormones and chemicals, even in non-stressful daily routines. It has been described as a continuous, discomforting anticipation of ‘the other shoe dropping’ and simultaneously being scared of how badly you will deal with the upsetting event, which usually never transpires.

The lingering emotional/psychological pain from such intense trauma is very formidable yet invisibly confined to inside one's head. It is solitarily suffered, unlike an openly visible physical disability or condition, such as paralysis, a missing limb or eye, all of which tends to elicit sympathy/empathy from others. It can make every day a mental ordeal, unless the turmoil is treated with some form of medicating, either prescribed or illicit. Any resultant addiction is likely his/her attempt at silencing the anguish of PTSD symptoms through substance abuse.

Since so much of our lifelong health comes from our childhood experiences, childhood mental health-care should generate as much societal concern and government funding as does physical health, even though psychological illness/dysfunction typically is not immediately visually observable. My own experience has revealed that notable high-scoring adverse childhood experience trauma resulting from a highly sensitive and low self-confidence introverted existence, amplified by an accompanying autism spectrum disorder, can readily lead an adolescent to a substance-abuse/self-medicating disorder. It’s what I consider to be a perfect-storm condition with which I greatly struggle(d), yet of which I was not aware until I was a half-century old. To this day, it still goes untreated, except for psychotropic medication, which only really benefits Big Pharma's bloated profit margin.

@Mark Rock posted:

Thank you for sharing and starting what is a very challenging conversation. One line in here stands out as the underlying problem and seems to be missed with critiquing the current war on drugs.

When people feel burned out, stressed out, and left out they are much more likely to seek comfort from artificial, illicit, and pharmaceutical substances.

I cant help but feel that this cuts closer to the truth and underlying problem. Napoleon is  very well known for his quote that "an army travels on its stomach." If we want to win the war on drugs then we have to address the underlying stress, isolation, and lack of opportunity that feeds this monster.

Though I’ve not been personally affected by the addiction/overdose crisis (here in B.C.), I have suffered enough unrelenting ACE-related hyper-anxiety to have known and enjoyed the euphoric release upon consuming alcohol and/or THC.

I also understand the callous politics involved with this most serious social issue: Just government talk about increasing funding to make proper treatment available to low- and no-income addicts, however much it would alleviate their great suffering, generates firm opposition by the general socially and fiscally conservative electorate. Ignored is that such intense addiction usually does not originate from a bout of boredom, where a person repeatedly consumed recreationally but became heavily hooked on an unregulated often-deadly chemical that eventually destroyed their life and even that of a loved-one.  

I've found that, in this world, a large number of people, however precious their souls, can tragically be considered disposable by others. Then those people may begin perceiving themselves as worthless and consume their addictive substances more haphazardly.

Thank you for sharing and starting what is a very challenging conversation. One line in here stands out as the underlying problem and seems to be missed with critiquing the current war on drugs.

When people feel burned out, stressed out, and left out they are much more likely to seek comfort from artificial, illicit, and pharmaceutical substances.

I cant help but feel that this cuts closer to the truth and underlying problem. Napoleon is  very well known for his quote that "an army travels on its stomach." If we want to win the war on drugs then we have to address the underlying stress, isolation, and lack of opportunity that feeds this monster. 

Thanks for bringing up this topic, Christopher. In the past, my expertise was around perinatal substance use. With technical support from the CDC and WHO I developed a "combined" confidential women's health questionnaire (using 3 evidence based tools - combined into one form - later built into EHR systems) designed for use by perinatal service providers.  While we were not "looking" for evidence of ACEs - as a risk factor for perinatal substance use - when we stratified the data based women that reported that their parents had a problem with substance use - the risk ratios increased substantially! Copied below are a couple slides from my presentation at a March of Dimes conference.

Background:

Findings:

In addition to this work, I also led monthly "action team" meetings with perinatal alcohol and other drug treatment (PAODAT) providers. Members included NICU nurse, perinatal substance use treatment specialists, funding organizations, CBOs, hospital social workers, public health nurses, treatment program providers, etc. - all working in the same direction - to raise awareness and deepen understanding of perinatal SUD - with the goal preventing substances exposed pregnancies, increasing treatment "slots", and less CPS involvement. Working with perinatologists and lactation experts we collaborated around supporting women to breastfeed, one of many actions designed to support mother infant dyads and reduce risk for infant maltreatment.  We also hosted CME grandrounds - etc. There is much more to this!

I want to support expansion of your considerations to include preconception (supporting women to be as healthy as possible prior to a planned pregnancy) and the perinatal period (pregnancy and postpartum) by integrating the Lifecourse model. Thank you for bringing up an important topic!
Karen Clemmer, RN, MN, PHN
PACEs Connection
kclemmer@pacesconnection.com