Quote: (06-23-2015 04:19 AM)RawGod Wrote:
Stefan Molyneux has some ideas along these lines. Basically, trauma in childhood caused by parents results in chronic shortages of serotonin and dopamine, which the brain needs to keep functioning. One way or another, the brain has to get its fill of these chemicals.
In a healthy community we get our "happy signals" from relationships with other human beings, and from genuine achievements. In an unhealthy society - porn, video games, drugs, food addiction.
From my volunteer experience with youth and addiction, as well as living a large part of my life in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside I will say that childhood trauma is indeed one of the most significant causes of lifelong addiction.
One of my cousins was left as a baby on his back for about 16 months. No idea why, his brother just a year older was not. When my grandparents rescued the brothers from this fucked up violent home my cousin could not even walk. At 16 months he had to learn to walk, talk everything. In no time he was doing all of these things with my grandparents.
When the mother demanded the kids back, suddenly the kid forgot how to walk as he was just dropped into his crib again. A short time later, they ended up with my grandparents who raised them until they were legal. The older brother finished school, got a job, married with kids and is doing OK. The younger brother dropped out, got high with anything he could get his hands on, killed another guy in a fight, went to jail, was released ended up in skid row somewhere and has not been heard from in over 7 years.
So childhood trauma, in my experience is absolutely one of the major reasons for addiction. Fuck these parents, they have one purpose in life and that is to raise these helpless kids into adolescence as best as possible, to give them the tools to survive in the (usually) ugly world. Instead they failed them, handicapped them, and the ugly cycle continues.