Trauma & Mental-Health Roots
Addiction rarely starts with the substance. This section goes underneath it - to the trauma, the adverse childhood experiences, the anxiety and depression and ADHD, and the shame that so often sit at the root. The goal is to take these connections seriously and accurately: trauma matters enormously, but "trauma causes addiction" is a claim that needs nuance, not a slogan. This is where the Atlas is at its most differentiated, because almost no one writes this landscape both compassionately and precisely.
Start here
Does trauma cause addiction? — the respectful, more-scientific correction to the popular story
What are ACEs and what do they actually predict? — correlation, not destiny
What is emotional regulation and can you learn it as an adult? — the bridge to behavior change
Every question in this section
What are ACEs and what do they actually predict?
Addiction and PTSD: why they co-occur and how to treat both
What is self-medication? The hypothesis and its limits
Anxiety and addiction: which comes first?
Depression and substance use: breaking the loop
ADHD and addiction risk: what parents and adults should know
What is emotional regulation and can you learn it as an adult?
Somatic approaches to trauma: what's evidence-based and what isn't
Healing shame: the evidence-based path
Link up: The Behavior Change Atlas
Curated by Dr. Adi Jaffe, PhD (UCLA), author of The Abstinence Myth and Unhooked.