Regina addictions councillor Rand Teed explained the complex role that neurobiology plays in the process of substance addiction recovery
Teed appeared during the first-ever Lunch n’ Learn event from Square One Community Inc., as the first speaker in the series that aims to explore the realities affecting homelessness while raising funds for the organization.
The presentation from Teed, entitled “There’s More to Quitting than Quitting,” offered professional insights into how a person’s trauma can alter the brain’s neurochemistry, affecting not only the development of substance addiction but also the road to recovery.
“Substance abuse problems are brain problems, they’re not a ‘bad person’ problem,” said Teed.
Teed began by explaining that most substance abuse is about trying to fix something that hurts, or to address a lost sense of self.
Individuals who grew up in a dysfunctional environment are more likely to be dealing with physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual stresses. Counsellors like Teed often use a list of common traumas that occur in childhood to help identify the root of addiction problems.
These traumas are called adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and include a range of situations, like different forms of abuse, neglect, violence, exposure to mental illness or substance abuse, and even divorce or financial instability.
“Anybody that’s experienced four or more of these [ACEs] before are 12 years old have a 60 per cent increased risk of having a substance problem or a mental health problem,” said Teed.
Experiencing ACEs activates the stress response in the brain, continued Teed, which prompts a change in brain development as children that can severely affect stress management skills and responses — like resiliency and the ability to connect with people.
“Because kids are growing up in that situation all the time, their stress management system or fight-or-flight system is activated all the time, which starts to disrupt their neurodevelopment,” said Teed.
Without viable coping mechanisms, people are then more likely to develop health risk behaviours to deal with the stress and anxiety they are feeling, which become a necessary management tool.
“You feel stress, and so you discover that substance use seems to help you manage that stress, but it isn’t really managing. It's just the perception of being relaxed,” said Teed. “But your natural stress management ability is weakened every time you do that.”
Understanding the connection between neurobiology, trauma and substance abuse has helped individuals in recovery programs quite a lot, said Teed. People with addictions are tasked with essentially reprogramming their brains with healthier management tools to respond to stress.
“As human beings, about 90 to 95 per cent of our behaviour is learned, which is a good thing. It means our brains continue to have the capacity to relearn things,” continued Teed.
Teed concluded by explaining that individuals in recovery programs that involve a housing component tend to be more successful in this process, as they offer a stable environment with minimal outside stresses that homelessness often does not.
“Living on the street and getting sober has just about zero attractiveness to it,” said Teed. “But if you say to a person, ‘we’ve brought you to a place to live, you’re going to have enough food, you’re safe,’ you open up the possibility for them to move away from substance abuse.”
Another large barrier for homeless individuals struggling with addiction is the continued stigma, said Teed, from not only society but also counsellors who don’t believe in the neurobiological links to addiction.
“We have to understand that people’s emotional relationship with their drug is extremely powerful, and it takes really strong information and a huge degree of compassion to start to counter that,” said Teed. “When we ask someone to give up their drug of choice, we’re asking them to give up the only thing that really works for them, and that’s a very scary option for people.”
For more information and resources from Rand Teed, visit drugclass.ca.
The Lunch n’ Learn series from Square One Community will continue on May 4, with a presentation from Ronnie Nordal and Shiny Mary Varghese on the topic of harm reduction programming. The cost to attend is $20 and those interested can register in advance by emailing della@jonesparkview.com.
