05/08/2023
What role does Toxic Emotions play in relapse?
From the neurobiological perspective, there is evidence that people with a high risk of addiction have dopamine systems that are hypersensitive to emotionally salient stimuli, such as stress and other toxic emotions.
The stress of Toxic Emotions are the primary cause of relapse.
To understand stress and toxic emotions we need to have a less personal understanding of emotions. Most of us believe that everyone basically feels the same kinds of emotions (unless the person has a mental health disorder) but in fact emotions are neither hardwired into our brains nor universally felt. Emotions are a complex system of internal and external sensory input created by our brain, our nervous system and messenger chemicals, such as hormones, to essentially keep us safe.
What is fascinating is we are taught the meaning of all those sensory goings-on by our early childhood care givers and experiences, so we can’t really be sure that what we call sadness or anger feels the same for everyone. In fact, we know that emotions aren’t even universal across all cultures!
We can see my old friend The BioPsychoSocial Model is at play here. Emotions have biological causes with psychological meaning and are triggered in relationship to people, things, and environment.
So, how do emotions become toxic?
Let’s use salt as an example to understand toxicity. Salt in small amounts is not only healthy but necessary for life but in large amounts it can become toxic, just think about the Dead Sea.
There are healthy levels of all emotions, but they become toxic when we are swamped by one particular emotion to the point it feels like who we are. Take shame for example.
It’s perfectly natural and even helpful to feel the blush of shame if we make a social faux pas by saying something hurtful or stepping on someone’s toe. In this case we have made a mistake and will be forgiven. But when a child associates the blush of shame over and over again whenever they make understandable and unintentional mistakes, they begin to feel as if they are the mistake, and they are a shameful person.
In my practice my clients struggle with toxic shame more than any other painful experience. When we understand how we have been conditioned to interpret the blush of shame as a core aspect of who we are as a person then we can re-educate ourselves about the actual meaning of that feeling. It is only a message from our primitive brain and nervous system doing it’s best to keep us alive.
With understanding, kindness and gratitude we can free ourselves from toxic emotions and the chances of relapse.
Research indicates that emotional issues are one of the primary causes of addiction relapse, which involves how addicts view themselves.
