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Comment by kinakomochidayo | Hacker News Reader

Curious if you had any traumas or dysfunctional family environment. Addiction usually stems from numbing of traumas.

Not the person you're replying to, but as someone who is... struggling with weed addiction, I can confirm I use it, among other things, to stop flashbacks/simulating past trauma. It's a tradeoff, because it feels like I'm playing life with 30% lower efficiency (shit makes me stupid, yo), but at least the PTSD doesn't make me want to die constantly.

That’s a significant oversimplification. These days, most of humanity has access to many types of powerful potential addictions. For many of them, trauma suppression is not a necessary condition. Reward chasing can exert enormous influence on its own.

You’d actually be surprised how many people have experienced various forms of trauma since they were infants and just don’t remember it, due to their defense mechanisms, and naturally gravitate towards substances and other addictive activities like gaming and porn to suppress past and present emotional pain.

I don't believe I would be surprised and that doesn't change the fact that this is an egregious oversimplification.

What if you remember your trauma but it doesn't effect you negatively and you are still easily addicted.

There are many ways to be addicted and not all of them are trauma related. Modern psychology relies heavily on diagnosing trauma, and connecting trauma to existing behavioral issues because it is useful.

We've got Tiktokers thinking they all have undiagnosed trauma.

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