People who blame addiction on trauma don’t describe the whole truth or other causes of addiction. They don’t talk about how addiction causes trauma too, both for the addict and their family. We’ve come to overuse the word ‘trauma’ to the point it’s lost its meaning.

Trauma is a Greek word that means injury or wound. Even though one can sustain a small or graver injury, the word trauma was initially used to describe a psychological injury serious enough to cause significant problems in one’s ability to function normally.

Same as with other words such as racism, the word trauma has now been diluted and generalized to the point of loss of meaning. We cannot compare the two ends of a spectrum and put them under the same umbrella. People with severe trauma need different kind of care....

.....than those who self identify as having been traumatized. Also, no two people experience or react to the same traumatic event in the same way. To abuse the use of such words and plaster them as labels left and right doesn’t do anyone any good.

To generalize instead of striving to be more specific and accurate doesn’t reflect the complexity of the truth. Not all people with addiction issues are the same, nor are their reasons for turning to drugs. Putting everyone in the same basket with general labels doesn’t help.

More importantly we need to be careful not to disempower or infantilize people by making them believe that they hold no control or responsibility over their choices. By making them believe they are ‘damaged’, ‘traumatized beyond repair’ and by enabling their addiction.

“It’s in my family’s genes”...”I suffered serious trauma”...”I had no choice”...”It was bad luck”...”I was surrounded by drugs”...”I was desperate”...aren’t exactly good enough to explain the real root causes or series of events that led someone to addiction.

Addiction MAY be caused by many factors, the truth is we don’t know exactly the what and how. What we do know though is that mental health support, help with life skills and job skills and basic safe housing do help one get back on their feet.

To offer this help without incentives nor consequences is like trying to make a hole in the water - as we say in Greek- and anything else ends up being a waste of time, money and resources.

We need to create and carve a desirable enough outcome in the minds of people with drug issues, to persuade them a different reality if possible and sustainable for them. We need to put in place the programs which will be able to achieve that.

But doing so without making the opposite option completely undesirable, takes away from the very desirability and hope of the first one. “We promise we will offer you X things, if you make the choice to free yourself from your addiction and help you get back on your feet.

....If you chose not to however, we won’t allow you to keep going as you do now and there will be such and such consequences”. Those consequences should be worst than their existing reality and the incentives should be twice as appealing.

So far nothing has worked as we hoped. Even Portugal with one of the most successful programs admitted that were it not for a very comprehensive program, covering all corners and without putting clear boundaries and consequences in place, they wouldn’t have had positive results.

Mental health care, support and prevention are a MUST! Affordable housing and helping people get a job as well. Creating jobs to self fund addiction recovery programs is possible. Giving people back a sense of empowerment and dignity is what’s needed most. Not enabling.

Bandaid solutions aren’t resolving anything. We need to take serious decisions, work with common sense and put in the work and resources. Letting people down and letting them sink deeper and deeper into despair, addiction and homelessness is betrayal of humanity.