The Psychology Of Addiction

Having spent her childhood watching her father battle with alcohol, Charlotte Philby has since grappled with her own addictions. Here, she examines what makes people vulnerable and how to overcome the triggers

- Charlotte Philby

Anyone who has grown up in the shadow of addiction knows the power it holds. As a child, you feel it when you’re driven from pub to pub in the small hours, looking for your dad’s car. It is lodged in your chest as you wait to be picked up from school by a parent who doesn’t arrive. You see it in the eyes of the police officer who arrests your father for drink-driving at 3pm in the afternoon. I can still feel those moments from my own childhood, like a stone in my gut.

Is it any coincidence that children like me, who have grown up with the anxiety, chaos and shame of addiction, often fall into similar patterns later in life? Like many female addicts, I’ve battled everything from heavy smoking to bulimia and, considering my past, the fear of addiction has only been acerbated by the idea that it is hereditary.

This month sees the release of Woman Of Substances, a new book by Jenny Valentish, a consultant for Australia’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. In it, the author draws on the latest in neuroscience and her own childhood experiences in suburban Slough and the London indie-rock scene, to Australia where she later ends up in treatment facilities and AA groups. Investigating the female experience of addiction, she pays particular attention to early predictors, such as childhood trauma, temperament and teenage impulsivity, and explores specific issues relating mostly to women, including eating disorders, self-harm, and the propensity to be drawn to abusive relationships. The link between these behaviours seems to be related to shame, lack of self-worth and anxiety – traits more commonly found in women.