Childhood development plays a strong role in the development of mental illness and addiction
Brain development in the uterus and during childhood is the single most important biological factor in determining whether or not a person will be predisposed to substance dependence and to addictive behaviors of any sort, whether drug-related or not. Startling as this view may appear to be at first sight, it is amply supported by research. Dr. Vincent Felitti was chief investigator in a landmark study of over seventeen thousand middle-class Americans for Kaiser Permanente and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. “The basic cause of addiction is predominantly experience-dependent during childhood, and not substance-dependent,” Dr. Felitti has written. “The current concept of addiction is ill-founded.”
References
- Mate, Gabor. (2010). In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts Close Encounters with Addiction Chapter 17. Their Brains Never Had a Chance (p. 228). Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Developmental Neurology Status:☀️