Tim Arrigo argues addiction isn't caused by drugs or alcohol, but by a vulnerable brain shaped by chronic stress and isolation. When cortisol and adrenaline disrupt normal brain chemistry, substances feel like self-medication rather than recreation. The missing piece isn't the drug itself, but supportive relationships that would buffer stress.
Drugs and alcohol don't cause drug and alcohol addiction, right? Just because you try drugs and alcohol doesn't mean that you'll become addicted, right? Nobody argues that a pack of cards causes gambling addiction or that sex causes sex addiction, right? So drugs and alcohol don't cause drug and alcohol addiction. In order to struggle or suffer from addiction, you have to be predisposed or vulnerable to addiction. And what creates a vulnerability to addiction is a vulnerable brain. Meaning the first time you put drugs and alcohol in my brain and body, my brain and body responds as a form of self-medication as opposed to just recreational use. Now, what creates a vulnerability to the substance abuse, what creates a vulnerability to addiction, and the vulnerable brain itself is primarily created by stress, cortisol, and adrenaline. That disrupts normal brain chemistry. But it's not really the trauma that creates the addiction, it's the lack of relationships. Because when you go through things that are traumatic, you need relationships to buffer the stress.
