The Source of Addictions

by Judith Johnson

Addictions don’t arise independently.

It all starts with a traumatic imprint—that deep, unresolved place in the nervous system where overwhelming experience became frozen, unprocessed, and unbearable to feel.

A traumatic imprint is not just a memory. It is a felt state:

• the shock in the tissues,

• the tightening in the gut,

• the collapse in the chest,

• the panic in the heart.

It is generally accompanied by a belief: 

• I am alone, 

• I am not safe,

• I have to handle this myself.

This imprint sits like an invisible command inside the nervous system, whispering a message the conscious mind may not even hear.

Addictions form around the imprint as compensation and protection:

• Substances numb the imprint.

• Overeating soothes it.

• Overworking distracts from it.

• Chaos covers it.

• Approval-seeking props it up.

• Control keeps it from being reactivated.

• Codependency tries to regulate the imprint through others.

The addictive behavior becomes the false god we turn to for relief. It becomes the thing we worship—because it appears to save us from the unbearable feeling underneath.

But the imprint is still there.

And until it is brought into relationship, witnessed, and integrated, the nervous system will keep reaching for whatever brings temporary relief.

Addiction is not the problem.

The imprint is the problem, and addiction is the strategy.

When we touch the imprint with presence instead of avoidance—when we feel what was unfelt, express what was inexpressible, and restore the safety that was missing—the addiction loses its power. The imprint softens. The nervous system reorganizes. The heart opens again. And the fruits of the Spirit—love, peace, patience, gentleness, self-control—begin to grow naturally where survival patterns once lived.

Healing doesn't come from fighting the addiction. It comes from finally resolving that which was unbearable.