The Brain’s Innate Wisdom: Memory Reconsolidation and the Addiction-Trauma-Dissociation Loop
In our previous post, we explored how early medical trauma, pervasive neurotoxins, and the complex effects of potent medications can profoundly dysregulate our nervous system, leading to various mental health expressions, including dissociation. This sets the stage for a crucial question: How does our brain process and heal from these overwhelming experiences, and what happens when it gets “stuck”?
At the Wounded Healers Institute, we believe the answer lies in understanding Memory Reconsolidation (MR) – the brain’s innate blueprint for healing – and the Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM), which redefines addiction as a complex trauma response.
Memory Reconsolidation: The Brain’s Self-Correction Mechanism
Memory is not a static file cabinet; it’s a dynamic, living system. While Memory Consolidation (MC) is the initial process of forming and storing experiences into long-term memory (often during sleep), Memory Reconsolidation (MR) is far more transformative. MR occurs after a memory has been consolidated. It involves reactivating an existing memory, reviewing it, and then storing it in a new, updated location within the neural architecture. This is a powerful demonstration of neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to reorganize itself.
MR can happen naturally over time, but it can also be intentionally facilitated in therapy to resolve deeply ingrained traumatic memories, as seen in the treatment of PTSD. The remarkable outcome? An updated understanding of the event with a significant reduction in its emotional charge, sometimes feeling like the distressing emotional content has been “erased”. This inherent capacity for self-correction suggests that healing is not about imposing an external fix, but skillfully facilitating an innate repair process.
Evidence-based therapies like EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) directly leverage MR. During EMDR’s reprocessing phases, neurobiological changes occur, including shifts in brain activity from emotional to cognitive regions and modulation of the Default Mode Network (DMN) – the brain network associated with self-referential thought and rumination.
This process allows for the release of “stuck” emotional material, leading to an adaptive resolution of the traumatic memory.
The Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM): A New Lens on Suffering
The Addiction as Dissociation Model (ADM) offers a groundbreaking framework that redefines addiction not as a moral failing or simple disease, but as a complex, adaptive response to overwhelming pain and lack of pleasure. ADM posits that a drug use experience can create an unprocessed “drug use memory,” akin to a traumatic memory. If left unaddressed, this can lead to dissociative manifestations, including PTSD-like symptoms such as intrusions, reenactments, and compulsive behaviors.
Addiction, within ADM, is precisely defined as: “the relationship created between unresolved trauma and the continued and unchecked progression of dissociative responses”.
This reframes the apparent “choice” in addiction not as a conscious decision to self-harm, but as an unconscious survival choice, where the “disease” of addiction is understood as a manifestation of pathological dissociation. This fosters empathy and points towards trauma resolution as the core pathway to sustainable recovery.
The Interconnectedness: Trauma, Dissociation, and Addiction
These three experiences exist on a spectrum, from normative altered states of consciousness to severe pathological states.
- Trauma is the initial event.
- Dissociation is anything that occurs subsequent to that event – a bodily stress response attempting to restore homeostasis.
- Addiction is being trauma-bonded to this dissociative process that trauma caused.
Individuals with active PTSD, for example, often live in a chronic state of dissociation, with lower cortisol levels and higher endogenous opiate and endocannabinoid levels. Childhood trauma, including abuse and neglect, is consistently linked to dissociative disorders in adulthood. When faced with unbearable trauma, the mind “shuts down” or detaches, psychologically “escaping” when physical escape is impossible. This survival strategy can become deeply ingrained.
Weaving the Threads: From Medical Trauma to Addiction
Now, let’s connect this back to our first blog. The nervous system dysregulation caused by early medical trauma (birth trauma, NICU pain, interventions) and neurotoxic exposures (environmental, pharmaceutical impurities, medical device leachables) creates a fertile ground for chronic overwhelm.
When the nervous system is chronically overwhelmed, and the body’s fight-flight-freeze response is exhausted, the “freeze” response – which encompasses dissociation – becomes the default survival strategy. This means that the physiological stressors we discussed in Blog 1 can directly feed into the Addiction as Dissociation Model. The body, seeking to escape the unbearable internal distress caused by these stressors, turns to dissociative coping mechanisms. Over time, a dependence on these dissociative states can form, leading to addictive patterns.
Even the side effects and withdrawal symptoms of potent medications can mimic or exacerbate trauma responses and induce dissociative states, further entrenching this cycle. This creates a “toxic trauma” phenomenon, where physiological distress drives dissociative coping, which can then manifest as addictive behaviors.
The profound insight here is that dissociation, even in its pathological forms, is fundamentally a self-protective mechanism attempting to facilitate healing through Memory Reconsolidation. Our bodies possess an inherent “pharmacy” designed for self-regulation and healing, with systems like the endocannabinoid system actively involved in both dissociation and healing.
In our next blog, we will explore how psychedelics, as “mind-manifesting medicines,” can act as powerful catalysts to access Memory Reconsolidation, helping individuals break free from the trauma-bond of addiction and reclaim their authentic selves.
Dr. Adam O’Brien is a leading voice in trauma-informed care and neurodiversity. He is the founder of the Wounded Healers Institute, dedicated to bridging the gap between academic research and practical application in mental health.
For more on our work and cause, consider following or signing up for newsletter or our work at woundedhealersinstitute.org or donating to our cause: HERE.
References
O’Brien, A. (2023a). Addiction as Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Phenomenological Investigation of the Addictive State. International University of Graduate Studies. (Dissertation). Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023b). Memory Reconsolidation in Psychedelics Therapy. In Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/courses/addiction-as-dissociation-model-course/
O’Brien, A. (2023c). Path of the Wounded Healer: A Dissociative-Focused Phase Model for Normative and Pathological States of Consciousness: Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024a). Healer and Healing: The re-education of the healer and healing professions as an advocation. Re-educational and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2024e). Path of the Wounded Healers for Thrivers: Perfectionism, Altruism, and Ambition Addictions; Re-education and training manual for Abusers, Activists, Batterers, Bullies, Enablers, Killers, Narcissists, Offenders, Parents, Perpetrators, and Warriors. Re-Education and Training Manual and Guide. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
O’Brien, A. (2025). American Made Addiction Recovery: a healer’s journey through professional recovery. Albany, NY: Wounded Healers Institute. Retrieved at woundedhealersinstitute.org/
This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.
