In this episode of The Healing Journey Web Series, Gabor Mate and I discuss how addictions are not actually the problem but rather, are the person’s attempt to solve a problem in their life; the emotional and psychological conditions of children and their environment while growing up as a key component of the root cause of addiction; the relationship between trauma, our brain, and addiction; what recovery actually is; how we can begin to understand and then work with the traumas in our lives for true healing; why many people who have tools, been in recovery, or on a spiritual path and work with mantras, meditation, prayer, yoga, and so forth, still fall into old self-defeating behaviors at times; the shame, stress, self-loathing and other negative feelings that come with falling back into self-defeating behaviors and what we can do to not get lost in them; what family members can do for a loved one who is caught in the grips of addiction; what a power greater than ourselves really means and how we can begin to transcend our limited egoic selves and much more.