Growing Up With Addiction Left a Trauma Your Body Still Carries

Growing Up With Addiction Left a Trauma Your Body Still Carries

How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This conversation between medical physician and trauma and addiction expert Dr. Aimie and clinical psychologist Dr. Tian Dayton takes you right into the hidden cost of growing up around addiction – even if no alcohol ever entered the home. The episode focuses on how chaotic or unpredictable family dynamics shape a child’s nervous system for life.

You’ll hear both women share raw childhood moments: reading a parent’s body language to gauge safety, becoming the emotional caretaker, and carrying the unspoken rule that “my job is to make sure this parent never feels ashamed or rejected.” One striking image from Dr. Aimie is seeing her dad “in a mud pit”, realising that trying to pull him out only meant being dragged in with him. Dr.

Dayton brings her experience of an alcoholic, sometimes sexually inappropriate father, and the confusion of loving “a wonderful father” when sober and fearing him when drunk. She explains how kids in such homes end up strategising instead of playing, constantly scanning rhythms of mood, craving and collapse. Dr. Aimie then links this directly to biology – survival states, gut issues, ulcers, and the way a chronically stressed body never feels safe enough to digest properly.

Along the way, they talk about food as a coping tool, process addictions like disordered eating, and how church, 12-step groups and a moral compass can act as lifelines. A key message is that healing keeps unfolding over a lifetime: as Dr. Dayton puts it, “healing is like cleaning a house” – you don’t clean once and expect it to stay spotless.

This is a powerful listen for anyone raised in addiction, emotional chaos, or quiet but unpredictable homes, and for those wondering why their body still reacts as if childhood never ended. What patterns might your body still be carrying without you realising?