Growing Up with Alcoholic Parents: Understanding Trauma, Addiction, and the Path to Recovery

Send us Fan MailRead the article on Substack11 million children in the U.S. are growing up with a parent with alcohol use disorder. Many will carry that trauma into adulthood—often repeating the same patterns. In this episode, we explore: 🧠 Why adult children of alcoholics are 4x more likely to develop their own AUD 🧠 The neurobiology of trauma: How early stress rewires the brain's stress response and reward systems 🧠 The PTSD-addiction connection: 50% of addiction treatment clients also have PTSD 🧠 Integrated treatment models that actually work 🧠 Evidence-based therapies and medications that support recovery 🧠 Practical steps for addressing inherited traumaFeaturing research on ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences), HPA axis dysregulation, dopamine system changes, and clinical innovations in treating both conditions simultaneously.References:Childhood Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and Alcohol DependenceThe Effects Of Growing Up With Alcoholic ParentsThis is Heliox: Where Evidence Meets EmpathyIndependent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter.  Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas. Support the showDisclosure: This podcast uses AI-generated synthetic voices for a material portion of the audio content, in line with Apple Podcasts guidelines. We make rigorous science accessible, accurate, and unforgettable.Produced by Michelle Bruecker and Scott Bleackley, it features reviews of emerging research and ideas from leading thinkers, curated under our creative direction with AI assistance for voice, imagery, and composition. Systemic voices and illustrative images of people are representative tools, not depictions of specific individuals.We dive deep into peer-reviewed research, pre-prints, and major scientific works—then bring them to life through the stories of the researchers themselves. Complex ideas become clear. Obscure discoveries become conversation starters. And you walk away understanding not just what scientists discovered, but why it matters and how they got there.Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter.  Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.Spoken word, short and sweet, with rhythm and a catchy beat.http://tinyurl.com/stonefolksongs