Long before someone takes that first drink or that first pill, their childhood home environment may have already determined their risk of addiction. Environment—more specifically, that of the childhood home environment—influences addiction risk significantly. For many years, clinical work and research have supported the same truth: a child’s home environment—parental expectations, restrictions and approval, siblings, neighborhoods, and even the layout of the house—impacts their risk of addiction as an adult.

A Childhood Home Environment Is Their First Model

Every child is a sponge, soaking up everything in their environment. For generations, adults have known that a child’s home environment—what is tolerated and what is valued—has a huge impact on that child’s future. An environment where parents are controlling and overly critical, or absent and emotionally distant, establishes a child’s expectancy for the world to be a scary place and teaches them to cope with denial and numbness.

Growing up in a home without access to the full range of human emotion—with unresolved conflict and deprivation—builds a dim view of the world, a diminished sense of control, and a strong urge to not feel anything.

The people who used substances or alcohol to bandage their feelings into numbness to get through their day become modeling strategies for “coping” in your family tree – that is, until another year passed and the story of your life becomes, “This is what I do to get through my day.”

But It’s Not Just the Presence of Drugs and Alcohol

Other things are just as impactful or more. Childhood poverty, childhood emotional neglect and physical, sexual, or emotional trauma, and a lack of stable, caring adults create an internal void and an internal drive to escape that void. Homes of rejection and shame, homes with chaotic, disruptive upsets, and homes where there’s nobody to comfort a child—not even you—leave behind sensitivities to stress and fail to address the issue of inadequacy, which leaves the child with the message, “Use a substance.” Even if there weren’t harsh rules against the use of substances or alcohol, the emotional emptiness of the home environment—and the absence of caring boundaries and support to fill that emptiness—would leave the person with an insatiable desire to escape their inner emotional void.

The Blessing of a Healthy Childhood Environment

The good news is that childhood circumstances are not destiny—they are the starting place for therapy. Childhood circumstances are only the starting point, not the testing place. The presence of one or two responsible and supported individuals can go a long way in positively shaping a child’s future.

A home of consistent, open communication and basic limits can give a child a better ability to cope with life’s stressors than a child who lacks safety and structure.

A home life of structure and communication, coupled with people present consistently, gives a child a way to develop emotional resilience and a reduced risk for turning to substances when life gets difficult. And a home life of integrity and a lack of chronic shame could have a profound impact on upsets and diction risk.

What Does This Mean for the Person in Treatment?

Supportive home environments are not a cop-out. No one is pointing fingers or trying to blame. We are simply recognizing that many entering addiction treatment come to us carrying the scars of a childhood environment that was never brought to light and treated, whether overtly or obscured by 18-20 years of normal family life.

If an addiction intervention and treatment fail to include childhood causes, then the addiction itself remains untreated, and the person will most likely experience difficulty in remaining sober for long.

For this reason, family involvement in addiction treatment is a must; how can we teach someone about a healthy life without them experiencing the safety of a healthy home life? And if the full context of addiction, including childhood environment, is not known, then the addiction may be masked in treatment, and the person will not stand a chance at long-term sobriety.