Trauma, Addiction, and the World’s Deadly Confusion
The world is drowning in confusion. We debate policies, fund treatment centers, and cycle people through endless programs, yet we fail to confront the root causes of addiction: trauma, PTSD, and CPTSD.
This failure is not abstract — it is lethal.
The tragedy of Rob Reiner and his wife, murdered after decades of attempts to navigate countless treatment centers, is a devastating reminder. Their story is not just personal; it is systemic. It exposes a world that treats symptoms while ignoring the wounds beneath them.
The Op-Ed Argument: Why We’re Getting It Wrong
- Addiction is not the disease itself — it is often the scar tissue of unresolved trauma.
- Treatment centers focus on discharge plans and relapse prevention while neglecting the deeper work of recovery from PTSD and CPTSD.
- Generational trauma is compounding — families inherit pain, societies normalize dysfunction, and children grow up in environments where trauma is the air they breathe.
We cannot continue to treat addiction as a family issue alone. It is a societal crisis, a generational inheritance, and a global emergency.
A Generational Crisis
We are leaving our children a world riddled with addiction and trauma. If we do not confront this reality, more senseless tragedies lie ahead. The inability of societies worldwide to prioritize trauma recovery is a ticking time bomb.
- Generational trauma perpetuates cycles of pain.
- Families collapse under the weight of untreated wounds.
- Communities fracture when recovery is reduced to symptom management.
The Rallying Cry: What Must Change
We are leaving our children a traumatized, addicted world. If we do not get this right, more senseless tragedies lie ahead. Trauma recovery must be front and center in every life, every community, every nation.
- Families cannot heal without trauma recovery.
- Communities cannot thrive without trauma recovery.
- Societies cannot survive without trauma recovery.
This is not about offering neat discharge plans or quick fixes. It is about demanding that the world stop confusing symptom management with healing.
A Call to Action
The time for confusion is over. The time for courage is now. Trauma recovery must become the foundation of our global response to addiction and suffering.
Join the movement to scale recovery for PTSD and CPTSD worldwide. STAR Network™ is building a global coalition to put trauma recovery at the center of our collective future. Visit STAR Network and add your voice. STAR Network and our story-telling partners, MyWhatIF.org, is scaling a worldwide peer-to-peer network together to give us as individuals, families, and as a society a chance to rewrite our own histories — and more importantly, our children’s histories — at TAR Anon®.
Because if we fail to confront trauma, addiction will continue to consume families, communities, and nations. And the tragedies we mourn today will only multiply tomorrow.
James D. (“Dr. Jamie”) Huysman, PsyD, LCSW
Founder and Executive Director
STAR Network Foundation, Inc.
