Brain damage in sports – what does this have to do with substance abuse and addiction?

Addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease – anything that changes the brain is worth understanding for the brain controls everything we think, feel, say and do. In this particular post, I am talking about brain damage in sports.

Often brain changes, such as those associated with traumatic brain injury – head trauma – affect areas of the brain responsible for emotion, memory, learning…. Sometimes these brain changes prompt a person to turn to alcohol or drugs to self-medicate the emotional changes, yet the brain change, itself, can make that particular brain more susceptible to the impacts of alcohol or drugs in the brain. This link on The Addiction Project helps explain “Why Do Some People Become Addicted?”

To further this discussion, I share the following opinion piece by Scott Simon, “A Fan’s Notes on Pro Sports, Brain Damage,” appearing on NPR on January 28, 2012.  There is nothing more to say, really, other than, please listen — click here>>>

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Lisa Frederiksen

Author | Speaker | Consultant | Founder at BreakingTheCycles.com

Lisa Frederiksen is the author of hundreds of articles and 12 books, including her latest, "10th Anniversary Edition If You Loved Me, You'd Stop! What you really need to know when your loved one drinks too much,” and "Loved One In Treatment? Now What!” She is a national keynote speaker with over 30 years speaking experience, consultant and founder of BreakingTheCycles.com. Lisa has spent the last 19+ years studying and simplifying breakthrough research on the brain, substance use and other mental health disorders, secondhand drinking, toxic stress, trauma/ACEs and related topics.

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