Or we’re born into a family with existing alcoholism, addiction, or abuse. We may not consciously register that our lives are traumatic or psychologically devastating when we live with the same behaviors and trauma every day. To cope, to keep the balance, we often internalize, normalize, deny, ignore. We go on to develop our own repertoires of psychological tics, self-harming behaviors, and other addictive or self-hating patterns, including the beliefs that we’re not lovable, that we’re not enough, and that for some reason, somehow, we deserve this mess.
