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iQuestions Faculty, Dr. David Eckman 
 
 
Question: 
 
What part does unaddressed pain in the life play in addiction? 
 
Answer: 
 
Unaddressed pain is a major factor in addiction. 
 
There is a well-researched truth that is found in a number of journal 
articles in the medical field about “no-bullets therapy.” 
 
During the Vietnam War, a lot of the American military in Vietnam 
were stuck on heroin addiction, and the Army put in tremendous 
efforts to address the issue of addiction, heroin addiction, in Vietnam. 
They put them into groups, they used chemical intervention—but they 
noticed something, that as they started to ship these heroin-addicted 
soldiers out of Vietnam, over a ten-month period after they were in 
the states, 95% of those who were addicted with heroin in Vietnam 
ended up dropping the habit after ten months.  
 
That is a phenomenal statistic. There is nothing like it out there. But it 
underscores an important principle: pain plays a great role in 
addiction. What was the therapy that really worked for these guys? It 
was “no bullets therapy.”  
 
When they weren’t being shot at, when they weren’t terrified, when 
they weren’t stressed, their need for heroin all but disappeared. But in 
the midst of turmoil, in the midst of chaos, in the midst of pain, the 
heart hates pain, and it has to do something about it. It either deals 
with it through relationships, or it deals with it through shutting down, 
or it deals with it through heroin or some other addictive behavior. 
 
 
 
Pain is an important factor in addiction. What’s the equation? The 
equation is, unaddressed pain, plus some pleasure—addictive 
pleasure—equals addiction. (Unaddressed pain + addictive pleasure = 
addiction.) 
 
Address the pain in the life, and addiction has the tendency of drifting 
away. 
  
 
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